Mental Health Since The 1950's Essay

To what extent has the understanding of mental health impacted those with mental illness since the 1950s?

In the past, mental illness was often swept under the rug or treated as a taboo topic. But today, more and more people speak out about their struggles with mental health. This increasing acceptance and awareness has helped break down the stigma surrounding mental illness. The increased awareness, understanding, and destigmatization of mental health since the 1950s has led to improved access to treatment, medicine, and support for those with mental illnesses, but further efforts are needed to eliminate systemic barriers.

There has been a major increase in awareness, understanding, and destigmatization of mental health since the 1950s.

This book represents how brutal the treatment of those with mental health issues was in the 1950s. They were often taken advantage of because mental illness can give others leverage or power over those with mental illnesses leading to more suffering for those with mental illness Mental illness can lead to suffering for the person experiencing it and for those around them. contributes to stereotypes, mostly negative. This book was written in a time where it was very common for those with mental illnesses to be manipulated and taken advantage of. Only recently has the view on mental illness begun to change. “The prevailing views of early recorded history posited that mental … psychopathology began to emerge.¨(Jutras) Historically people believed that mental illnesses were caused by supernatural forces, which is the reason for the archaic methods of treatment, often very brutal. During the European Middle Ages most people with mental illnesses were forced into and confined in asylums. More modern and up to date theories gained popularity in the late 19th to the early 20th centuries. This resulted in a more

Rather than being thrown into asylums and treated like they were less than human, people have the ability to seek out and find professional help like doctors and therapists. Originally doctors used many different strategies to “cure” mental illness, only more recently did the health care system begin taking mental health more seriously, providing more and more methods of treatment and medicine. “Today, those experiencing mental disorders can benefit from psychotherapy, along with biomedical treatment and increased access to care. As this study of the history of mental illness care shows, treatments will continue to change along with scientific and research developments and as mental health professionals gain more insight.”(History of Mental Illness Treatment) Historically there weren’t many options for those with mental illness but as the knowledge of mental illness increases as did the opportunities for help. Doctors became more informed therefore they were better able to diagnose and treat patients. They were able to prescribe patients with the proper medicine and they were able to recommend them to certain types of therapy. Although they made a lot of progress there is more to come.”With theoretical frameworks and a classification … levels of catecholamines such as norepinephrine.”(Jutras) As the understanding and