Mental Illness In Adolescents

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Mental Illness in the life of adolescents is continuing to rise. Many studies have been conducted on when and what triggers cause mental instability of youth. There are many factors that contribute to the illnesses that children and teens face. Adolescents have suffered due to societal problems in the community. Teens witness family violence, substance abuse, lower educational achievements, violence in schools, and it takes a toll on them emotionally. According to Karen Snedker distress in the community creates residential instability along with emotional distress (K Snedker 2016). Many children are stigmatized for having a mental illness and do not seek treatment. Per Elsevier B.V “Untreated mental illness predisposes to longstanding individual …show more content…

People have abandoned youth and they do not accept help easily. You have to build a rapport and engage with a client for them to recognize you are trustworthy and can help them. It is important to know where a client stands emotionally. The outer appearance does not always show what is going on in the inside. When dealing with adolescents the social worker has to adapt their style of social work to the problematic factors at hand. When working with mentally ill clients you have to be able to attentively listen, retrieve information, possesses non verbal behaviors, build trust, and diffuse conflict. Per Stacy Zeiger, a social worker cannot minimize what the client has to say. Even if the social worker wants to move on to something else they deem more important. It is more important to focus on the client’s agenda rather than the social workers, so the client feels as though they have some say. This is the role of the social worker. ( Zeiger, …show more content…

The Social Worker has to make sure the youth is going to school, completing therapy and meeting goals they have established. There are times the client will not meet their goals and as a Social Worker you will have to learn patience and empathy. Social workers provide resources for clients, help with psychological evaluations, and help with self care plans. A local social worker agreed to be interviewed to let me know a few of her roles in the social work field of mental illness. She does work with youth at a state facility. Her name has been left out for privacy reasons. Per the local social worker she advised the perks of her job is assisting people in need and helping them to get their life on track. She advised social work is a very rewarding job. Being an advocate for clients and helping to educate the community on the importance of mental health means a lot. She stated she is an activist in the community and she likes to focus on the poor communities and less fortunate individuals. There is a thick stigma on getting help when a mental illness is detected. She stated some clients ignore the beginner symptoms and wait until they are over bearing and out of control before they seek help. Seeing people from all walks of life helps understand the daily struggles that some people go through.” Mental illness is a disease that is at times swept under the rug and as social workers it is our job to

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