Mental Illnesses: A Barbaric Report

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.

Hippocrates was the first to recognize that mental illness was due to ‘disturbed physiology’ as opposed to ‘displeasure of the gods or evidence of demonic possession’. It was not until about one thousand years later that the first place designated for the mentally ill came to be in 15th century Spain. Before the 15th century, it was largely up to individual’s families to care for them. By the 17th century, society was ‘often housing them with handicapped people, vagrants, and delinquents. Those considered insane are increasingly treated inhumanely, often chained to walls and kept in dungeons’. There are great strides for the medical treatments for the mentally

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.

Mental illness refers to many disorders that affect your mood, thinking, and behaviour. There are many different types of mental illnesses with different severities such as depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders, and addictive behaviour. Having a mental illness is so common in Canada, 1 in 5 people encounter some degree of it. Many of your friends and family may be suffering from some form of mental illness without you knowing it. This can be because it is at a very early and week stage, they are on their medication, or they are doing a good job at hiding it from you. People often hide their illness to prevent being judged and treated differently from their loved ones. This can be a problem as their illness could worsen and cause long term irreversible damages. Some of our society doesn’t respect people with mental illnesses as before, people with this illness were called crazy and they were told they had a disease. This may be a reason people still don’t feel comfortable telling people close to them.

Mental illness is an issue that impacts all prison systems throughout the United States. The wellbeing of inmates is a long debated issue. There is much improvement that can be done in the prison systems to help rehabilitate and treat inmates while they are incarcerated to better prepare them for a successful reintegration into society. An examination of the current rehabilitation and treatment programs for inmates diagnosed with psychological illness will assist in identifying failures in within the program. Proper implementation of these services can improve an inmate’s chance of successfully reintegrating into society after incarceration and ultimately lower the cost of running a government funded prison. This essay will cover the prominence of mental illness in prison, drug treatment programs that are used to address mental illness in the prison system, continue assistance or continuation of programs for released inmates, the opportunities that exist for rehabilitation, and a proposal for a rehabilitation program. The purpose of the research is aimed at improving the circumstances of the inmates to receive assistance while incarcerated that they may not receive while free.

I have read an article called "Mental Illness: The New Cancer." this articles the writer told us three sad stories about how Mental Illness has killed people he loved.

Through the course of time, mental illnesses have always been in existence due to varying factors and causes. However, as time has passed, the perceptions and available treatments for mental illnesses have also changed as new technology was developed. By looking at the treatments and perceptions of mental illnesses in the early 20th century, we can learn how to properly treat and diagnose not only mental disorders but also other conditions as well as show us the importance of review boards and controlled clinical trials.

We can no longer ignore this on-going age old problem of dealing with the mentally ill by hiding those plagued, away in a prison cell to be forgotten. Despite the success of Dorothea Dix in solving the problems with adverse conditions in the prison system, we have come full circle and are currently back where we started over a century ago. There has been so much focus put on housing the mentally ill, we have all but forgotten about any type of treatment plans to help the overall growing problem. The handling of the mentally ill in the prison system was on a collision course with the Court. Most of the prison systems have one time or another violated prisoners’ rights under the 8th amendment, cruel and unusual punishment.

perpetuated a negative interpretation of this population and could possibly cause those suffering with mental illness to be subject to random acts of violence. In recent years it must be mentioned that there have been some high profile cases involving incidents that have gained attention of the national level that has made us aware of mental illness and the connection of violence as a means to speak. Some of these events have opened old racial wounds, some have created fear that our children aren’t protected, and even the state officials and the White House is not exempt from those with mental illness to attack without provocation. It has become painfully There is much work to be done to help this population heal but also to live.

The Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness in Prisons and Jails: A State Survey. (2014, April 8). Retrieved August 25, 2016.

American culture pays particular attention to drug use. As seen on the news, offenders of major crimes suffer from some sort of mental illness; society believes that victims of mental illness are/need to be/should be on medication. The stigma is fueled when statistics are presented with the reduction in crime with medicated patients (Healy, 2014). Although being medicated is thought to pose less of a threat to society, studies have also shown that the rate of crime may increase with administered medication; such as the research shown on antidepressants (Villines, 2015).

400 B.C. marks Hippocrates, a Greek physician, treating mental disorders as conditions rather than curses from gods. From then and through the middle ages, the mentally ill are cared for by family and are relatively free from constraint. It isn’t until 1407 that the first institution specifically for the mentally ill is established (Timeline: Treatments). Crude methods are used within these years to treat the mentally ill throughout these years, such as trephination, purging, and mystic rituals (Vann, Madeline R). Trephination, also called trepanation, is one of the earliest forms of treatment, going back 7,000 years and involves forming a hole in the skull in hopes of “relieving headaches, mental illness, or presumed demonic possession” (Vann, Madeline R). Purging or ‘fixing humors’, is traced back to the ancient Greeks and is the balancing of

From the early biblical times there have been leaders who have helped guide their followers through their teachings. These were the first counselors. According to the book, “The World of the Counselor”, One of the first written treaties of a psychological nature can be traced back to 3000 BCE. (Neukrug, 2012, 2007)

Mental illnesses affect people despite their race, ethnicity or culture. They can start to make everyday tasks harder to accomplish. They can cause problems at work, school and in relationships. Some individuals are unaware that they may have such a disorder and others are unable to treat the disorder, I believe that mental illnesses have a major impact on youth today. Mental illnesses are extremely hard to understand due to their complexity. Let alone doctors, but victims of mental disorders are not able to identify the causes of their illness or even if they have one. The concept of mental illnesses is also looked down upon, ignored and feared due to neglectance of the severe issue. Many individuals fear the thought of developing such illness,

Mental disorders hold negative assumptions, but yet are the least understood. Society seems to give little attention to the issues that surround someone with a mental disorder, which may be because we don’t understand this population. This article urges that this has become an issue in the society. While we tried to deinstitutionalize those with metal disorders and place them back into society, it appears as if this might have been the proper action. Suggestions like utilizing group homes and funding treatment that cares for their needs would be useful improvements. This article insists that maybe we need to put more of our tax dollars toward creating more beds in the hospitals or group homes, screening for signs of mental disorders, and providing families with services. Houston would have flourished if other living arrangements and therapy options were available at his fingertips. In addition, the article is trying to raise awareness. These kinds of situations can be avoided if proper care and treatment for an individual occurs like we saw with Terri.