Mental Disorders Are Medical Problems

The social problem I have chosen to write about is mental illness. This problem is important to talk about “because of the number of people it affects, the difficulty of defining and identifying mental disorders, and the ways in which mental illness is treated” (Kendall, 2013, p. 227). “About 57.7 million people, or one in four adults, in the United States suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder” (Kendall, 2013, p. 229). “Many of these illnesses begin in childhood or adolescence, with the most common problems being anxiety disorder, mood disorders, impulse-control disorders, and substance abuse disorders” (Kendall, 2013, p. 229). I chose this topic because I wanted to learn more about how mental illness is a social problem and I have been interested in learning more about mental illnesses and how to help people with mental disorders.

Throughout the centuries mental illness has been treated by countless treatments. Modern treatments have created an argument over which treatment options are best. the most debates treatments today are medication and therapy. the argument of medication versus therapy as treatments for mental illness is fairly new. Yet, proponents of both sides have strong arguments stating the advantages of their treatment option. proponents of medication believe pharmacogenetics, tailored treatments, and medication's ability to treat severe disorders makes medication the better treatment option. proponents of therapy believe drug addiction, suicide prevention, and need adaption establishes therapy as the better treatment choice.

The strengths when working with clients on a medical model perspective is that the use of the DSM provides a common language to use in the medical community. The DSM provides reliability and structural guideline to each mental disorder. The structural guidelines in the DSM provide an organized list of criteria and specifiers to help determine the severity of the mental disorder. When diagnosing a client, there are many similar signs and symptoms to each mental disorder; thus, the DSM provides the clinician information about differential diagnosis, prevalence, possible co-morbidity, age of onset, and progressive development of symptoms. Hence, focusing on the medical model and using the DSM can be beneficial to both the client and the clinician providing treatment.

Forget all the stereotypes of mental illness. It has no face. It has no particular victim. Mental illness can affect an individual from any background and the black community is no exception. African Americans sometimes experience even more severe forms of mental health conditions because of unmet needs and barriers to treatment. According to the Office of Minority Health, African Americans are 20 percent more likely to experience serious mental health problems than the general population. That’s why UGA third year Majenneh Sengbe is taking action as the co-founder of her upcoming organization Black Minds Daily.

“A mental disorder (mental illness) is a psychological pattern that is generally associated with a defect or disease of the individual’s mind. It causes a disability that may affect an individual’s behavior patterns in ways that are not part of one’s normal development or culture. Mental disorders are common in the United States. Within any given year, nearly 25 percent of adults and slightly over 20 percent of children are diagnosable for one or more mental disorders. While mental disorder appears to be widespread among the population, the main burden (or threat) emanates from about 6 percent of those who suffer from a debilitating mental illness.” (National Institute of Mental Health, 2011)

The controversy and criticism surrounding the DSM -5 models has raised questions about its credibility and has raised concerns from the public on the reliability and effectiveness. Problems with this classification system is the attempt to promote preventive psychiatry by introducing how

Even though the DSM has harsh critics surrounding the subject of diagnosis, there are those who find that the DSM is beneficial when treating clients. As previously mentioned, Clegg (2012) believes that the DSM can be utilized in various agencies and areas of social work. Social workers from different theoretical perspectives find that the DSM is approachable. The manual outlines the symptoms and diagnostic criteria surrounding a disorder. In addition, the manual highlights intervention plans for the diagnosis. These interventions can assist clients and/or their families in overcoming a diagnosis. Lastly, when clients experience symptoms of a mental disorder for the first time, they may feel defeated and unsure of where these symptoms are originating. When clinicians can diagnose their

The overall message and core argument this book offers is that the new version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the DSM-5, will cause an enormous increase of people who are not mentally ill being diagnosed with a mental disorder and receiving unnecessary treatment for it. Allen Frances argues that assigning everyday problems to mental disorders causes massive disadvantages for individuals and society. Diagnosing a healthy person as mentally ill will lead to unnecessary, harmful medications, the constricting of horizons, misallocation of medical recourses, and wasting the budgets of families and the state. He states as well that we do not take responsibility for our own mental well-being. We do not trust our

The video showed a number of children and teenagers from all social backgrounds suffering from mental disorders, schizophrenia, autism and emotional problems, leading them to isolation from society while treating their issues in mental health facilities. These young individuals face obstacles and mistreatments in inadequate places under the supervision of careless professionals. The documentary tracks some of those public mental institutions and another private center dealing with troubled kids and reveals what's wrong with their procedures, and the irreversible harm they cause in those patients. In the beginning, the video showed a boy named Brian with 16 other mentally ill children on a bus going to the zoo. Brian suffers from mania and schizophrenia

This article, published by CNN, covers a topic that was thrown into the spotlight following the release of the fourth Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM IV, and has been heavily discussed as the release date of DSM V approaches. The article, which is supported by anti-DSM experts, theorizes that the medical community is over diagnosing patients with mental illnesses at an unprecedented rate. Unfortunately, the experts provide an extensive amount of bias to the article, which is clear by examining the antithesis to their arguments. Three clear examples of bias are the statements of Dr. Carroll, Kelli Montgomery, and the articles overall focus on the DSM. The bias

The structural reorganization of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5 (DSM-5) has caused it to become highly controversial and heavily criticized (Neimeyer, 2014). The structural reorganization focuses on a more theoretical based practice rather than an evidenced based practice. Utilization of an evidenced based practice has been the norm for nearly 20 years, leaving practitioners and clinicians critical about the recent changes. Transforming into a more theoretical way of thinking is reminiscent of the ideological approach of diagnosing and treating patients in the DSM 1 and 2. DSM-5 is attempting to align itself with International Classification of Disease (ICD). This is a substantial change towards a more ideological way of diagnosis and treating patients. In an effort to become

My textbook is yet to arrive, so yet again I had to resort this week’s video from the Moodle shell. In order to complete this assignment to it’s full potential. I’m hoping my book is here before the next reaction is due. This week’s video was over Dr. Allen Frances and his work on DSM five. Dr. Allen Frances corrected the DSM IV, and now is the brain behind the work of DSM 5. He first described the mental health services world as a mess, because people are being diagnosed as having a mental illness, but they honestly appear as if they’re performing normally. These people are also being prescribed potentially harmful medication that they don't need, so it is only causing the body harm rather than good.

While reviewing the article Diagnosing for Status and Money, Summary of the Critique of the DSM, a few things seemed to jump off the page. The DSM-5 while a well written and no longer intimidating to me appears to have a slant towards managed care organizations vice actual counselors. Having a manual that provides simplistic codes universally used between doctors that treat physical ailments and those who treat psychological ailments is critical; however, the focus must always be the patient. The text contains subjective qualifiers which provides the counselor the ability to use multiple diagnosis, either over diagnosing or underdiagnosing. The DSM-5 appears to provide care from a medication management prospective over psychotherapy

It has been reported that the number of people with mental disorder is increasing in our communities at an alarming rate. Environmental and social changes are among the most mentioned causes of the accelerating rate of mental illness in society (Häfner, 1985). Despite the prevalence, about one fifth of the adult population will battle with mental illness every year ("Facts and figures about mental illness," 2014) and the acknowledgement of authorities mental illness is still given less attention then is needed to treat the problem successfully. Health bodies need to be putting more resources into this area as

Mental illnesses are health conditions involving changes in thinking, emotion or behavior or a combination of all three (What is Mental Illness). Mental illnesses are associated with distress or problems functioning in social, work or family activities. Mental illnesses take many forms, some are fairly mild and only interfere in limited ways with daily life, such as certain phobias and other mental health conditions are so severe that a person may need care in a hospital. Mental illnesses can affect anyone, regardless of your age, gender, income, social status, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, background or other aspect of cultural identity (What is Mental Illness).