Policy Brief : Mental Health And Young People Essay

The juvenile justice system faces a significant challenge in identifying and responding to the psychiatric disorders of detained youth because research has shown that it is difficult to define the best means to use and enhance the scarce mental health resources (Kessler & Kraus, 2007). According to Cocozza and Skowyra (2000) “Children’s and adolescents’ mental health needs have historically been addressed inadequately in policy, practice, and research and have only the number of youth with mental illness and their level of unmet needs recognized” (p 4). Furthermore, that the juvenile justice system has gone from treatment and rehabilitation to retribution and punishment, that the prevalence is

A national strategy for promoting mental wellbeing and mental health is No Health Without Mental Health.

Adolescence is a critical time of development. During this period there are significant changes in brain development, emotions, cognition, behavior, and personal relationships. It is during this time that most major mental health disorders appear, many of which carry over into adulthood. Behavior patterns such as substance abuse also often develop during this time and may continue throughout adulthood. Many adolescents struggling with mental health issues begin to exhibit symptoms such as acting out at home or in school, showing a decreased interest in activities that they previously enjoyed, or bringing home poor grades. Others ultimately are charged with offenses ranging from status

Working in the mental health field has exposed me to different clients with psychosocial behaviors, and I have viewed how individuals are often impacted in our cultural, societal and environmental system. I have also observed the impact it has in clients when there are policy changes in an agency. The focus of this analysis is to further provide an examination of agency policies, operations conflict, steps that can be taken in administrative level and steps in the micro level to resolve conflicts that may arise. The focus of this analysis will also concentrate on a community mental health agency named Enki Health & Research System, Inc., (ENKI) that helps children with different behavioral difficulties.

The role of preventing mental health from a younger age is important because according to Beyond Blue Youth, “Evidence suggests three in four adult mental health conditions emerge by age 24 and half by age 14.” This is terrible, we should focus on decreasing this so it doesn’t lead to a bigger suicide rate. In 2012 Beyond Blue Youth states, “Suicide is the biggest killer of young Australians and accounts for the deaths of more young people than car accidents.” Preventing mental health from a younger age will not only decrease the suicide rate but how many adults have a mental health issues will decrease. As the conditions won’t emerge before the age of 24, giving the younger generations more chance to not have a mental issue in their adult lives.

A strong case can be made for investing in mental health, whether to enhance individual and world wellbeing, improve life span, or even to enable people living with mental illnesses to have a better quality of life. Mental health problems account for a quarter of all ill health yet they receive less than 6% of all health research funding, people with these health conditions usually experience poor access to help services and lower quality care than those with physical health problems. Addressing mental and physical health needs together would be more cost effective for the NHS and would benefit the increasing numbers of people dealing with untreated mental illness.

Lack of access to mental health care and treatment is one of the top ten reasons that many mental health conditions go untreated. Many private and group health insurance plans only include minimal mental health care coverage or do not incorporate mental health care coverage at all. Over half of adult citizens of the United States of America, who possess a mental illness, do not obtain mental health care treatment. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, one out of every five adults in America have endured their own mental health difficulty, and one out of every twenty-five American adults suffer from a severe mental illness, such as major depression, schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder. (Top 5 Barriers to Mental Healthcare Access, Social Solutions.com, 2017)

Policies have an important role in regulating and shaping the values in a society. The issues related to mental health are not only considered as personal but also affecting the relationships with significant others. The stigma and discrimination faced by people with mental health can be traced to the lack of legislation and protection of rights (Rodriguez del Barrio et al., 2014). The policy makers in mental health have a challenging task to protect the rights of individuals as well as the public (Swigger & Heinmiller, 2014). Therefore, it is essential to analyse the current mental health policies. In Canada, provinces adopt their own Mental Health Acts (MHA) to implement mental health services. As of January 15, 2016, there are 13 mental health acts in Canada (Gray, Hastings, Love, & O’Reilly, 2016). The key elements, despite the differences in laws, are “(1) involuntary admission criteria, (2) the right to refuse treatment, and (3) who has the authority to authorize treatment” (Browne, 2010). The current act in Ontario is Mental Health Act, 1990.

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).

Mental health services ended up being far from reached by patients with primary psychiatric disorders. Mental health care means not only improving access but also improving clinical quality and ensuring cultural competence. It is the ability to treat and support programs to encounter individuals on personal terms and in methods that are customarily aware.

Time to Change has been successful in creating a movement and campaign against mental health stigma in England. Their national surveys show an overall attitude trend between 2008 and 2016 was positive with a 9.6% change, which is an estimated 4.1 million people with improved attitudes towards mental. They have also seen a positive trend in people's willingness to live with, work with and continue a relationship with someone with mental health problems improved by 11% (Time to Change). These statistics show us the rate of success that Time to Change was able to implement with their social movement. In regards to MAHDA, we hope to implement the same guide and tools that Time to Change has used in order to jump start this improvement on

Citizens were often brought to military check points, bomb searched, and many lost their lives in bloody & gruesome ways during the years of the conflict. It was an extremely difficult time for the inhabitants of Northern Ireland. Catholics and protestants had to be extremely careful and keep their beliefs and religion hushed to avoid confrontation and trouble from the opposing religious group. Houses and cars would be set on fire and people could even be shot if they were thought to be proclaiming their views too publically. They kept to themselves, living in housing estates where the vast majority were of their own religion and sending their children to separate schools. According to our research, even though the Troubles are officially over, it is still very much divided in Northern Ireland and protestants and catholics still don’t mix all too much, even if it is only a question of habit.

Post Traumatic Stress, Northern Ireland and the legacy of ‘The Troubles,’ an indiscriminate affliction or a degree of susceptibility?

In Northern Ireland there has been a political, religious, and civil conflict prevailing for many years called ‘the Troubles’ (Mahedy, Todaro-Luck, Bunting, Murphy, & Kirby 2012). It has resulted in immense civil unrest and social disturbances, many being traumatic, violent, and impacting community interactions (Mahedy et al., 2012). Mahedy et al. (2012) found that resulting from the ongoing breakdown and segregation of the community there has been a dramatic impact on the psychological wellbeing and mental health of those exposed. This backdrop of civil unrest has resulted in mental health disorders in Northern Ireland, according to Bunting, Murphy, O’Neil, & Ferry (2012), being highly prevalent with 23.1% of the population meeting criteria for a DSM IV depressive 12-month disorder (p. 84). Cutclifee, McKenna, Keeney, Stevenson, & Jordan (2013) found that “Exposure (to violence in their community) was associated with higher levels of depression” (p. 635). Although the daily violence has decreased in recent years, the “social and psychological legacy of ‘the Troubles’ may pass into post-conflict generations” (McAloney, McCrystal, Percy, & McCartan 2009 p. 635). Ongoing civil unrest has aided in shaping the culture of Northern Ireland and has resulted

Northern Ireland has been, for as long as it has been a country, a deeply divided society. A society rife with ethno political conflict between the Nationalist Catholics (who want a united Ireland) and the Loyalist Protestants (who are loyal to “the crown” and thus wish to remain a part of the United Kingdom). This division cumulated in what is now known as “the Troubles”. This conflict has spanned over three decades, from (debatably) 1969 until the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, and resulted in the deaths of over 3500 people and over 35,000 injuries (Cairns & Darby, 1998; Muldoon, 2004; Muldoon, Schmid, Downes, Kremer & Trew, 2005). What makes this division especially interesting is that there are no “visible” differences between the Catholics and the Protestants. These two groups are, for all intents and purposes, extremely similar with both being white, Christian, and European (Muldoon, 2004). However that is where the similarity ends as they are, and should be viewed as, distinct ethnic and cultural groups (Muldoon, 2004). Although religiosity undoubtedly plays an integral role in the conflict it spans much deeper than religion. This entire conflict is an accumulation of “historical, national, religious and economic factors” all of which have helped maintain this conflict over the years (Muldoon, 2004).