Growing up in a foster home and later on being adopted, my past consists of a life that was placed off, what I thought to be its intended course. The derailment granted me with a different perspective on life and also newfound knowledge and respect for social workers and their contributions to society. Individuals whom were in foster care with me and interactions with foster children from my previous employment opportunity at a daycare, influenced me to steer in the direction of becoming a social worker. As I constantly reached new levels of maturity while progressing in life from exposure through real life experiences, these events created a profound knowledge base in relation to social justice. I have witnessed and ascertained wisdom …show more content…
Many factors contribute to the negative notion of mental illness from the stigmas associated with the illness and the lack of attention surrounding the subject. Although the previously discussed issues surrounding mental illness are very important, through my short yet intense experience as an intern at the West Oaks Outpatient Clinic, I became aware of the lack of knowledge as it relates to mental health on a micro level which then spills over to the macro level of social work, which is a social issue that is of great concern to me. On a micro level, several of the individuals along with their families that I interacted with did not understand the meaning of mental illness, the cause, signs and symptoms associated with their specified mental diagnosis, treatment options, and the importance of medication management for treatment purposes. I believe that contributing factors of this social issue are ideas such as culture conflict, not being the individual diagnosed with the illness, therefore not taking it seriously, being afraid to ask questions, wanting to keep personal and family matters private for the fear of embarrassment and being stereotyped etc., in addition to the belief that it will never hit close to …show more content…
With proper funding, the primary places to target, in order to spread awareness, is within churches, schools, and businesses. As far as the church, it would be imperative to actually target the church services and to take an estimated fifteen minutes at the beginning of each service to speak about mental illness, the reality of it, and provided resources to receive more information and treatment. Within the schools, I suppose beginning at the middle school level throughout college, to hold an assembly both Fall and Spring semesters to provide a better understanding of what mental illness is, the school counselor’s role in general, when and where to seek help. A lot of time, students are only directed to the school counselor if they are having behavioral issues or if the teacher notices a drastic change in a students’ behavior that is significant enough to direct them to a counselor and inform the parents/guardians. When targeting businesses, in my opinion, it would be important to begin with targeting the companies that are considered the most stressful jobs to have, and as part of orientation for the hiring process to complete a lesson on mental health being that one of the qualifications to receive FMLA is to suffer from a serious health condition that makes the
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.
I knew I loved to help others but it was not until I was an emerging adult that I knew what my calling was. My devotion to improve the quality of life for those who are disadvantaged is one of the reasons I have chosen to pursue a Master’s in Social Work. After obtaining my masters, I plan on diversifying my masters by getting licensed and becoming a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. I would like to study social work because I feel it will lead me directly to one of the most emotionally fulfilling careers available, as well as giving me the chance to combine helping people 's mental well being with their physical
Mental illness is more common than one would like to believe. In reality, one in five Americans will suffer from a mental disorder in any given year. Though that ratio is about equivalent to more than fifty-four million people, mental illness still remains a shameful and stigmatized topic (National Institute of Mental Health, n.d.). The taboo of mental illness has an extensive and exhausting history, dating back to the beginning of American colonization. It has not been an easy road, to say the least.
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.
There is a stigma surrounding seeking help for mental illness that needs to be broken. Mental illness is not to be taken lightly, it is a serious matter. These people need genuine help; help that they should be able to seek without having to worry about repercussions.
This is widely due to mass media creating a stigma for the mentally ill people that most of the general population tend to believe in the United States. I will begin with what I remember of my experience of learning I have mental health illness. I remember suffering heavily through my early teens to my twenties with depression. I had tried at that time just about every type of depression medication available and none of them worked for me. It wasn't until I was in my twenties that my depression just kind of went away.
“Mental illness refers to a wide range of mental health conditions — disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior” (Mayo Clinic). Mental disorders can happen many times through one’s life, but mental illness is classified as an ongoing problem with the symptoms that can affect the ability to perform normal day to day tasks (Mayo Clinic). Many people look at those afflicted with mental disorders as being crazy or clinically insane, while the reality is a problem many people live with on a daily basis with help from medications, psychologist visits, family, friends, help groups, and many other support systems. The lack of support available to mentally ill patients, the more that will refuse treatment and refuse to find help for their disorders. Many people who were born with mental disorders grow up knowing they have a problem, but people who develop them later in age don’t understand how to cope with it.
Mental illness is a lot like having a psychical illness, and more than sixty million Americans suffer from some type of mental disorder every year. Most people who suffer from a mental disorder are unaware that they even have a mental problem until they seek some type of medical attention. The evolution of Social Work in Mental Health, has been influenced by development of different types of psychiatric care. Mental illness causes a lot of emotional pain and that pain causes us to push for a solution. Social workers do many things some of the important work that social workers so is help people who have a range of issues that includes eating disorders, mental illness, financial problems, substance and mental abuse, along with marriage and
Mental health is defined as "A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease" (World health organization [WHO], 2012, p.3). Mental illness refers to health conditions or disorders which are characterized by alterations in thinking, mood, and behaviors, and may affect a person’s ability to fully function on a daily basic (Healthy people 2020).
An estimated 61.5 million American Lives, or one in four, suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in any given year, and it takes a decade, on average for them to make contact with a health care professional (Pending). One in 17 Americans currently live with chronic mental illness disorders such as schizophrenia, major depression or bipolar disorder (pending). Despite the new discoveries and advances in science and technology, the social stigma of mental illness prevails. Why is mental illness an issue? Why should healthy people be concerned if their neighbor suffers from acute depression? Those are the questions that the average American faces. Yet, our society remains naïve when it comes to mental health. The roots of this issue are found in the lack of information and lack of mental health accessibility.
Why is there a cloud of judgment and misunderstanding still surrounding the subject? People with a mental disorder or with a history of mental health issues are continually ostracized by society. This results in it being more difficult than it already is for the mentally ill to admit their symptoms to others and to seek treatment. To towards understanding mental illness is to finally lift the stigma, and to finally let sufferers feel safe and accepted within today’s society. There are many ways in which the mentally ill are degraded and shamed.
"Do not become a social worker. You will not make any money and you will be stressed out all the time." My maternal grandparents were foster care parents from the 1980 's until April of this year. In that time they hosted over 250 children from a variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds. As a child, I spent much of my time at my grandparents house and was exposed to the multiple aspects of the foster care system. I became close with the social workers who came to my grandmother 's house and when it came time for me to make a career choice, they all discouraged me from becoming a social worker. Despite their warnings I graduated with my Bachelor 's of Social Work from Saint Louis University in 2013 and began to work on my Master 's in Social Work in August of 2014.
For years, when I thought of Social Workers, I imagined a person coming into a client’s home and taking their kids away for neglect. Later, I found out that social workers could go into so many dimensions, such as clinical social workers, case mangers, and even administrative positions in agency settings. Furthermore, I realized that I was maturing into an adult. For example, when I began telling people of my decisions to become a social worker, a lot ...
Mass media “references to people with mental health problems found more than four in ten articles in the press used derogatory terms about mental health and nearly half of press coverage related mental illness to violence and crime” (Esseler, 244). This is causing for people to look down upon the mention of mental illnesses and many times ignore the importance of confronting this issue. Therefore the importance of removing this stigmatization is crucial. Education allows to make more informed decisions and then changing the perception of mental illness can lead towards policy changes toward the improvement of mental health (Sakellari,
Our society today does not value our mental health like it should. If society would only pay as much attention to mental health, they would be better off in the long run. Think about an athlete playing a sport, they certainly understand how important physical health is. When a baseball player injures his knee, he is out and waits until it heals. But like many people, mental health is overlooked. Most teenagers do not realize that the many things like stress or eating disorders are coming from a poor mental state. They think that if they just ignore it they will snap out of it, this is not true and many times this kind of thinking will only make it worse (Change Your Mind). Mental health is not seen as important as physical health due to misconceptions and stigma behind mental health patients. By increasing the importance of personal mental health, people can reduce issues associated with mental health problems and raise awareness for people who suffer from mental health issues.