How Taking Care of the Mentally Ill Has Improved

2150 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay on impact of mental health

Research Paper Mental illness has been a topic that more people have been aware of and have learned more about in recent years. According to Mayo Clinic, Mental illness refers to a wide range of mental health conditions — disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior. ... A mental health concern becomes a mental illness when ongoing signs and symptoms cause frequent stress and affect your ability to function. (Mayo Clinic Staff) Mental illness has been looked at as an undesirable thing and people with mental disabilities have been looked down on. Because of these attitudes, health professionals have taken more aggressive methods of treating these illnesses and ignored humanity (CHANGE WORD) in place of effectiveness; sometimes both of which were ignored in a vain attempt to change the patients. Technology and more knowledge have allowed health professionals to create less intrusive ways of treating the mentally disturbed. The changing attitude toward the mentally ill since the movement to deinstitutionalize them is illustrated in the housing opportunities, medical treatment, and psychological therapies. In any particular year, about 26.2 percent of adults in the United States have a detectable mental illness (“The Numbers”). Unfortunately, not enough hospital beds and places to stay are available for all of those people who need hospital care, so hospitals must move people out to make room for new patients. The space for mentally ill patients has always been low, but it has dramatically dropped in the past few decades. A movement involving deinstitutionalization occurred in 1965, and was advanced by society’s worries about civil liberties of patients. Courts then decided to regulate the amount of patie... ... middle of paper ... ...ness As Precursor to Long- Term Care Reform." Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured (Apr. 2007): 1-8, 13. NAMI. Print. 16 Apr. 2014. Mayo Clinic Staff. "Mental Illness." Definition. Mayo Clinic, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. "NAMI - The National Alliance on Mental Illness." NAMI. National Alliance on Mental Illness, n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2014. "The Numbers Count: Mental Disorders in America." NIMH RSS. NIMH, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. Pribram, Karl H. "Some physical and pharmacological factors affecting delayed response performance of baboons following frontal lobotomy." J. Neurophysiol13.373-382 (1950): 80. Print. 1 May 2014. "Timeline: Treatments for Mental Illness." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. Treatment Advocacy Center. The Shortage of Public Hospital Beds for Mentally Ill Persons. Rep. Arlington: Treatment Advocacy Center, n.d. Print. 1 May 2014.

Show More
Related

  • Kings Park State Hospital Summary

    1457 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Re-institutionalization of a deinstitutionalized nation: Mental Illness

    1452 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • To Write Love on Her Arms

    1675 Words  | 4 Pages

    NAMI - The National Alliance on Mental Illness. (n.d.). NAMI. Retrieved February 24, 2014, from http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=by_illness&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=61191

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Prefrontal Cortex And Its Effect On The Brain

    1721 Words  | 4 Pages

    U. S. Public Health Reports. (2009). Surgeon General’s perspectives: Mental health matters (Volume 124). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

    Read More

  • A History of Mental Care in America

    563 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    1229 Words  | 3 Pages

    "NAMI - The National Alliance on Mental Illness." NAMI. National Alliance on Mental Illness, n.d. Web. 01 May 2014.

    Read More

  • Dangers of Budget Cuts on Mental Health Care

    1213 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • What is Mental Illness?

    1860 Words  | 4 Pages

    To understand what mental illness is you have to know what it means. Mental health is the state of our well-being. Mental health has to do with the mind. According to thefreedictionary.com mental health is “a state of emotional and psychological well-being in which an individual is able to use his or her cognitive and emotional capabilities, function in society, and meet the ordinary demands of everyday life”. Mental illness are behavioral, psychological, and emotional disorders that effect the mind. Mental illness is not something that should be avoided. There many different types of mental illnesses. There are also mental healthcare services that can help people with their mental illnesses.

    Read More

  • Police Mental Illnesses Essay

    892 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mental illnesses are any psychiatric disorder that causes unusual behavior. Some examples of these include depression, anxiety, or schizophrenia. People affected by mental illnesses often do not get the help they need in order to be better. Many things cause cause a mental

    Read More

  • The Criminalization of the Mentally Ill

    3759 Words  | 8 Pages

    The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and of that over sixty percent of jail inmates reported having a mental health issue and 316,000 of them are severely mentally ill (Raphael & Stoll, 2013). Correctional facilities in the United States have become the primary mental health institutions today (Adams & Ferrandino, 2008). This imprisonment of the mentally ill in the United States has increased the incarceration rate and has left those individuals medically untreated and emotionally unstable while in jail and after being released. Better housing facilities, medical treatment and psychiatric counseling can be helpful in alleviating their illness as well as upon their release. This paper will explore the increasing incarceration rate of the mentally ill in the jails and prisons of the United States, the lack of medical services available to the mentally ill, the roles of the police, the correctional officers and the community and the revolving door phenomenon (Soderstrom, 2007). It will also review some of the existing and present policies that have been ineffective and present new policies that can be effective with the proper resources and training. The main objective of this paper is to illustrate that the criminalization of the mentally ill has become a public health problem and that our policy should focus more on rehabilitation rather than punishment.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Deinstitutionalization

    740 Words  | 2 Pages

    The idea of mental illnesses, diseases, and disorders may frighten some people, but there is more to the concept. Many rules and regulations have been changed or modified to care in mental institutions. The effects of removing mental patients from the care of specialists has been defined as deinstitutionalization. The concepts of deinstitutionalization include its definition, its effect on mental hospitals, its effect on community mental hospitals, and homeless populations.

    Read More

  • The Prescription Drug Abuse Crisis

    1696 Words  | 4 Pages

    Kahn, Ada P., and Jan Fawcett. The Encyclopedia of Mental Health. 2nd ed. New York: Facts On File, 2001.

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Decriminalization Of Mental Hospital

    658 Words  | 2 Pages

    By removing the government from the equation entirely, it is thought that a patient is given more freedom and independence. In theory, the idea sounds appealing; the patient would integrate into society and learn to lead a stable, healthy life. On the other hand, medical, financial, and emotional guidance is needed in order for them to purely survive. With no government involvement, the mentally ill greatly suffer. Thus, the idea of independence is overwhelmed by the need for the United States to care for its citizens. A mental hospital, which is equipped with a full staff and proper medication, supersedes neglect in disguise of freedom. For a patient’s successful transition into society, full compensation and therapy services must be provided. In recent cases of deinstitutionalization, no such measures have been taken, and the mentally ill endure the consequences. In a mental hospital, they are on a strict schedule and thrive in a routine environment. Conversely, in society, they are away from their regimented agenda and assistance. With no supervision, a patient’s health declines, and they eventually lose the will to even get out of bed. If the mentally ill are to succeed outside the mental hospital, they must not be thrust into society and instantly forgotten. The United States must relent the idea that non-restriction is positive for patients and not endanger them through

    Read More

  • Research Paper On Mental Health

    1053 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), it defines mental illness as Mental illnesses are health conditions involving changes in thinking, emotion or behavior (or a combination of these). Mental illnesses are associated with distress and/or problems functioning in social, work or family activities. (What Is Mental Illness? (n.d.). Retrieved June 26, 2016, from https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/what-is-mental-illness). Mental Disorders are a wide range of mental conditions that affect mood, thinking, and behavior. There are a lot of different psychological disorders here is a list of the major psychological disorders and their definitions:

    Read More

  • Mental Health: As Important as Physical Health

    977 Words  | 2 Pages

    Kessler, Chiu . et. al."The Numbers Count: Mental Disorders in America."NIMH RSS. National Institute of Mental Health , n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.

    Read More

More about How Taking Care of the Mentally Ill Has Improved

Open Document