Mental Illness: Case Study

Cassie presents with multidimensional and complex problems. The problems are inter related and need to be addressed concurrently. This client presents with a history of anxiety and childhood sexual abuse which manifests as post traumatic stress disorder [PTSD], social phobia (social anxiety disorder) and depression. Wagner (2008) reports a strong association between social anxiety disorder and depression. Post traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DMS-5; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013) specifically includes sexual violation as one of the diagnostic criteria for PTSD. Consequentially, co-morbid symptoms create dis-regulated behaviours which may have long

Given the number of incarcerated inmates who suffer from some form of mental illness, there are growing concerns and questions in the medical field about treatment of the mentally ill in the prison system. When a person with a mental illness commits a crime or break the law, they are immediately taken to jail or sent off to prison instead of being evaluated and placed in a hospital or other mental health facility. “I have always wondered if the number of mentally ill inmates increased since deinstitutionalization” Since prison main focus is on the crimes inmates are incarcerated; the actual treatment needed for the mentally ill is secondary. Mentally ill prisoners on the surface may appear to be just difficult inmates depending on the

Provide a tentative diagnosis for each of the following case studies. Write at least one paragraph for each, justifying your answer in terms of the DSM-V criteria for that particular disorder. Remember, writing matters, as you will be judged on the quality of your communication as well as on the justification for the tentative diagnoses.

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.

Today, it seems almost incomprehensible that so many people with serious mental illnesses reside in prisons instead of receiving treatment. Over a century and a half ago, reform advocates like Dorothea Dix campaigned for prison reform, urging lawmakers to house the mentally ill in hospitals rather than in prisons. The efforts undertaken by Dix and other like-minded reformers were successful: from around 1870 to 1970, most of the United States’ mentally ill population was housed in hospitals rather than in prisons. Considering reformers made great strides in improving this situation over a century and a half ago. Granted, mental hospitals in the late 19th and early 20th century were often badly run and critically flawed, but rather than pushing for reform of these hospitals, many politicians lobbied for them to close their doors, switching instead to a community-based system for treating the mentally ill. Although deinstitutionalization was originally understood as a humane way to offer more suitable services to the mentally ill in community-based settings, some politicians seized upon it as a way to save money by shutting down institutions without providing any meaningful treatment alternatives. This callousness has created a one-way road to prison for massive numbers of impaired individuals and the inhumane warehousing of thousands of mentally ill people. Nevertheless, there are things that can be done to lower the rate mentally ill persons are being incarcerated. Such

Prisons are home to 33,000 mentally ill patients in California, alone. Filling 30 percent of California’s overall prison population, the prisons are becoming unconstitutionally crowded (Source C). In a Federal District Court ruling in Sacramento, “Judge Lawrence Karlton noted that the treatment of the seriously mentally ill continues to violate prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment” (Source C). Poor staffing is not fully to blame for inadequate care, insufficient treatment space, and suicide rates. When President Kennedy began the community mental health centers movement, he deprived the mentally ill of shelter which forced patients to live in the streets (Source A).

Throughout the ages, the idea of involuntary hospitalization has always had its supporters and its detractors. Many people have long debated the ethics of forcing treatment on patients that cannot always make the best decisions for themselves. Involuntary commitment is now a very hot topic, especially in a state like Florida, where their Baker Act and Marchman Act laws are greatly debated on their usefulness versus their harmfulness. The Baker Act, enacted in 1971, is Florida’s main mental health law, which allows for the voluntary and involuntary commitment of mentally ill patients who are believed to be a threat to themselves or others. Many have highlighted key issues

In early years of the last century, housing mentally individuals in local jails or prisons was seen as inhumane and a reform movement led by Dorothea Dix began. This led to the building of mental hospitals. It was once believed that mentally ill individuals deserved to be treated and not punished. However, deinstitutionalization happened which was the emptying of state mental hospitals due to overcrowding and deterioration as well as the introduction of effective anti-psychotic medications and increased funding for the establishment of mental health centers. By the early 1970’s, it was becoming evident that the emptying of the state mental hospitals turned many prisons throughout the U.S into institutions. Despite this clear evidence, deinstitutionalization continues even to this day. The mentally ill, left with few resources, largely turned to petty crime, ending up in prison because there were no other better alternatives.

While some states opted for smaller community mental health facilities, nevertheless it contributed to an adverse mental health crisis. The transition from large state hospitals posed many challenges for the client, counselor and other professionals in the mental health field. Community mental health agencies must respond to these specific needs, thus requiring a shift in how services are delivered and how mental health counselors need to be trained (Kliewer, McNally & Trippany 2009). Historically, state-run psychiatric hospitals were the primary component in the treatment of the mentally ill, however, that has changed in recent years where the criminal justice system has become a dumping ground for these individuals. In other words, judicial professionals, such as police and judges, began using criminal sanctions to manage persons with SMI in the community because other mental health options were

Introduction: First the mentally ill were abandoned to the streets to join the ranks of the homeless population and to our jails. The continuous withdrawal of mental health funding has become all too familiar throughout America. Jails and prisons across the nation have turned into default mental health facilities. A system that was originally designed for security and rehabilitation is now trapped with treating the mentally ill who have nowhere else to go and eventually end up being cycled in and out of prison. This never ending cycle has led to a very sad but true reality that America’s jails and prisons have become our new mental hospitals. Mental hospitals that cannot and do not provide

In the United States, over the past 200 years, the practice of federal and state governmental treatment and geographical disposition of the seriously mentally ill has seemed cyclical. Essentially, persons with serious mental illness went from community-living to incarceration to hospitalization to community-living and finally back to incarceration (Matjekowski, Draine, Solomon & Salzer, 2011, Ostermann & Matjekowski, 2014 & Raphael & Stoll, 2013). Currently, the United States has a federal mandate that all incarcerated persons with mental illness have access to at least basic mental health care. However, there is no such policy for these same persons once discharged (Aufderheide & Brown, 2005, Coffey, 2012 & Maloney, Ward & Jackson, 2003). The following provides an overview of the process of institutionalization of adults with serious mental illness, a description of the population, the current treatments available, and the current concern surrounding the lack of adequate discharge planning for incarcerated adults with serious mental illness.

In our county, state and federal correctional institutions across the United States, inmates are being imprisoned for awaiting trial, during trial or convicted for some crime. According to the Bureau of Justice (BJS, 2006), Fifty-six percent of inmates in a state prison and forty-five percent of inmates in a federal prison, suffer from or had a past of mental illness. In our American society, individuals who suffer from mental illness seem to be publicly perceived as a nuisance. This can be due to the fact that the media over the years consecutively scrutinized individuals who use the insanity defense in criminal trials. The insanity plea is negatively publicized if the defendant is using it in a high profiled case which their actions resulted in severe harm or death to another individual. In addition, the public perceives the use of this plea as a scapegoat for the defendant to avoid serving punishment in a penal environment. Mentally ill individuals, who are being civilly committed or charged with all levels of crimes, are being heavily prosecuted and sentenced into correctional facilities rather than psychiatric hospitals. This leads me to discuss the lack of treatment for patients in Bridgewater State Hospital (BSH) located in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. This three hundred and fifty bed facility houses Massachusetts most criminally insane. This facility is also use to evaluate patients/inmates for competency to stand trial and for those who get civilly

This PBS special raises the question whether jails and prisons are turning into the new asylums for the inmates that are mentally ill. Psychiatric hospitals across America have closed and the burden has become on the police department to handle locking up the people that would normally do better in mental hospitals. After 1960 antipsycotic medications were developed and available for treatment and reduced the need for hospitals by 84%. (Gideon & Sung pg 264) The crimes that they are committing are not violent; they are minor property or theft crimes or trespassing. Currently there are 500,000 mentally ill that are in jail and not in the hospitals where they could be cared

Jails have been described as “de facto mental hospitals” because they have filled the void created when state psychiatric hospitals began closing in the early 1960s through a process known as deinstitutionalization. Supporters of deinstitutionalization thought the process would help individuals suffering from a mental illness live more self-reliantly while being treated by community mental health programs. However, the federal government did not provide the necessary funding to meet the mounting demand for these programs, leaving numerous untreated. Individuals with serious mental illnesses are often poor or homeless and are likely to have substance abuse problems. Therefore, when they are left untreated, they are more likely to commit minor crimes that have been the focus of law enforcement in recent years (H. Richard Lamb and Linda Weinberger).

For this upcoming research project, I want to focus on the use of mental health courts and the characteristics that make them successful. Since the deinstitutionalization movement of the 1960’s there has been a push to get mentally ill patients back into the community and out of psychiatric hospitals. This was done under the belief that the community would take care of them, but since this movement, there has been a sharp increase in the criminalization of the mentally ill. It is estimated that “2 million people with mental illness are booked into jails each year…[and] the vast majority of the individuals are not violent criminals” since they are either waiting for trial or “serving short sentences for minor crimes” (NAMI). Within this system