Mental health has always been looked upon as a tragic illness that affects the person who has it, but at the same time can affect the people surrounding, and the society. Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and OCD are all examples of mental illnesses that have brought a lot of pain to individuals and their families. From time to time, in events such as mass murders in which the person who is responsible was diagnosed with a mental illness, the media tends to make it sounds as if mental health should be a public social problem, when in reality it is more of a private and personal issue. Unfortunately, those kinds of illnesses prevent the person who has it from living a normal life and from being themselves,…
Mental health consumers are 1 in 5 in the United States. They face the same daily obstacles that everyone else faces. However, they face obstacles with a mental illness. The general population has all kinds of beliefs that are not true about mental health consumers. They seem to be afraid of them and base their treatment of them on that fear. Mental health consumers are not dangerous, for the most part, they want to be better, and be productive. When someone we know gets cancer, we rally around them to help. When someone we know becomes mentally ill, we tend to stay away like it’s contagious. Consumers have to fight twice as hard, to get their needs met, than non consumers. The general public seems to have the idea that the consumer somehow caused their own illness.…
While rates of alcohol and drug abuse are disproportionately high among the homeless population, the increase in homelessness over the past two decades cannot be explained by addiction alone” (“Multiple Factors”). Addiction is a very big factor in homelessness, but there are others, too. Mental illness makes up for about 16% of the adult homeless population. Many cases are very severe and persistent. (“Multiple Factors”). The fact that these people aren’t in homes that can help them out is absurd. More people should be open to helping these people out by referring them to homes or even starting something themselves. Mental illness should not be a reason that someone is out on the…
* Reading the above statistics was the catalyst for my decision to choose mental illness as my leading health problem for this paper. In addition, I have experienced mental illness in my family and all too aware of many of the challenges that come with having or knowing someone with a mental illness. Also, working in an Emergency Department setting, patients with mental illness frequently come to the ED in crisis and it seems that much of the time, their crisis due to practical or logistical reason.…
In today’s society, there are various issues occurring daily that effect large communities. These issues arise because the populations are either oppressed, or uneducated of the consequences of these issues. One of the issues that currently needs to be addressed is that of schizophrenia in people of color. Currently, the representation of African Americans with schizophrenia is much greater than that of those who are not.…
Communities were not the only ones to suffer. Those who suffered with mental illness were the ones who were ultimately affected. The stereotypes attached to mental illness were enough for some to not get the appropriate help that they needed. Often times, the communities would not get involved, discarding those who suffer with mental…
Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Mervyn M. Dymally School of Nursing, Cohort 11…
Talk to anyone in the African American community over the age of 40 about seeking treatment for anxiety and over 50% will say, "I'll be okay, I just need to get some sleep, or "All I need to do is get this no good man out of my life and I'll be fine," or I am not crazy, I don't need no shrink asking me a lot of personal questions!" Or the classic, "Are you kidding me, I am not telling those white folks my business!" After the infamous postal worker killings in the late 1980's and early 1990's, human resources at mega companies began to realize the importance of providing mental health coverage and employee assistance programs for its work force. For the most part, there were no more shootings such as these until 2006, some 13 years after the previous one. But these are extreme cases of good gone bad and though it seldom if ever happens in the Black community, the propensity is there.…
African Americans, can also be referred as the Afro Americans or the Black Americans, are the residents and citizen of the Unites States who have their roots linked to at least the partial ancestry of the native population of Sub-Saharan Africa. They are also the direct descendants of enslaved Africans that were within the boundaries of the present day United States. Most of the African Americas are the descendants from West Africa, while others may also the immigrant from various regions of the west, including, Africa, Caribbean, South American or Central American Nations. In the United States, African Americans are considered the single biggest racial minority. The history…
Over the last 500 years, our country has established and battled one of the largest socio-tragedies known to man: racism. While this pestilent issue has affected many ethnic groups, the most publicly known is the racial discrimination concerning African Americans. By my reasoning, along with many sociologists and psychologists, racism is the root cause of African American race socialization. Race socialization is the theory of verbal and non-verbal messages being transmitted to specific ethnic groups for the positive or negative development of behaviors, philosophies, morals, and attitudes concerning the significance and importance of racial stratification, intergroup interactions, and personal and group identity. The timespan in which I will be surveying connects milestones of race socialization with many of the most significant moments in United States history. The primary sources I will be using as support for this paper will be several works by W.E.B. Du Bois1 and a book by Dr. Faye Belgrave entitled African American Psychology: From Africa to America2. The psychological effect that racism and race socialization has had on African Americans is more than apparent not only through texts written by various sociologists and psychologists, but also throughout history. I will focus on a specific fifty-year span when race socialization took effect, racism was socially acceptable and ultimately racism was combatted. It is my purpose in this paper to discuss, examine and determine the psychological effect that racism and race socialization has had on American citizens of African descent between the timespan of 1870 to 1970.…
The mental health person does not have the capability of the people in normal society they can be put in centers and sometimes shipped to institutions and prisons. In addition, to their condition or their illness. Most of them are humiliated and rejected by their families or treated in and inhumane way. The faces of mental health range from any age, any color, and any background. They…
People who have complex life issues related to mental illness and of substance use are the most common people who tend to be homeless. Serious mental illnesses, some caused from substance abuse can disrupt people’s ability to carry out essential aspects of daily life, such as a job, self care and household management. Mental illnesses may also prevent people from forming and maintaining stable relationships or cause people to misinterpret others’ guidance and react in an angry manner. This often results in pushing away caregivers, family, and friends who may be the force keeping that person from becoming homeless.…
Millions of Americans suffer from a mental illness throughout the years, and a majority of them are not getting an adequate treatment. Individuals who experience a mental illness are found in populations such as the homelessness and jails. Between one-fourth and one-third of the homeless population suffers from a serious mental illness, (Folsom, Hawthorne, Lindamer, Gilmer, Bailey, Golshan, Garcia, Unutzer, Hough, Jeste, 2005) and according to the treatment advocacy center (2010) at least 16 percent of inmates in jails and prisons suffer from a mental illness. During the year 1970 there were 525,000 psychiatric beds in the United States that number dropped to 212,000 in 2002 Sharfstein, Dickerson (2009). The care for the mentally…
A client's culture can contribute in a big way when it comes to personal bias and diagnosis. In the African American community specifically mental illness is a disease that is not discussed and something that you definitely do not go to see a doctor about. African Americans are presumably more affected by mental than any other culture does to reasonings such as ongoing racial discrimination, high poverty, and constant segregation(Clifton, D, 2015).Those in the African American community tend to rely heavily on religion in hopes to heal their ones.Also, the stigma that is associated with the disease also deters those who may be suffering from mental illness for fear of being shunned by family and those in the community. Also, lack of accessibility and affordability prolongs diagnosis to a point where health begins to deteriorate, causing mounting issues to the point where making some form of diagnosis difficult.…
The United States does not have a national mental-health system, nor has it ever had one. Caring for the severely mentally ill has been the responsibility of the states, starting with the first asylums and mental-health hospitals established in the mid-19th century. In 1999, the U.S. Surgeon General labeled stigma as perhaps the biggest barrier to mental health care, and sadly, modern society still has a tendency to stigmatize people with mental disorders. Bringing awareness to mental health stigma will lead to a better quality of life for those suffering from mental illness through gaining economic support, aiding to surmount discrimination, and integrating mentally ill individuals into…