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Schizophrenia diagnosis and social work
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Facts: Ahmad Edwards who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia tried to steal shoes at a department store in Indiana in July 1999. After being discovered, the man took his gun and fired at a security officer. Besides, Edwards accidentally injured a bystander. An FBI agent apprehended Edwards. Before Edwards was arrested, the agent shot him in his thigh, because the man had refused to drop the gun. The man was accused in attempted murder, theft, and criminal recklessness. Afterwards, his mental state became the subject of 3 competency hearings and 2 requests of self-representation. After his competency had been questioned during the first three hearings, Edwards appealed to the appellate court in the State of Indiana as he believed that his
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.
According to the DSM-IV, schizophrenia is classified under the section of “Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders”. Schizophrenia is one of the most serious major chronic brain disorders in the field of mental health; it is a neurological disorder that affects the cognitive functions of the human brain. People living with this incapacitating illness can experience multiple symptoms that will cause extreme strain in their own and their families and friends life. The individual can lose reality, unable to work, have delusions and hallucinations, may have disorganized speech and thought processes, will withdraw from people and activities, they may become suspicious and paranoid, may behave inappropriately in every day social situations. They may neglect personal hygiene and dress improperly, use excessive make-up; every day life is becoming chaotic for everyone involved.
The phrase that was used by Margaret Newman “The nurse and client become partners in living through the period of disharmony and emerging at a higher level of consciousness” meant that even though the patient is going through this difficult time of illness, his or her sees this one person as a partner which is the nurse. The patient sees the nurse as someone he or she can trust, someone is he or she can count on, and someone he or she believe has his or her best interest.
The article “Family Says Man Shot by Officers was Mentally Ill” discusses an incident where Kody Conley, an African-American male experiencing schizophrenia, was shot by two police officers in Omaha, Nebraska. The incident took place after Conly fired a stolen gun near Creighton University campus. After the incident took place near the campus, Conley was taken to CHI-Creighton (Creighton University Medical Center), and is said to be alive. Although he is alive, his family expresses that he is in serious condition and is in a medically induced coma. The author, Miranda Christian, reports the two police officers who shot Conley are on administrative leave, and the Omaha Police Department are currently investigating the incident.
Zonana, H. V., Wells, J. A., Getz, M. A., & Buchanan, J. A. (1990). The NGRI Registry: Initial analyses of data collected on Connecticut insanity acquittees: I. Bulletin Of The American Academy Of Psychiatry & The Law, 18(2), 115-128.
In this essay, it will be discussed, the lived experience of schizophrenia of Jeremy Oxley by incorporating the National Recovery Framework and Principles, while exploring the lived experience of mental health problems that he experienced, as described in the documentary ‘The SunnyBoys”. Jeremy Oxley, in his younger years, started his musical career in the early 1980’s, at the early young age of 18, he was touted as one of the most talented singer/songwriter in Australia. Jeremy was the front-man of a successful rock/pop bad called The Sunnyboys. He achieved rapid success in his musical career, where he quickly became trapped in a persistent cycle of touring and recording sessions. His brother Peter, who wanted Jeremy to achieve success, tried
For those that don’t know, the insanity plea, as defined by Cornell Law, is based on the fact that a person accused of a crime can acknowledge that he/she committed the crime, but argue that he/she is not responsible for it because of his or her mental illness, by pleading “not guilty by reason of insanity”. This first became a problem in 1843. Daniel M’Naughten was trialed for shooting the secretary of the Prime Minister in attempt to assassinate the Prime Minister himself. It was said that M’Naughten thought the Prime Minister was the person behind all his personal and financial problems. The jury ruled him “not guilty by reason of insanity”. The reason for the verdict was M’Naughten...
Mental Illness has been prevalent all throughout our history from Isaac Newton to Abraham Lincoln to Sylvia Plath and so on. These illnesses can be as minor as a slight bipolar disorder or as severe as schizophrenia. In recent years, mental illnesses are becoming more prevalent in our criminal justice systems than anywhere else. Mental illness is becoming an association with crime and based on the information that has been found, this paper will attempt to further define the problem of mental illness within our criminal justice system and offer alternatives or insights as to how to possibly help with this problem.
There are many disorders throughout the world that affect people on a daily basis. They are life altering and life changing. They affect how a person can function on a normal level of life. This, in itself, is an interesting way of viewing the disorder, but it truly is the way that schizophrenia is viewed. The term normal is in its self a complex concept, but to understand that for the purpose of schizophrenia; normal is anything that deviates from the socially accepted way of conducting one’s self. The person affected by this disorder is drifting away from reality and, at the same time, drifting away from who they have been their whole life.
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.
Much of my skepticism over the insanity defense is how this act of crime has been shifted from a medical condition to coming under legal governance. The word "insane" is now a legal term. A nuerological illness described by doctors and psychiatrists to a jury may explain a person's reason and behavior. It however seldom excuses it. The most widely known rule in...
Lesley Stevens and Ian Rodin justified the need of acquisition to the mental disorders’ aetiology in their book “Psychiatry”. They pointed out the fact that psychiatrists need to be familiar with the contribution of a particular disorder in order to make a more confident in the diagnosis. Knowing the aetiology of psychotic disorder is as important as the diagnosis. For the simple reason that psychotic disorders do not have particular tests that can be made for diagnosis; on the contrary, physical illnesses do. Knowing the probability of patients vulnerability to a particular disorder helps in the diagnosis. They gave an example explaining that the probability of having angina is more likely in a 60-year-old male smoker rather than a 30 year-old female non-smoker. Although the causes of schizophrenia remains incompletely reveled, research has shown strong factors that might contribute to the disorder. The factors that increase the risk of schizophrenia include: genetics, environmental factors, and some encephalon(brain) abnormalities.
The issue of executing mentally ill criminals has been widely debated among the public. They debate on whether it is right or wrong to execute a person who does not possess the capacity to think correctly. The mental illness is a disease that destroys a person’s memory, emotion, and prevent one or more function of the mind running properly. The disease affects the way a person thinks, feels, behaves and relates to others.When a person is severely mentally ill, his/ her ability to appreciate reality lack so they aspire to do stuff that is meaningless. The sickness is triggered by an amalgamation of genetic, and environmental factors not a personal imperfection. On the death penalty website, Scott Panetti who killed his mother in-law and father-in-law reports that since 1983, over 60 people with mental illness or retardation have been executed in the United States (Panetti). The American Civil Liberties Union says that it is unconstitutional to execute someone who suffered from an earnest mental illness (ACLU).Some people apply the term crazy or mad to describe a person who suffers from astringent psychological disorders because a mad person look different than a mundane human being. The time has come for us to accept the fact that executing mentally ill offenders is not beneficial to society for many reasons. Although some mentally ill criminals have violated the law, we need to sustain a federal law that mentally ill criminals should not be put to death.
The insanity defense pertains that the issue of the concept of insanity which defines the extent to which a person accused of crimes may be alleviated of criminal responsibility by reason of mental disease. “The term insanity routinely attracts widespread public attention that is far out of proportion to the defense’s impact on criminal justice” (Butler,133). The decision of this defense is solely determined by the trial judge and the jury. They determine if a criminal suffers from a mental illness. The final determination of a mental disease is solely on the jury who uses evidence and information drawn from an expert witness. The result of such a determination places the individual accused, either in a mental facility, incarcerated or released from all charges. Due to the aforementioned factors, there are many problems raised by the insanity defense. Some problems would be the actual possibility of determining mental illness, justify the placement of the judged “mentally ill” offenders and the total usefulness of such a defense. In all it is believed that the insanity defense should be an invalid defense and that it is useless and should potentially be completely abolished.
Insanity, automatism and diminished responsibility all play a significant role in cases where the defendant’s mind is abnormal while committing a crime. The definition of abnormal will be reviewed in relationship to each defence. In order to identify how these three defences compare and contrast, it is first important to understand their definition and application. The appropriate defence will be used once the facts of the cases have been distinguished and they meet the legal tests. The legal test of insanity is set out in M’Naghten’s Case: “to establish a defence…of insanity it must be clearly proved that, at the time of committing the act, the party accused was labouring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong.” To be specific, the defect of reason arises when the defendant is incapable of exercising normal reasoning. The defect of reason requires instability in reasoning rather than a failure to exercise it at a time when exercise of reason is possible. In the case of R v Clarke, the defendant was clinically depressed and in a moment of absent-mindedness, stole items from a supermarket...