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Effects of mental health stigma on treatment
Literature review papers on homeless people with mental illness
Effects of mental health stigma on treatment
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with deinstitutionalization. Many homeless are mentally ill patients who need institutionalization or at least better mental health care.
Many wrongly believe that the mentally ill are more likely to commit crimes. Because of this misperception, as well as others, recovered mentally ill people, as well as those diagnosed and in treatment, are still stigmatized and discriminated against. In addition, turf wars can exist among mental‐health professionals and over the use of drugs to control problematic behaviors. Psychiatrists and other medical doctors can prescribe drugs, while nonmedical professionals cannot.
Some mental illnesses, such as paranoid schizophrenia, require drug treatment for normal functioning. Patients in the community
In the book Crazy in America by Mary Beth Pfeiffer, she illustrated examples of what people with mental illness endure every day in their encounters with the criminal justice system. Shayne Eggen, Peter Nadir, Alan Houseman and Joseph Maldonado are amongst those thousands or more people who are view as suspected when in reality they are psychotic who should be receiving medical assistance instead, of been thrown into prison. Their stories also show how our society has failed to provide some of its most vulnerable citizens and has allowed them to be treated as a criminals. All of these people shared a common similarity which is their experience they went through due to their illness.
The fight for improved health care for those with mental illness has been an ongoing and important struggle for advocates in the United States who are aware of the difficulties faced by the mentally ill and those who take care of them. People unfortunate enough to be inflicted with the burden of having a severe mental illness experience dramatic changes in their behavior and go through psychotic episodes severe enough to the point where they are a burden to not only themselves but also to people in their society. Mental institutions are equipped to provide specialized treatment and rehabilitative services to severely mentally ill patients, with the help of these institutions the mentally ill are able to get the care needed for them to control their illness and be rehabilitated to the point where they can become a functional part of our society. Deinstitutionalization has led to the closing down and reduction of mental institutions, which means the thousands of patients who relied on these mental institutions have now been thrown out into society on their own without any support system to help them treat their mental illness. Years after the beginning of deinstitutionalization and after observing the numerous effects of deinstitutionalization it has become very obvious as to why our nation needs to be re-institutionalized.
This stereotype contributes to the stigma individuals’ face and encourages social exclusion and intolerance, especially in schizophrenia (Ray & Brooks Dollar, 2014). Ken sought out help and went to the emergency room because he recognized he was severely depressed. There, the doctor promised he would not be put in restraints, yet when he was taken to the hospital, he was placed in restraints because it was company policy (Steele & Berman, 2001). Due the stigma that individuals with mental illness are violent, Ken was not treated fairly (Stuart & Arboleda-Florez, 2012). Stuart and Arboleda-Florez (2012) are very credible authors to be writing on the effects of stigma in mental health. Both authors have experience in psychiatry, combatting stigma and mental health issues.
Mental healthcare has a long and murky past in the United States. In the early 1900s, patients could live in institutions for many years. The treatments and conditions were, at times, inhumane. Legislation in the 1980s and 1990s created programs to protect this vulnerable population from abuse and discrimination. In the last 20 years, mental health advocacy groups and legislators have made gains in bringing attention to the disparity between physical and mental health programs. However, diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses continues to be less than optimal. Mental health disparities continue to exist in all areas of the world.
The homeless have the ability to make the non-homeless feel threatened and unsafe (Marin.) “They are homeless, are strangers, alien and therefore a threat (Marin.)” The threat and danger that homeless pose to American society could easily be eradicated by shipping all of them to other countries. We would then no longer have to deal with them on a day to day basis.
The homeless- found on city park benches, street corners, and subway grates. Where did all of these people come from? One third, to one half of the homeless suffer from a mental illness. A lot is said about the homeless-mentally ill, but what their plight says about us may be more significant. We still have not found a place for those who are both poor and insane. Once there was a place for them; the asylum fulfilled the basic needs of thousands for decades, but now these institutions lay empty and in ruin. Has the hope to heal the mentally ill also been abandoned? Is there once again a need for the asylum? The disbandment of the asylum was the first step in ending segregation for those with mental illness, but we have yet to accomplish integration.
Homelessness in the United States has been an important subject that the government needs to turn its attention to. There has been announced in the news that the number of the homeless people in many major cities in the United States has been increasing enormously. According to United States Interagency Council on Homelessness reported that there was an estimation of 83,170 individuals have experienced chronic homelessness on the streets of the United States’ streets and shelters on only a single night of January 2015, which is a small decrease of only 1% from the previous year (People Experiencing Chronic Homelessness, n.d.). The United States must consider this subject that most of the people underestimate it and not pay attention
Homelessness is not a disease. It is not a virus, not a condition, nor bacteria. Homelessness is a state where a person does not have a permanent residential. This includes people who live in shelters, motels and on the streets. They do not have homes because of the rising prices of housing. In New York City alone, 61,931 people are homeless as of September 2016. This is an epidemic in New York, not because of the sheer number of homeless people, but because of the lack of support from the local government. Homeless people are ignored by citizens, attacked by youth and abused by police officers. The New York Police Department even instituted Move Along Policy where homeless people who are idle for too long are forced to move their locations. This could be sitting on a bench for too long or falling asleep in a train station. So displaced citizens are not only homeless, but they are not allowed to reside in familiar locations without fear of being harassed by policemen. The youth of New York City find entertainment in harming homeless people. They would attack them, throwing bottles at them, hitting them, in hopes of knocking them unconcious. And these homeless people who do not have jobs often ask for money in the streets. And people just walk past them without even bothering with them. Because
Gattis and Larson suggest, “interested parties could benefit from an improved understanding of the mental health needs of homeless adolescents. This knowledge could be used to identify youths at risk of becoming homeless and to provide appropriate services to those currently homeless” (p. 87). In short, education and knowledge regarding the homelessness in itself can do wonders. The homeless face many hardships including depression, anxiety, PTSD, discrimination, and suicidal thoughts. These are just a few things that homeless people face that the general population don’t take into consideration on a first glance or thought. Intervention and world of mouth will also help, because this is a topic society doesn’t necessary publicize, we don’t know much about it. If this is publicized in a positive way, the motivation and self-esteem from homeless people will also rise. The increase of access to insurance would also help prevent this. In order to get treated for any mental illness they have, they need insurance. With active treatment for a mental illness, this will heighten the likelihood of obtaining a reliable job. Which in turn, will essentially help prevent the homeless from being
Wouldn’t it be completely irrational to sentence every mentally ill individual to jail purely because they suffered from a mental illness? Often, mentally ill people behave in an eccentric manner and allure the attention of police officers who do not differentiate the mentally ill from mentally stable people and immediately charge them with misdemeanors. There are approximately 300,000 inmates, with the number increasing every year, which suffer from a mental illness and do not receive proper treatment. Jails are not adequately equipped to care for mentally ill inmates, which can lead to an escalation of an inmate’s illness. Society has failed to provide enough social resources for citizens suffering from psychiatric illnesses in its community, transferring mentally unstable individuals between mental institutions and jails, when in fact adequate aid such as providing proper medication, rehabilitation opportunities, and more psychiatric hospitals in communities is a necessity to reconstitute these individuals.
In today’s society, the stigma around mental health has caused many people to fear seeking medical treatment for problems they are dealing with. With an abundance of hateful outlooks and stereotypical labels such as: crazy, psycho, and dangerous, it is clear that people with a mental illness have a genuine reason to avoid pursuing medical treatments. Along with mental health stigma, psychiatric facilities that patients with a mental health issue attend in order to receive treatment obtain an excessive amount of unfavorable stereotypes.
Prior to taking this course, I generally believed that people were rightly in prison due to their actions. Now, I have become aware of the discrepancies and flaws within the Criminal Justice system. One of the biggest discrepancies aside from the imprisonment rate between black and white men, is mental illness. Something I wished we covered more in class. The conversation about mental illness is one that we are just recently beginning to have. For quite a while, mental illness was not something people talked about publicly. This conversation has a shorter history in American prisons. Throughout the semester I have read articles regarding the Criminal Justice system and mental illness in the United States. Below I will attempt to describe how the Criminal Justice system fails when they are encountered by people with mental illnesses.
Rock, M. (2001). Emerging issues with mentally ill offenders: Casues and social consequences. Administration and Policy in Mental Health., 165-180.
Ridiculed, called animals, blamed for diseases and mental illness by society, the homeless feel alienated. Even though they are thought of as “hobos” and “bag ladies,” the homeless are Americans with feelings that at one time had dreams and goals in life. They need to be given another chance, a chance to fulfill their dreams. If nothing is done by society or government, homelessness will continue to increase. Who will be responsible for the homeless that die every day? Each member of society will be held responsible. May God bless the forgotten citizens of America.
Homelessness is not something that was created over night; it has existed for a long time; often we choose not to see the homeless, or bother with them, so we look the other way. Homelessness is not prejudice toward race, creed, or religion--it has no boundaries; all homeless people should not be stereotyped as being drug abusers or the mentally ill that have been released from mental hospitals. Homelessness is not a disease that a person can catch from bodily contact, but it certainly has afflicted many Americans. We need to find the cause of homelessness before we can find a solution. More money for more programs is the typical response, but we should look at what has already been instituted and reevaluate them.