Mental Health Issues In America

Anyone with a mental illness knows that recovery is not a straight line. Thoughts don’t regain their rationality the second someone decides to become medication compliant, when an anorexic takes a bite of food, or even the day a depressed person decides to walk outside and see beyond their dreary perception of reality. I always wanted to get better, to be able to eat a slice of pizza without demolishing the box and punishing my throat, or to be able to not worry that the carnal impulses of mania would throw me out of the driver’s seat. However, I didn’t want to take the steps to seek help in time, then in the second semester of my sophomore year, I gave up. This led to me

As Americans it becomes natural to undermine those with a mental illness. As a fact, many adults and children deal with mental illness each and everyday. There are many stories that have been told to Americans about depression, anxiety, along with bipolar disorders, with the outcome usually being a negative consequence. For the 1 in every 5 citizens that deal with a mental illness each year. Americans have neglected the fact that many adults and children deal with mental issue(s), the citizens that refrain from getting help; their well being can suffer detrimental effects, there is not a lot of awareness either taught in school, or in public perspectives, American’s stigma has perfected their

Statistics state that mental illness is estimated to be higher in blacks than in whites. One of the contributing factors to why blacks aren’t being cared for when they have a mental illness is because of the stigma that mental illness doesn’t exist within the community. According to Plowden (2006), “ African American men often differ in their presentation of depression and are often misdiagnosed. African American men are at greater risk for depression, but they are less likely to participate in mental health care.” This is due to the

This article states that many African Americans do not seek proper mental health care. It states that the

Health care for mental illness is an issue in the African American community for Men, Women and Adolescents due to the underserving and lack of mental healthcare providers, the cultural stigma of having mental illness and

Per Vaterlaus, Skogrand, & Chaney (2015) studies have shown that African Americans reaching out for mental health services are perceived to be powerless or weak, and are often humiliated and feel embarrassed. In a study performed by (Ward, Wiltshire, Detry & Brown (2013) African Americans were found to be hesitant to confess any mental health problems and were more likely to cope using religious practices. In my opinion, African Americans are connected to

Problem Statement: The World Health Association defines ‘good’ health as: “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” However, in the United States, access to care and funding for mental health care are grossly neglected and underfunded in comparison to other aspects of health care.

When experiencing a mental illness, African Americans face obstacles “related to understanding the problem or situation and limitation in awareness of possible solutions, strategies remedies and resources” (Hines-Martin, Malone, Kim, & Brown-Piper, 2003). In a study by Hines-Martin (2003), participants verbalized that they did not think they were “crazy” and therefore did not need mental health services. In this instance participants showed a lack of knowledge about what mental health illness looks like. They identified mental illness as dichotomous states (Hines-Martin et al., 2003). A study by Mental Health America found similar results. In this study, a majority of African Americans surveyed believed that depression was a “health problem” and in some cases “normal” (MHA, 2012). Talking about mental illness is taboo for African Americans, and as a result they possess little knowledge about specific mental health problems or available treatments (Alvidrez et al., 2008). For African Americans, stigma serves as an impediment to problem recognition. Because they have a misconstrued idea of what mental illness is, they are less likely to contemplate that they have such problems. Alvidrez (2008) found that stigma prevented 65% of their survey respondents from contemplating that they had such problems. Because many African Americans are uninformed about what mental illness is and how it

There are many people in the United States that have a mental illness that is either not

Persons with mental illness are already considered an at-risk population. It is suspected that mental illness might disproportionately affect African Americans, which can cause them unfair treatment from societal institutions which reduce socio-economic status and opportunities which perceive discrimination in the correctional area (Public Access). With African Americans having the stereotype of “being a criminal” African Americans are more likely to be called a criminal and placed in jail instead of taking into consideration such person may have a mental illness. Since authorities interpret the African-American behavior as criminal, there is less likelihood that they will receive treatment or have accessibility to treatment in the community

I am currently an Administrator within a New York City (NYC) agency which provides services to the mentally ill population throughout all of the NYC Correctional Facilities. Mental health diagnosis include but are not limited to Bipolar, Schizophrenia, and Major Depressive Disorders. According to Greene & Blitz (2011), mental health needs of People of Color are inadequately addressed. People of Color have less access to mental health services and are thus less likely to receive them. The client population throughout the NYC Correctional Facilities are predominately disenfranchised African – American and Latino men and women. Many patients within the criminal justice system are at risk of recidivism due to their lack of education, substance abuse issues, unemployment, and / or underemployment. An individual

On August 29, 2016, Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton released an ambitious plan for addressing the issue of mental health care in the United States1. This plan echoes numerous bipartisan bills that have been produced in Congress over the past several years and seems to be one of the few issues that both sides of the aisle can agree on.2 Earlier this year, a bill providing additional support to mental health care was passed in the House with a 422-22 vote3, so it is now up to the Senate to pass its own reform. If lawmakers fail to send a bill to President Obama before leaves office, which is likely, the onus will fall on the next president to leave their mark. If this turns out to be Ms. Clinton, her stance is obvious. She and the lawmakers working on these issues seem to agree on many important aspects; first and foremost that treatment of mental and physical health should be given the same priority. Other aspects of Clinton’s plan focus on early diagnosis and intervention, federal support for suicide prevention, improved outcomes in the criminal justice system, and integrating the mental and physical health care systems. Ms. Clinton also proposed $5 billion for community health centers to provide mental health and substance abuse treatment in addition to traditional medical care and advocated for the use of telemedicine to help address the shortage of mental health professionals. While the idea of these reforms has widespread support, one of the most likely obstacles

The National Committee for Mental Hygiene (NCMH) expanded the research into mental hospitals and their treatment of patients. Before the organization started most diagnosis of patients was attributed to genetics. Moreover, they furthered the studies to look into environmental causes, early detection and more training for social workers. They learned that being poor did not cause mental problems due to the men coming home from World War I. Currently, the organization is called Mental Health America.

There are plenty of stories to share when discussing someone’s experience with the lack of mental health treatment. Throughout my research a couple stories jumped out at me and one of them was about a young man named Lorenzo from California suffering from schizophrenia. This was a brief story that was shared and his turn around to recovery because of the help provided. Lorenzo’s Story According to his mother, Lorenzo was a typical boy growing up in California. He enjoyed helping around the house and playing with his friends. But around the age of ten or eleven, Lorenzo’s mother noticed a change in him. He stopped spending time with his friends and began spending more and more time alone. His mother thought it might just be typical pre-adolescent changes until she came home one day and Lorenzo asked her, “Do you hear them? They’re trying to get me!” Her first worry was that Lorenzo had begun to use drugs, so she immediately took him to the emergency room for an evaluation. That’s when Lorenzo was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Over the next two decades, Lorenzo’s illness drove him to the streets where he committed petty thefts in order to survive. He spent a great deal of time in and out of jail for these offenses, but never got the treatment he needed for sustained improvement. All of that changed when he became a participant in San Francisco’s mental health court. There, working with a team of mental health practitioners and court and law enforcement officials Lorenzo was

In 2009, the total population in England and Wales was just over 43 million. It is estimated that about one in six of the adult population will have a significant mental health problem at any one time (more than 7 million people). Given this number and the 50–70 cases of homicide a year involving people known to have a mental health problem at the time of the murder, clearly the statistics data do not support the sensationalised media coverage about the danger that people with mental health problems present to the community.