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Mental Illness In America Essay

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Mistreatment of Mental Illness in America There are a lot of unknowns when it comes to mental health, this can make talking about mental health a daunting task. One thing we do know is that less than half of those with a mental health issue are ever treated (McGinty, 2016). According to the National Institute of Mental
Health (NIH), mental illness is defined as: A mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder
(excluding developmental and substance use disorders). As well as, diagnosable presently or within the last year and meeting diagnostic criteria as specified by the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) (National Institute on Mental
Health). This paper will look at the way mental health issues are …show more content…

Centuries of injustice and maltreatment of those deemed “mad” or insane are highlighted in Whitakers book. Some treatments used by doctors and self proclaimed healers included starvation, chaining patients to walls, bleeding patients, and temporary drownings (Whitaker, 2002). Often these treatments and tactics were seen as a success when more often than not these had very little positive affects on patients illnesses and in fact caused new problems. In the 1920’s the practice of sterilization on those with mental disabilities was common practice in America (Whitaker, 2002). This treatment was often involuntary or pitched as the best and in-cruel treatment option to patients (Whitaker, 2002). Moving forward to the 1940’s operations on the mentally ills brain became the latest “effective” treatment in mental health (Whitaker, 2002). Doctors claimed removing certain sections of the brain would “cure insanity”, when in reality this caused irreversible damage to the patient (Whitaker, 2002). However, over recent decades treatments and standards of patient treatment has continued to progress and moved further away from using inhumane, unnecessarily cruel ways of working with the mentally

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Earley puts a face and a personal twist on the experience and trauma that is mental illness. Earley documents how one of the Country’s largest prison has only one goal for their mentally ill prisoners: that they don’t kill themselves. The Miami-Dade County Jail has no specialized facilities for the mentally

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They were using these things to control the patients so that the patients would become sociable, quiet, and would conform. These treatments or therapys really were ways of manipulating the patients into acting like everyone else in society because the nurses in the mental institution as well as the rest of society and government wanted there to be no individuals, everyone had to be the same. These treatments would

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In One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the nurse exposes the patients to harsh procedures in hopes to either cure them of their illness or stop unwanted behavior. Harding explains one of the treatments the patients endure: “Electro-Shock Therapy. Those fortunate souls in there are being given a free trip to the moon. No, on second thought, it isn’t completely free. You pay for the service with brain cells instead of money.”

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In the book “One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest” Ken Kesey shows that the “insanity” of the patients is really just normal insecurities and their label as insane by society is immoral. This appears in the book concerning Billy Bibbits problem with his mom, Harding's problems with his wife, and that the patients are in the ward

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Published in 1962, Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest tells the story of Patrick McMurphy, a newly-admitted patient at a psychiatric hospital where individuals with various mental conditions are treated. Run primarily by Nurse Ratched, a demeaning autocrat who exhibits complete control over others, the patients are subjected to various forms of treatments and therapy with the intent of rehabilitation (Kesey 5). Most forms of treatment depicted in Kesey’s novel, such as group therapy, are an accurate representation of what typical psychiatric patients may encounter while under care at a mental facility. Yet others, particularly electroshock therapy and lobotomies, were quite controversial at the time of the novel’s publication. Such treatments were questioned for their effectiveness at improving patients’ condition – and while these procedures were still occasionally performed at the time, they often did not benefit the treated individual.

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Introduction Prior to the mid-1960 virtually all mental health treatment was provided on an inpatient basis in hospitals and institutions. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 was established with its primary focus on deinstitutionalizing mentally ill patients, and shutting down asylums in favor of community mental health centers. It was a major policy shift in mental health treatment that allowed patients to go home and live independently while receiving treatment, (Pollack & Feldman, 2003). As a result of the Act, there was a shift of mentally ill persons in custodial care in state institutions to an increase of the mentally ill receiving prosecutions in criminal courts.

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Asylums weren’t always like the ones we imagine today, full of harm in and inhumane acts. However, with the increase of asylums in the 1900s, the average amount of patients house increased from 115 in 1806 to over 1000 in the 1900s. The optimism Once present among the people that those with mental abnormalities could be cured vanished, no longer did people believe in a cure for abnormal behavior. Instead of asylums aiming to rehabilitate, they became a place where the “crazy” or “insane” go to live out the rest of their lives

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In the book Girl, Interrupted, by Susanna Kaysen, one of the biggest focal points is mental illness. Mental illness can be tough to talk about, simply because the phrase “mental illness” encompasses such a wide range of conditions and conjures up images of deranged people, but it is very important, especially in this book. There is a certain stigma that people who are put into mental hospitals because they have medical problems or are insane and a possible danger to society. While this is sometimes true, it is far more common for patients to need help for a disorder, but just don’t know where to go or what to do, and can end up putting themselves or someone else in danger.

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Occupational Therapy began to emerge in the 1700s, during the “Age of Enlightment”. It was during this period that revolutionary ideas were evolving regarding the “infirmed” and mentally ill. At that time in history, the mentally ill were treated like prisoners; locked up and considered to be a danger to society. It wasn’t until two gentlemen; Phillipe Pinel and William Tuke started to challenge society’s belief about the mentally ill, that a new understanding, philosophy, and treatment would emerge. Phillipe Pinel began what was then called “Moral Treatment and Occupation”, as an approach to treating mental illness, in 1973.

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Mental health is a state of psychological well-being. According to World Health Organization (WHO) mental health includes "subjective well-being, perceived self-efficacy, autonomy, competence, intergenerational dependence, and self-actualization of one's intellectual and emotional potential, among others." (Organization, WHO 2001) However, cultural differences, race, ethnicity, personal background, subjective assessment, and socioeconomic status all affect how mental health is defined. This variation in definitions of mental health between different sects of our society further causes drift in methods of treatment, and may cause the burden of mental health to be greater on some cultures.

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John Goodman, in his article, “How Government Regulations Is Undermining Mental Health Care”, discusses how the business of medical care is twisted and how the government, in imposing regulations on mental health care, is creating a situation where the medical care providers lose interest in actually addressing the needs of the mentally ill. Goodman mentions a previous publishing of his which touches on the issue in medical care of how health plans are manufactured to draw in the healthy and turn away the ill; the ones who are actually suffering and actually need medical treatment. He provides statistics from medical journals that detail the twenty million Americans suffering with substance abuse and the forty two point five million adults living with a mental illness who are all not getting the proper care they require. Another point Goodman makes is that while treatment options are provided in brochures and such, many people seeking legitimate treatment will find that those options are inaccessible to them for a variety of reasons with the main source of those reasons being the government regulations placed on medical care. Government regulations on medicines and other medical care can be beneficial in some situations, but in others, it can prove disadvantageous to

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Stigmatization of mental illness existed well before psychiatry became a formal discipline, but was not formally labeled and defined as a societal problem until the publication of Goffman’s book (1963). Mental illnesses are among the most stigmatizing conditions, regardless of the specific psychiatric diagnosis. Unlike other illnesses, mental illness is still considered by some to be a sign of weakness, as well as a source of shame and disgrace. Many psychiatric patients are concerned about how people will view them if knowledge of their condition becomes public Mental health stigma can be divided into two distinct types: • social stigma is characterized by prejudicial attitudes and discriminating behavior directed towards individuals with mental health problems as a result of the psychiatric label they have been given and has those types stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination Stereotypes are based on knowledge available to members of a group and provide a way to categorize information about other groups in society Prejudiced persons agree with these negative stereotypes, and these attitudes lead to discrimination through negative behaviors toward mentally ill individuals those negative perceptions create fear of and social distance from mentally ill persons. • perceived stigma or

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