Tension Between Mental Health And Social Care

Autonomy. Hai’s mental state is altered with the manifestations of delusions and hallucinations making him incapable of deciding for himself. His ability to practice his autonomy and refusal of medical treatment is deemed invalid due to his mental illness.

Crazy by Pete Earley and a series of class videos highlight the tension between access to care and the right of refusal for mental illness patients. Core themes and patterns in the material show the difficulties between state governments and local resources. Each film and book explores the availability of voluntary community-based treatments; personal and professional ethics regarding the individual choice to refuse treatment; and community demands for consumer safety and others.

Attitudes toward the mentally ill started to change in the 60’s and 70’s from both the communities and professionals. The two began to recognize that the mentally ill had rights to live an independent life style like that of ordinary citizens. Before this, people with mental illness or developing disabilities had been institutionalized, giving strong medications, sedated and isolated from the rest of society. Living amongst the community, they receive their medication as well as interact with the general public. In addition, they also interact with security personnel and law enforcement officers, and all too frequently with unfortunate consequences. (Russell, 2012).

Social care values are highly important to take into account when working with this family. A value can be described as; our views and beliefs about what we feel is important to us, useful and are of worth, we hold our values in high regard. Focusing on non-discriminatory practice will be important, to show equality and diversity to the whole family. This can be achieved by portraying a non-judgmental attitude towards each individual family member taking into consideration their background or circumstances. It would be easy for someone without a care background of knowledge and experience, to pre-judge this family by making a negative pre-conceived judgement about them as there has been history of drugs and alcohol abuse, violence, learning disabilities (autism) and mental health problems. (Bingham E, 2009, P.20)

Use the case study to illustrate your understanding of the influence of underpinning legislation in relation to how social care intervention could improve their quality of life.

The information conveyed in this link is both interesting and appalling in various ways. The main thing that struck me was the labeling that is often given to individuals with mental illness. In fact, the topic of mental illness usually comes up in discussion following mass shootings or other heinous crimes. However, as mentioned in the article not all people who are mentally ill have violent tendencies. Moreover, this labeling is a result of the media attempting to garner more views and to find some plausible explanation for someone’s erratic behavior. Rather than hone in on stricter gun control laws. John Oliver discussed the stigma that forever follows a mentally-ill individual, and the words that are used to describe them such as; “Wack0,

Kathleen M. Gilbert is a social worker for Little Flower Children and Family Services in Jamaica, New York. Ms. Gilbert works in the mental health field of social work as a psychotherapist part time where she provides counseling and emotional support on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays in the late afternoons and evenings. Alongside social work, Ms. Gilbert is an instructor at Nassau Community College. She has been employed at Nassau Community College and Little Flower Children and Family for ten years. She found out about the agency through a friend that was already in the business of social work. Beginning her college experience, she started out double majoring in both the field of public health and French, after her bachelors she was able to receive her master’s in public health. Desiring a change, she got her masters in social work and was grandfathered in as a LCSWR. At one point, she was also grandfathered in to be a CASAC, which is a credential for substance abuse and alcohol counseling, and aided clients through all aspects of addiction and dependency. Her time as a CASAC was done through a community organization and she was the chairperson of the Brooklyn committee of alcoholism. Aside from providing psychotherapy services, she also gives referrals for adjunct services and makes home visits. Although she is no longer in the public health field directly, she has used her knowledge of counseling and education in public health to aid her in social work.

Who is to say what “Normal” is? I am saddened by the travesties of our past leaders and how people with disabilities were treated. Ignorance is something that keeps up from making informed, educated decisions and this is apparent in the way society treated those that were thought of as less than perfect. Although disabilities are an illness, they are no less significant than diabetes or cancer. In in countless cases, they are just as serious, individuals with mental disabilities need medical attention, just like the previous illnesses mentioned, in addition to somebody to listen to them. Diagnosis is a crucial part of getting the correct treatment and several times as discussed in Chapter 5 of The Social Work Experience, An Introduction

Those in the United States of America who are mentally disabled face the fear of prejudice everywhere they go. The discrimination is even present in Medicaid and Medicare laws that go against the ones they are meant to help. Experts recount a mental health system that remains in pieces, which leaves millions of people who need help, in the dark. The source of the stigma, though, is the government itself.

We all know someone who suffers from mental health and it can cover a wide range of different symptoms like:depression, autism/ADHD,dementia (etc). However, people who have mental health usual rely on our NHS.Sadly, the figures show that two-thirds of people that can suffer from depression in the UK receive no treatment from the NHS.Which shows many cases of people being misdiagnosed and ignored which puts another strain onto the patients, and most importantly the NHS’s fundings towards these people to use the hospitals resources aren't being put to use.

‘“ They had no idea what PTSD was,” he said. “If they had just understood what I was going through, it would have been all right’” (Cullen, 2009).

Mental health is as important, if not more so, as is physical/surgical health. People with mental health issues can have prolonged illnesses because they can't be cured, only treated, and often that treatment is expensive. NAMI, National Association of Mental Health lobbied, successfully, in 2014 to prevent changes to Part D. Theses changes would have given restricted access to medications for antidepression and antipsychotic. They are now supporting a bill, Medicare Formulary Improvement Act, which benefits the protected class of status mental health medications. I believe that all insurances should cover mental health treatment for bipolar, psychotic, and other mental issues. It is hard for people who have low incomes to pay extravagant amounts

With one in five Australians aged sixteen to eighty-five suffering from a mental health disorder, and with expenditure on the problem exceeding $28 billion dollars annually, mental health is an issue that can no longer be ignored. Peak health bodies such as the Australian Medical Association and Beyondblue are calling for increased support for people suffering from mental illness and for a reformation of mental health services. With discussion surrounding mental health issues becoming decreasingly stigmatised, I talk tonight to those at the front line of health policy, treatment and prevention about the reality and future for the millions of Australians living with mental illness.

Social work practice is a profession which requires many knowledge-bases which overlap in different contexts. Mental health is a knowledge-base that social workers must acquire in vast quantity and quality, as it can appear in any health and human service in which they work in. The ability to work with those with mental illness within health and human service is paramount. This requires the capacity to work with and within the individual’s environment, recognise, comprehend and respond, with appropriate and relevance to present and foreseeable needs and impacts.

People receiving mental health services should be involved in all decisions about their assessment, treatment and recovery and be supported to make, or participate in those decisions and their views and preferences should