The Problem Of Mental Health

“Nearly 5 million children in the U.S. have some type of mental illness” (Goldberg). It is agreeable that there are many young children that deal with mental illness every day. Schools should be concerned for every student’s well being. Moreover, mental health is a part of a person’s overall “well being.” Therefore, schools need to make the mental health of students a stronger focus and implement plans to keep students mentally well and educated. To help create a positive, mental health aware environment where students feel open to seek help, high school students should be educated on how to be mentally healthy, be given a safe place to seek help, and be encouraged to monitor and maintain their mental health. Mental illness and mental health care need to be a more eminent priority in our society, starting with high schools.

Teachers and staff will be trained to tell the if a student is experiencing symptoms of any type of mental health disorder. For example, if a student is having irregular mood swings or a fluctuation in weight, which are common symptoms of anxiety and depression. In the article, “Why Schools Should Screen Their Students' Mental Health”, it says,“If we made mental health part of the usual health system of a school, then it becomes more normal…”. If a student sees a positive outlook on mental health they would be opened to getting help. On some media platforms, mental health is portrayed as something to be ashamed of or a evil quality to posses. Mental health isn’t evil, it’s how the person deals with it that's important. Yes, if not treated it can cause negative effects but with the help from the community these children can live relatively normal lives. Children and adults struggle to comprehend the severity of mental illness, which causes them to avoid any form of treatment. In the future, mental health should become a thing not to be ashamed of. A person who broke a bone would go to the hospital right away, not wait for it to heal on its own. If you wouldn’t wait for a physical injury, why would you wait for

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.

Life today is very fast paced and more difficult than when I was in my early twenties. For example, back then you didn’t have to worry about job security that much because manufacturing in the United States was big back then and if you went to college, there was a job guaranteed for you. Now you must worry about job security and the type of major you obtain in college to get an interview or foot in the door. Also, everything was done face to face, if you wanted a job, you could have walked in and be hired on the spot, now you must get interviewed, file paperwork, drug tests, and a lot of other things. Finally, one thing I noticed is my generation like to work, we don’t like to sit down. However, the “kids” today are lazy and want everything handed to them.

Mental illness is a disease found worldwide, affecting a big chunk of the population. Some mental illnesses can be small such as ADHD and anxiety disorders whereas others are more severe like Borderline Personality Disorder and Schizophrenia. Treatment and understanding of these conditions used to be very poor, but the 1980’s started to change that. Although much treatment of mentally ill patients has gotten better, there is still room for improvement. With proper medication and therapy, people with mental illnesses can become fully functioning contributors to society. Most Westernized civilizations have a patient disclosure agreement that affects the patient 's ability to fully get better. Mental illnesses do not affect only old people, but they also have a huge impact on younger generations, and it is not as expensive to treat these patients as traditionally thought, especially if they are not let out before they should be. The treatment of mentally ill patients should be altered in a way that leads to patient happiness, while being cost efficient and helping future generations.

The novel “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” by Ned Vizzini says a lot about adolescent mental illness and how teenagers cope with stress. The main character, Craig Gilner, is a freshman in the Executive Pre-Professional High School, the most prestigious school in his area. He studied for weeks to pass the test to get in, but once he succeeded he felt overwhelmed by school work and anxiety until he stopped eating, started doing drugs, and eventually admitted himself into a mental health ward for suicidal thoughts. Of course, I’ve never experienced that kind of severe depression or been in a mental ward, but I could easily relate to Craig as a teenager with my fair share of school-related stress. Craig shared a lot of qualities with me, like his ambition, social life, and many aspects of his personality.

1) Mental health treatment has seen substantial improvements within the developed world. However, mental health patients continue to experience difficulties receiving mental health care as opposed to physical health care. There are many barriers to receiving mental health services in the developed world even with the advances in technology and treatment seen in medical treatment. When compared with physical health care services, mental health services delivery continue to face issues (Andrade et al., 2014). The barriers to mental health services can be linked to issues of structure and issues related to the patients themselves. Many people do not seek treatment as they may not think they require treatment or believe that they are healthy. Others may seek assistance from a mental health professional and drop out after treatment had already been initiated. This may be due to lack of satisfaction with the quality of service provided. This increases the likelihood of dropping out of treatment (Andrade et al., 2014). Some people do not seek treatment for fears of social stigma and discrimination in the work place. They may become worried about being labeled mentally ill and be denied job opportunities (Andrade et al., 2014). For such reason, many people retrain from disclosing mental illness or treatment. Structural barriers speak to the person’s ability to pay for services and the availability of services. In some developed countries like the United States, a large proportion

Recent research has shown that young people face a varying number of challenges during maturation. Pearce, Cross, Monks, Waters and Falconer (2011) found that common stressors and anxieties for young people are related to relational issues (e.g., family, romantic), scholastic obligations (e.g., study), self-esteem (e.g., body image), emotional wellbeing, and bullying. As such, the mental wellbeing of young people is becoming a serious national issue. Annually, on average 27% of young people aged from 16 to 24 are experiencing some form of mental illness or mental health problems (Slade, Johnston, Oakley Browne, Andrews, & Whiteford,

According to The Lancet, a peer-reviewed medical journal, schools play key roles in children’s development, ranging from fostering peer relations and social interactions, emphasizing academic attainment and cognitive processes, educating students on emotional control and behavioral expectations, and supporting moral and physical developments. All of these areas are affected reciprocally by mental health, and better recognition of the effects mental health problems cause and the distinctive platform schools offer for access and support to students has led to a newfound importance of mental health

The field of mental health has evolved over the last century and a half due to medical advancements in the field. Mental illness is no longer seen as a hopeless situation for Americans to deal with. People with mental challenges can have productive lives with the proper treatment. Today, fewer stigmas are associated with having mental illness. A more humane approach occurs in psychiatric medicine than in the past decades. The practice of lobotomy was stopped in 1967 it was a controversial procedure where certain nerves in the brain were cut and by doing this it was believed to relieve excess emotions to stabilize moods. American psychiatrist Walter Freeman performed the first lobotomy in the United States in 1936 on a woman from Kansas. He was famous for his ice pick lobotomy and performed over 2,200 total lobotomies. At this time in history people were desperate to treat serious mental conditions. Mental intuitions were very overcrowded and this was prior to antipsychotic medications being discovered. The practice of lobotomy is now seen as being barbaric and inhumane. Overcrowded state mental asylums who neglected patients are no longer in existence. Currently outpatient treatment, counseling, medication, and community recourses are the long term treatment for mental health clients. Advances in medication and awareness of institutionalized behavior helped mold modern psychiatric practices by giving clients the opportunity to function in society. Since, the 1950’s

Implementing evidence-based practices (EBPs) for the treatment of psychological disorders represents a major challenge within the field of mental health. Literally hundreds of evidence-based treatments (EBTs) and thousands of evidence based assessment (EBA) tools are available; however such practices are generally not implemented in routine clinical practice (Chorpita et al. 2014 presentation; Weston, Novotny, & Thompson-Brenner, 2004a; 2004b; Strupp & Anderson, 1997). For example, clinicians implement self-report measures in 18% of sessions and structured clinical interviews in 1% (Sattler et al). Furthermore, clinicians implement key components of EBTs for common disorders in just 22% of sessions (Whiteside et al).

The field of mental health can be complicated as it involves patients that present with a variety of diagnosis, where every patient may get a different form of treatment and medication. One can say that mental health disorders can be convoluted as the psychiatrists are faced with the arduous task of prescribing medication, via trial and error. Particularly because irregularities are found between the use of antidepressants and bipolar disorder (Bauer et al., 2013). This writer was inspired first hand while having the privilege of fulfilling an internship at Riverside County Mental Health Emergency Services. During that time period, this writer had the opportunity to see different patients that presented acutely with various mental health diagnosis. One case, in particular, was captivating, as the patient, presented with an existing diagnosis of Bipolar 1 but in acute mania. The psychiatrist made a recommendation to start a mood stabilizer along with an anti-psychotic, and recommended avoiding the use antidepressants due to antidepressant-induced mania or rapid cycling. As Vasquez et al. (2013), “Opinions concerning the value of antidepressants to treat bipolar depression vary markedly and reflect the strikingly limited and inconsistent state of available research-based information” (Vasquez et al., 2013, p. 1674). This particular case left this writer thinking if there were any exceptions to the rules of the use of antidepressants when treating Bipolar

My chosen theme relates to the main character because no one understands her and her condition. In the story her mental health is deteriorating and she is becoming more and more reclusive to herself and her own thoughts. The speaker in the story starts to think and talk to herself because no one understands her and when she seeks help they don’t help her. Her husband is a doctor who locked her away because he didn’t understand her and her condition. My theme connects to the speakers solitude and feelings of being alone. All the problems the main character faces all show how personal the problems were and no one could help her.

Everyone is different in society. There are special individuals, which are affected by mental health illnesses. Mental health issues can affect society both negatively and positively. There are cultures that treat these individuals like the reincarnations of gods. On the other side, there are cultures that isolate these individuals and look for cures to these pathologies. Mental health illnesses are important because they have to be studied to understand their cause, whether it may be biological or environmental. These issues are important because like every type of illness they have to be delicately studied, focusing on treatments to either cure them or reduce the symptoms of the pathology. These people were either conflicted with the ideals of society or they were praised by it. Cultures, which didn’t accept them, closed them up into asylums. Patients inside these facilities were brutally used as guinea pigs for their experiments. The way these people were treated shows how cruel and ignorant people were to the unknown. By learning from histories mistakes we can move forward in improving our society and achieve greatness.

Mental Illness awareness has yet to be actually taken seriously in society as well as in schools. As time passes, more people become aware that people are not crazy or weird but that there is mental sickness that can intervene with people's lives and that they need help and not be push down upon for the illness they did not ask for. Many illnesses can show symptoms especially to those who see those suffering on the daily basis such as school. Students spend most of the week in school and typically a third of each of those days, surrounded by teachers, administration and many other kids such as themselves. In schools, middle and high, all teens experience changes physically from children to teens. Those changes are not only physically, but hormonal. The hormones cause the shifting to teen physicality but those hormones also trigger emotionally in which they can be irritable, sad, angry, depressed, happy, etc. Constant shifts are normal, but there's many who are not only pubetic changes, some begin to show signs of mental illnesses that can be confused with puberty hormones, making it difficult to see the signs, but others can be very noticeable in which they can be guided to seeking help.