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Compare and contrast between mental health and mental illness
Compare and contrast between mental health and mental illness
Compare and contrast between mental health and mental illness
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Involuntary psychiatric treatment is a very serious topic that needs to be thought about seriously. The two psychiatrists that will be analyzed within this paper are Thomas Szasz and Paul Chodoff’s. Both articles begin to deal with the issue of involuntary hospitalization of the mentally ill and show the flaws within the commitment. Thomas Szasz believes that hospitalizing a person for no apparent reasons is wrong, but believes that if they are attempting to hurt themselves that they should be hospitalized. On the other hand, Paul Chodoff believes that the standard set to commit a person involuntarily to a hospital is wrong. He also believes that committing people on this basis of this kind of danger are wrong. Szasz portrays himself as defending more …show more content…
of a libertarian position.
Throughout his article, there are many different arguments that he feels strongly about. He believes that involuntary mental hospitalization is a form of imprisonment for the person being committed. He believes that there is a form of slavery going on within our societies since there are professionals admitting the “insane” people to care for the “sane.” Szasz begins to argue that institutions and practices are seen as good but pin points that slavery was seen as “natural” for many years as well. While making his argument, he made a comment about how commitment is not helping or treating the patients by giving three different types of evidence such as medical, historical, and literary. Although he begins to state that mental illness is looked upon like a metaphor, does not mean that it is a disease but is more of a disorder. Disorders are not curable and since it cannot be cured, it cannot be a disease. Then Szasz states that the argument is that a person is in charge of their own body and it is their choice on how they want to live their life and nothing can be changed about it
without the person’s consent of the process. Since there are people who are being placed into mental institutions, Szasz begins to state that it is more for the social and moral aspect instead of the medical and therapeutic aspect. Szasz then argues that involuntary hospitalization is very similar to slavery. This is owing to the idea of one human being taking control over another human being that is different from society. This is his main argument and he believes that the psychiatrist puts the patient in a specific role by admitting the patient to a hospital to be observed and treated. Szasz does not believe in mental illness institutions and believes that they should not be involuntarily committing the mentally ill.
In this paper I will be comparing the visit to the State Mental Institution and the
In the book “The Mad Among Us-A History of the Care of American’s Mentally Ill,” the author Gerald Grob, tells a very detailed accounting of how our mental health system in the United States has struggled to understand and treat the mentally ill population. It covers the many different approaches that leaders in the field of mental health at the time used but reading it was like trying to read a food label. It is regurgitated in a manner that while all of the facts are there, it lacks any sense humanity. While this may be more of a comment on the author or the style of the author, it also is telling of the method in which much of the policy and practice has come to be. It is hard to put together without some sense of a story to support the action.
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.
In the 1800’s people with mental illnesses were frowned upon and weren't treated like human beings. Mental illnesses were claimed to be “demonic possessions” people with mental illnesses were thrown into jail cells, chained to their beds,used for entertainment and even killed. Some were even slaves, they were starved and forced to work in cold or extremely hot weather with chains on their feet. Until 1851, the first state mental hospital was built and there was only one physician on staff responsible for the medical, moral and physical treatment of each inmate. Who had said "Violent hands shall never be laid on a patient, under any provocation.
Mental illness has been around as long as people have been. However, the movement really started in the 19th century during industrialization. The Western countries saw an immense increase in the number and size of insane asylums, during what was known as “the great confinement” or the “asylum era” (Torrey, Stieber, Ezekiel, Wolfe, Sharfstein, Noble, Flynn Criminalizing the Seriously Mentally Ill). Laws were starting to be made to pressure authorities to face the people who were deemed insane by family members and hospital administrators. Because of the overpopulation in the institutions, treatment became more impersonal and had a complex mix of mental and social-economic problems. During this time the term “psychiatry” was identified as the medical specialty for the people who had the job as asylum superintendents. These superintendents assumed managerial roles in asylums for people who were considered “alienated” from society; people with less serious conditions wer...
For many decades the mentally ill or insane have been hated, shunned, and discriminated against by the world. They have been thrown into cruel facilities, said to help cure their mental illnesses, where they were tortured, treated unfairly, and given belittling names such as retards, insane, demons, and psychos. However, reformers such as Dorothea Dix thought differently of these people and sought to help them instead. She saw the inhumanity in these facilities known as insane asylums or mental institutions, and showed the world the evil that wandered inside these asylums. Although movements have been made to improve conditions in insane asylums, and were said to help and treat the mentally ill, these brutally abusive places were full of disease and disorder, and were more like concentration camps similar to those in Europe during WWII than hospitals.
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.
Metzner, J. L., & Fellner, J. (2010). Solitary Confinement and Mental Illness in U.S. Prisons: A Challenge for Medical Ethics. The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 38(1), 104-108.
In 1950s the construction of new psychiatric centres took place in order to treat people with mental disorders. Local authorities provided financial resources to sustain these establishments of psychiatry. Apparently those psychiatric centres were treating the patients in unappropriated ways and inhuman acts as well as demanding them to remain inside the psychiatric centres for the rest of
This literature review is focusing on discussing the effects of seclusion and restraints on treatment consequences of patients in mental health area. Seclusion and Restraint are used for controlling the behavioral patterns of the mentally ill patients in different surroundings consisting of psychiatric management facilities and hospitals (Kentley, 2009). Over past decade, comprehensible consensus has come out that seclusion and restraints are secure interventions of last alternative and application of those interventions should and can be diminished significantly (Knight, 2011). However, recent studies indicated that it is traumatic for patients experiencing or witnessing restraint and seclusion traumatic; patients can feel high levels of anxiety, fear, and anger once aware that restraint is going to take place, sometimes it could resulting in an exacerbation of patient’s mental status (Stewart et al, 2010). Due to the humanitarian, ethical, and legal issues which could lead to, seclusion and restraints are known as the most controversial management strategies (Holmes, Kennedy & Perron, 2004). Previous studies and researches could not analyze this topic adequately; thus, further researches and studies related to the effects and risk managements of using seclusions and restrains will be discussed in below.
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.
Thousands of people statewide are in prisons, all for different reasons. However, the amount of mental illness within prisons seems to go unaddressed and ignored throughout the country. This is a serious problem, and the therapy/rehabilitation that prison systems have do not always help those who are mentally ill. Prison involvement itself can contribute to increased suicide (Hills, Holly). One ‘therapy’ that has increased throughout the years has been the use of solitary confinement, which has many negative effects on the inmates.
Elizabeth Packard once wrote in her book, The Prisoner's' Hidden Life, “The great evil of our present Insane Asylum System lies in the fact that insanity is there treated as a crime, instead of a misfortune, which is indeed a gross act of injustice.” In the 1800s, asylum’s for women were running rampant in the United States. Though asylum’s were meant to help women with mental disabilities, many times they caused more harm than good. Due to the restriction of women’s rights in the 1800s, placing women in asylums greater suppressed them more, than helped.
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
Mental health commitment is a sometimes necessary measure enacted presumably in the best interest of the patient, to secure their personal safety and well-being in times of emotional crisis, and to also provide helpful assessment and treatment of mental illness. The current mental health commitment process consists of legally defined and regulated procedures to be used as a guideline for intervention in emergency situations of mental health crises, and was designed in regards to protecting the civil rights of mental health patients. This paper will explore the legal processes involved in mental health commitment, and will reflect upon the morality and overall effectiveness of this process in treating mental illness in committed individuals.