Mental Illnesses Are Becoming More And More Prevalent Among The United States

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

Our progress in learning the causes and treatments for mental illness has been steady as we build on the medical model of mental illness, which Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman (2010) describe as a model that, “views emotional and behavioral problems as a mental illness, comparable to a physical illness (pp. 341). Only in modern times have we been able to effectively treat mental illness with behavioral therapy, social support, medicine, and other research-based programs. However, there is still much work to be done in regard to access, proper facilities, policy and a host of other challenges that affect this issue.

In the United States the Mental Health Care field is one of the most underserved areas of healthcare. The mental healthcare field faces many challenges to the proper treatment of patients from both a societal and professional standpoint. From a societal perspective a negative stereotype is associated with patients seeking psychiatric care. Patients seeking care are often labeled as defective or damaged. Add in the complication that most patients with mental illness appear to be normal, accepting that someone is ill without outward symptoms can also be difficult for a society to understand. From a professional perspective the challenges within the mental health care industry include personal prejudice, staffing issues, and problems with coordinating care. The combination of these factors has a direct negative impact on the willingness of individuals suffering from mental illness in seeking the care needed to treat the symptoms of mental illness.

The United States is a frontrunner in global topics such as women’s rights and environmental issues. However, when discussing mental illness the United States chooses to look at the subject in a mindset that is stuck in the 1950’s using the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy. The federal government has only begun to recently talk about mental illness and its effects in the media. Yet, when they do this they choose to cover topics such as ‘gun rights’ with mental illness, while the real topic of conversation is the future treatment for those with mental illness, and how the United States plans on eliminating the stigma that surrounds mental health.

Did you know that 19.9 percent of adult Americans had some sort of a mental illness, according to the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (samhsa.gov, 2015, Para. 3). This is a total of 45.1 million adults in America suffering with mental health disorders (samhsa.gov, 2015, Para. 3). There are also currently 20.8 million adults in America who suffer from substance use disorder ever year (NAMI.org, 2015). Both of these are alarming statistics of the wellbeing of the American citizens. To make matters worse, these two groups intertwine to a population of people known with a co-occurrence of mental illness and substance use or, more commonly known as, dual diagnosis.

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.

The mental health care needs of many children and adults have been overlooked for quite some time. Nearly one in five adults experience a mental health issue at some point throughout their lives, yet due to the challenges in accessing and obtaining affordable health care, many have gone without adequate treatment (Mental health by the numbers, 2015). According to SAMSHA (2013), 2/3 of America’s 45 million adults suffering from mental illnesses, and 90% of our country’s 21 million adults struggling with substance use disorders go without treatment each year (SAMSHA, 2013).

According to the director of national health, “the States have cut $5 billion in mental health services from 2009 to 2012. While also distinguishing at least 4,500 public psychiatric hospital beds.” Decreasing funds for mental health has resulted in an overcrowded population of homeless patients who either spend their time on the streets, in prisons, or in coffins. Overtime, mentally ill patients have nowhere to go, the jail systems are failing to provide proper treatment, and the government has already reduced mental health fundings as it is. It is time to take a stand, and say yes to increasing funds towards the mentally ill and health facilities.

For the majority of our nation’s history, treatment for those deemed mentally ill was poor at best. Now seen as rather dark and cruel, those suffering from a mental illness were cast away from society. Those admitted were locked away within the confines of an insane asylum, where they were ruthlessly tortured; many never seeing signs of improvement and subsequently never seeing the freedoms that lie beyond the confines of the asylum. Thus it is not hard to believe that as awareness of this treatment spread, civil rights activists took action toward protecting these patients. Patients diagnosed with mental illness were granted the following rights:

Mental disorders affect many people throughout the United States. Although it is not a direct link to criminal behavior, it is a major risk factor and oftentimes criminal offenders are found to have them. Mental disorders cause their victims delusions, hallucinations, paranoia, and aggression. The definition of mental disorder is a vast number of mental conditions, ranging from the mild to the serious that impede one’s ability to function. Sometimes with the more serious disorders may absolve an individual of criminal responsibility (Bartol, A & Bartol, C, 2014). There are several different kinds of mental disorders including but not limited to schizophrenia, psychopathy, depressive disorders, and antisocial personality disorder (Bartol, A & Bartol, C, 2014). In this paper, each different kind of mental disorder will be discussed along with the discussing the fallacy of the public believing that many people get off with the not guilty by reason of insanity plea. It is hypothesized that individuals who display mental disorders are at a greater risk to commit criminal offenses. The literature reviews that follow describe each type of mental disorder and types of crime as a result of them. They will also describe the not guilty by reason of insanity plea.

In the last few decades, many psychosocial interventions for family members and the caregivers of mentally ill individuals have surfaced, including, intensive family therapy (Cuijpers & Stam, 2014). This therapy serves to build positive relationships between family members in an effort to reduce the level of expressed emotion in an effort to reduce relapse rates. There is a correlation between levels of expressed emotion and relapse in the mentally ill. Family interventions include, education, family therapy, and self-care training.

Statistical data reveals that 25% of adult Americans have a mental illness and more than half of the U.S. population will develop a mental illness at some point during their lifetime (CDC; APA). "Major Depressive disorder is a leading cause of disability for ages 15-44. Major depressive disorder affects approximately 14.8 million American adults or 6.7 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older in a given year” while anxiety affects …40 million…adults ages 18 and older…” (NIMH; APA). Comparatively, cardiovascular, diabetes, epilepsy, obesity, cancer, and asthma, and other chronic diseases are surfacing with increased frequency among the mentally ill (CDC; APA). The aforementioned finding elicits question about medical care

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).

The pioneers of the psychoeducational model of patient care, have conceptualized it by focusing on the plight of people with mental illness, by paying close attention to their higher risk for relapse and rehospitalization. “The treatment team seeks to establish a collaborative relationship with the patient and/or family to share the burden of managing the illness and working toward patient recovery. “The goals and content of the programs, all focus on providing information about the

There is a direct relationship between treatment delivery and individual ethnic/racial group, gender, developmental life-stages, location, and socio-economic group. These variations although are natural aspects of our lives, can bear negative connotations when a mental health diagnosis is involved. Some cultures don’t recognize mental illnesses, which complicates the situation. In Joe’s case he is a white male, married and has a daughter. It’s expected that a white male living in New Jersey can be a responsible working man providing for his family. Furthermore, the fact that he is Caucasian stresses the idea that he lives a better life than other ethnic groups. He is considered privileged and that could be implicated by many that he should