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Essay about mental health awareness
Concept paper about mental health awareness
Social work in mental health case study
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Social Work in Canada It is sad that in our society, conformity and assimilation have led to schisms in our communities. The Calgary Case Study is one such example. Mentally ill people who are marginalized face a myriad of struggles that are belittled and poorly understood. Those of us who are in a position to make a positive contribution to the lives of mentally ill community members, would rather choose to spend our efforts on more esthetically pleasing “charities”. It seems that mainstream society would rather see the issues surrounding the mentally ill simply go away and remain ignored. As social workers, it is our responsibility to make certain that this does not continue. In the following pages we will explore the issues, roles of the community, and the larger questions that arise from creating awareness on the issue of the mentally ill population. The Calgary case study is useful in demonstrating the possibilities that community action and awareness can create. It is interesting to note that over the past few hundred years, the mentally ill have been under the public microscope. The treatment and intervention into the lives of the mentally ill have come full circle. The homeless “lunatics” of the first half of the millennium were, by the 1700’s being institutionalized. This process had it’s major ups and downs, while at times it was publicly funded, ending up a state run operation by the 1900’s. During the time of de-institutionalization, mentally ill people were afforded more supposed dignity and personal freedoms. This however, ha led to the increase in the situation we see in Calgary-joblessness, homelessness, and social disgust for the people themselves. See a simplified version of the history of t... ... middle of paper ... ...ollars are directed to capitol gain, when about 2% of the true money makers are obtaining upwards of 80% of the country’s income, leaving the rest of the money to be sparingly doled out to the rest of society. There is a growing gap between the rich and poor and the prediction is that things will not be changing anytime soon. This means that funding for programs affecting issues like the mentally ill will continue to put strains on mainstream society, an be put to the back burner. In closing, there is no easy solution to creating change and growth regarding such issues. Social workers can help by educating and empowering people, but in the end, issues like the Calgary Case Study will continue to unfold in our country. The reality is that social workers will be more needed than ever in the changing face of today’s socio-economic climate of the new millennium.
Harrison, Erica. "Homelessness Among the Seriously Mentally Ill: What We Can Do to Help." Clarityhumanservices.com. N.p., 5 Mar. 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
During the 1960’s, America’s solution to the growing population of mentally ill citizens was to relocate these individuals into mental state institutions. While the thought of isolating mentally ill patients from the rest of society in order to focus on their treatment and rehabilitation sounded like a smart idea, the outcome only left patients more traumatized. These mental hospitals and state institutions were largely filled with corrupt, unknowledgeable, and abusive staff members in an unregulated environment. The story of Lucy Winer, a woman who personally endured these horrors during her time at Long Island’s Kings Park State Hospital, explores the terrific legacy of the mental state hospital system. Ultimately, Lucy’s documentary, Kings
Identify and explain the three major sources of conflict and misinterpretations in social work practice: culture-bound values, class bound values, and language variables.
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.
The stigma and negative associations that go with mental illness have been around as long as mental illness itself has been recognized. As society has advanced, little changes have been made to the deep-rooted ideas that go along with psychological disorders. It is clearly seen throughout history that people with mental illness are discriminated against, cast out of society, and deemed “damaged”. They are unable to escape the stigma that goes along with their illness, and are often left to defend themselves in a world that is not accepting of differences in people. Society needs to realize what it is doing, and how it is affecting these people who are affected with mental illness. If we continue to not help them, and to foster their illness, it will only get worse.
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.
Those with mental illness would live in the community with an array of services and be able to be free from the constraints of confinement. In the early 1960’s the United States began an initiative to reduce and close publicly-operated mental hospitals. This became known as deinstitutionalization. The goal of deinstitutionalization was to allow people suffering from mental illness to live more independently in the community with treatments provided through community health programs. Unfortunately, the federal government did not provide sufficient ongoing funding for the programs to meet the growing demand. States reduced their budgets for mental hospitals but failed to increase funding for on-going community-based mental health programs. As a result of deinstitutionalization hundreds of thousands of mentally ill people were released into the community without the proper resources they needed for their treatment. (Harcourt,
Close to six million Canadians live with mental illness; let alone the thousands that are undiagnosed. Mental illness has made big headlines in the news in the recent years. The people suffering from mental illness have been faced with discrimination a caused by a stigma towards them. Mental illness can be caused by many different factors whether they are psychological or environmental. Although only twenty percent of Canadians personally experience mental illness in their lifetime, it affects everyone in their lives. Many of the people suffering from mental illness live their lives in silence because of the stigma attached to the illness. They would rather nobody know about their condition than face the stigma and discrimination of the public. Society has come a long way from a hundred years ago when they would use trepanation. Trepanation is a primitive method used to heal head injuries; they truly believed that carving a hole in ones skull would release any mental injuries the patient had. A decade ago people suffering from mental illness were treated as if they were less than others. Now a days, people suffering from mental illness are not treated as poorly as before, they have larger support group than before, and society is more understanding of mental illness now. However, there is still much room for improvement.
Continuing budget cuts on mental health care create negative and detrimental impacts on society due to increased improper care for mentally ill, public violence, and overcrowding in jails and emergency rooms. Origins, of mental health as people know it today, began in 1908. The movement initiated was known as “mental hygiene”, which was defined as referring to all things preserving mental health, including maintaining harmonious relation with others, and to participate in constructive changes in one’s social and physical environment (Bertolote 1). As a result of the current spending cuts approaching mental health care, proper treatment has declined drastically. The expanse of improper care to mentally ill peoples has elevated harmful threats of heightened public violence to society.
There are many ways in which the mentally ill are degraded and shamed. Most commonly, people are stated to be “depressed” rather than someone who “has depression”. It is a common perception that mental illnesses are not a priority when it comes to Government spending just as it is forgotten that most mental health disorders can be treated and lead a normal life if treatment is successful. The effect of this makes a sufferer feels embarrassed and feel dehumanized. A common perception is that they should be feared or looked down upon for something they have not caused. People experience stigma as a barrier that can affect nearly every aspect of life—limiting opportunities for employment, housing and education, causing the loss of family ...
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been the first nations, which represented the whole Australian population, for centuries. However, the continuous European colonization has severely affected these peoples and, over the decades, their unique values and cultures, which enriched the life of Australian nation and communities, were not respected and discriminated by numerous restrictive policies. As a result, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have turned into the voiceless minority of the Australian population. Fortunately, in recent years, these issues became the concern of the Australian government, promoting a slight improvement in the well being of native Australians. Nowadays, there are numerous social work
When they are in need we must do everything in our power to make a change. Sometimes this involve advocating for them to see a change in social problems. The definition of a social worker states that they are trained person that carries out work with the aim of alleviating conditions of those in need (12). This often calls the need for social justice. After learning about social workers throughout history, I realize there’s multiple ways to help those in need (11). They’ve been able to implement social welfare for the public.
The social work profession is defined as “a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people (ISFW, ‘Global Definition of Social Work’, 2016).” The definition may be true about the profession but it is more in depth than just that. To me, the profession’s primary focus is to help others through life as much as we can while letting them make their own choices and guiding them. In society, social workers are utilized in many different nonprofit and government roles. They serve the community in many different ways from monitoring parent visits to helping people through mental illnesses. Human beings are so complex and things that happen
The work of a social worker is complex and all encompassing. Social workers work in many capacities seeking justice, liberation, and equality. There work is global, as they work to put policies in place to govern practices. To keep up with societal shifts and generational changes there learning is continuous. As new questions rise so does the need for the continuation of research, not only to answer these questions but to implement into
families, and communities to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social workers are change agents and because of that, they aim to help people develop their skills and abilities to use resources provided to them to strengthen and improve their lives and communities to resolve problems. One of the main goal of social workers is to improve the well-being and lives of the most vulnerable populations, fight against poverty, unemployment, domestic violence and the underserviced population by emphasizing on the person-in-environment and social justice model. The social work profession, considerers the individuals’ internal and external struggles, while working with the individuals to examine their relationships, family, work environment, community, and other things that might impact them and identify ways to help address problems and challenges.