Mental Health Issues Of The United States

The shutdown of state mental hospitals and lack of available financial and institutional resources force mentally ill people to the United States Judicial System for mental health. Every year thousands of people are arrested for various crimes and they are sent to jail. Sixteen percent of these people have some type of mental health problem (Public Broadcasting System , 2001). When we consider that the United States has the largest incarcerated population in the world at 2.2 million, this number is staggering (Anasseril E. Daniel, 2007). This is about 1% of the entire population of the United States. There are many reasons as to why the situation has taken such a bad turn and when the history of the treatment of mental illness is examined one can see how the situation developed into the inhumane disaster it is today.

According to the World Health Organization, mental illness will affect approximately 25% of people at some point in their life (“WHO Qualityrights”, n.d.). Despite that, the current mental health care system in the United States is inadequate. Many aspects of the system need improving, especially the barriers to service. In fact, approximately 20% of individuals are left without necessary treatment for their mental health disorder (“Mental Health”, 2016). Mentally ill individuals have difficulty accessing necessary mental health care services for various reasons; insurance, socioeconomic status, and mental health stigma can all function as barriers to treatment. Insurance discrimination can make it difficult for individuals to find treatment (Han, Call, Pintor, Alarcon-Espinoza, & Simon, 2015). Gaps in insurance coverage can also be a barrier, as they disrupt the long-term treatment process (Gulley, Rasch, & Chan 2011). Socioeconomic status has been found to negatively affect appointment scheduling (Kugelmass, 2016). Finally, stigma in our society can also stop people from seeking out treatment that they need (Bathje & Pryor, 2011). The mental health system in the United States is not capable of caring for the mentally ill, as insurance, socioeconomic status, and perceived stigma all act as barriers that prevent people from receiving the treatment they need.

The solution to the problem is to provide sufficient funding to the community-based mental health system so people could be helped before they become part of the prison system. Services like medication therapy and monitoring, residential services, rehabilitation services and support services are successful in bringing the severely mentally ill back to communities. As a rule, community services are also less expensive. Instead, we see mental health agencies being closed and stripped of their budgets. As a result the mentally ill have no place to go for treatment and support.

The United States has never had an official federal-centered approach for mental health care facilities, entrusting its responsibility to the states throughout the history. The earliest initiatives in this field took place in the 18th century, when Virginia built its first asylum and Pennsylvania Hospital reserved its basement to house individuals with mental disorders (Sundararaman, 2009). During the 19th century, other services were built, but their overall lack of quality was alarming. Even then, researchers and professionals in the mental health field attempted to implement the principles of the so-called public health, focusing on prevention and early intervention, but the funds were in the hands of the local governments, which prevented significant advances in this direction.

In today’s society there is a greater awareness of mental illnesses. With this greater awareness one might assume that there would be a substantial increase in government involvement or funding in the area of mental illness treatment. Unfortunately this isn’t the case in the U.S. today. There are hundreds of thousands of people with mental illness that go untreated. These potential patients go untreated for many reasons. These reasons are discussed in the Time article “Mental Health Reform: What Would it Really Take.

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

Mental Illness in the Concrete Jungle Mental illness is a growing issue all across the world. The correctional facilities are constantly being bombarded with mentally ill inmates being assigned to their facilities. However there is a problem with this situation because the corrections system is not educated on how to handle these individuals. The mentally ill inmates are not able to get the right amount of care that is needed to help with their illness. Prison is a chaotic place where the mentally ill do not have adequate access to a stable living environment, medical treatment, and programs to help them cope with their illness.

Senator Creigh Deeds story is just one of many that end in tragedy because of a mental health system that has failed. While the major proportion of people living with mental illness are not violent, they can become a victim of violence. According to the latest statistics from the American Psychological Association one in five adults has a diagnosable mental disorder, one in twenty-four has a serious mental disorder (SMI), and people with mental illness are no more likely to be violent that people without mental illness (Association, American Psychiatric, 2016). Untreated mental health care is characteristic of the violent crimes that we see happening today. Some of the reasons behind these untreated individuals are the unmet needs of people not having a financial means to pay for services, lack of insurance, knowledge about how to access care, embarrassment about having the need for services, and those that needed care but experienced delays in accessing care (Jones et al., 2014).

Mood disorders are the most common cases of mental illness. Every person encounters a type of disorder at least once his life time. Having a mood disorder means that your' emotional state, or in other words your "mood" is distorted (not stable). The disorder is characterized by bringing the persons mood extremely up, or extremely down. Two examples are depression and bipolar disorder. Mood disorders are usually episodic, they come every once in a while according to the person and the events he would be going through. Some episodes might last longer than others. Mood disorders vary in their different types, and every type of disorder has its specific causes and effects.

The treatment and proper care for those diagnosed with a mental illness is very limited do to the shrinking in correctional budgets and the small amount of staff members actually qualified to take care of these inmates keeps decreasing. “The availability of long-term residential beds for the mentally ill is extremely limited. Short-term acute beds for the mentally ill are also in very short supply” (Foxall, 2013). As the mentally ill population within the prison system and across the country increases, the amount of recourses to support those with illnesses decreases due to lack of state and federal funding for proper treatment options. People who are brought on to treat those who are mentally ill are often part time employees that are there a few days a week and can’t address the thousands of inmates in that short amount of time, also psychiatrists often don’t want to work with aggressive and or violent offenders due to the security concerns and safety of

This is a very interesting subject, because almost everybody dealing with it in life. Mood disorder is a psychological disorder categorized by the elevation of a person's attitude. There are 4 different types of mood disorders based on our text book, depression, Bipolar disorder, seasonal affective disorder, and dysthymic disorder and each of them has its own characteristics. But the two most common and serious mood disorders are depression and bipolar.

Mood disorders refer to all those cases where there is a change in the emotional state of individuals, to the point of affecting the overall behavior and the perception of the world, people and life.

Mood disorders are a class of behavioral-emotional disorders labeled by disruption in mood. Examples of this are depression or extreme elation. Some people may experience periods of depression or elation but this doesn’t mean they have a mood disorder.

Mental Health has been recognized, as the well-being at which individuals are able to cope with everyday stresses, and work productively while contributing back to their community. Mental Health America began in the early 1900’s by Clifford W. Beers, a former psychiatric patient who experienced mental/physical abuse during his stay in public and private institutions. It wasn’t until short after a reform group emerged, to stand against the abuse and ill-treatment at these institutions. In this paper, I will be discussing the history/background of Mental Health Services, and how quality, access, cost or other factors have changed (or how they haven’t). I also will be discussing the populations that benefit from this type of service and the significant issues, and or problems within the area that impact specific populations. Lastly, I will interpret national policy, legislation, attitudes, political climate, and how they impact or relate to the problems discussed, then I will address two current issues discussed along with clarifying each discussion.

Since the mid twentieth century, funding resources provided to American mental and psychoanalytic hospitals from government based agencies, has been decreasing to an unbelievable point, in millions of dollars per state to be exact. It seems that today people have completely forgotten about those in need of support and care; instead of help, these struggling people, having no intensions to hurt neither themselves nor anybody around them, get thrown into jails where their mental conditions further become worse. Jonathan Martin, a columnist at The Seattle Times, reports his experience: “I watched one class recently as four offenders, in orange jumpsuits shackled to the desks, went through something like an [isolated] group therapy lesson”