Mental Illness
Intellectually upright human beings are able to think rationally and seek solutions to their life problems; however there are times that people suffer from incapability from making sound and rational decisions because of their state of mind. Mental illness or mental disorder is a combination of behavioral, affective, cognitive and perceptual components that hinder an individual from making sound decision.
According to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), there are approximately 400 mental disorders in the world; however there have been disagreements among mental health care workers /professional on the line between mental illness and neurological disorders.
According to human rights and fundamental freedom chapter of the United States, people suffering from mental illness or disorder are considered not competent to make valid contracts.
In some instances, the people cannot be held accountable of their criminal and civil misconducts; the challenge facing the criminal justice administration is to determine which conditions should be held accountable of criminal and civil misconducts and what extent (Macks & Reeve, 2007). This paper discusses effective methods of mental health administration in the United States.
Mental health administration
The United States had been suffering from an increasing number of mental illnesses; the conditions were medical and some had resulted from some “social activities” like substance abuse. With the increased number of cases, the government opted to have a policy that would see the proper administration of the condition; this lead to the formation of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in 1992.
SAMHSA was established with the aim of looking for ways, using already concluded research on the topic, to improve the Americans mental health as a matter of clinical concerns and criminal justice systems. With the organisation, the government seeks to address issues and factors that results to mental health challenges from medical and drug and substance angle.
The mission of the organisation is to reduce the impact, and the spread of mental health illness among the Americans. When addressing the issue of mental health, it is crucial to understand that the condition may result as a medical issue and in some instances as social factor and in some instances drug abuse.
To reduce the spread, the most important element is to address the issues from their root causes and not address the symptoms without looking into the underlying parameters.
Despite the spread of mental illness in the American economy, hope is that prevention is possible (prevention works), effective treatment on those conditions that can be rectified exists and people can fully recover from the illness and live normal life.
The approach undertaken by the mental illness campaigners aims at looking at the matter from psychological and mental angle; the psychological angle handles matters of social standing while medical angle is concerned with the medical part of the deal. From a medical angle mental health is seen as a disease like any other that can be cured using appropriate medication and therapy.
The angle of mental health in medical terms sees mental ill people have their mind status not stable; they act in a strange way and have strange thoughts. From a social and behavioural angle, people with the conditions are not sick but have conditions that hamper normal operation of the mind thus they act in a strange manner.
According to this point of view, mental illness may result right from the birth and include some psychological development disorders that make people have difficulty in dealing with other people or living a normal life.
The definition of mental health from behavioural point of view includes those conditions that might have resulted from drug and substance abuse.
According to National Alliance for the mentally Ill (NAMI), atlatl 23% of American suffer from mental illness in any given year; the report coincides with the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health remarks of the most common medical conditions in the United States which are depression, body dimorphic disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Cause of mental illness
the cause of mental illness is complex and cannot be fully be attributed to the same factors; this is so for the fact that the illness varies among people; despite the challenge of defining the real cause, the causes can be attributed to either biological, psychological, and environmental factors.
Biological factors
from a biological point of view, mental illness is caused by some abnormal balance of special chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters; normal human being have a balance that controls their thinking and makes life worth living. According to medical practitioners neurotransmitters are the organs that assist brain nerve cells to communicate effectively and come up with the right decision.
In the event that the nerve cells are not communicating effectively, the result will be chemical imbalance in the brains resulting to an abnormal behaviour; these are some of the early symptoms of mental illness. In unfortunate cases, when an individual head or brain is injured, it can lead to the imbalance of the brain nerves resulting to mental illness.
Mental illness is one condition that has been known to be hereditably; this means that in some families the condition runs in their genetics. The genetic mental health condition is challenging to manage as it may mean that those people who come from families with a history of mental health have higher chance of developing the condition.
Susceptibility is passed on in families through genes thus those people who are born in a family with such genes are likely to have the genes in them but can be triggered by stress, drug abuse or traumatic event happening.
Certain infections can result to mental illness; they may result to the actual occurrence of the condition or can worsen the situation or symptoms. One of the most talked condition that result to the mental challenge is paediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder (PANDA) (a condition caused by Streptococcus bacteria) which results to numerous mental disorders among children.
There are some physical brain defects or injury that can result to mental illness; the situation happens when an individual suffers a damage that will affect the operations of brain nerves that their communication is hampered. Accidents are the main causes of such physical damages.
There is evidence that some prenatal damages can result to mental illness in a human life; some of the in eventualities that emerge include loss of oxygen in the brain at birth or mishandling of an infant.
Drugs and substance abuse is another factor that leads to mental illness, when someone has taken drugs, they affect the operations of the brains. Drugs hamper the right thinking of an individual creating some symptoms of mental illness. When someone has taken drugs they can hardly think upright, their thoughts and the way they take issues is affected by the drugs they have taken.
Long-term substance abuse, of substance like bang, cigarettes, alcohol, is associated to anxiety, depression, and paranoia; such conditions hampers the operations of the brain and hampers the brain nerves operations.
On the extreme there are other factors that can result to mental illness; they include poor nutrition, exposure to toxics such as lead or mercury, Adrenal Gland Fatigue, Inflammation in the Body, Hyperventilation, and Gut Brain Connection.
Psychological factors
There are a number of psychological factors that results to mental illness; the conditions may happen at early ages in one’s life or may result at old age. Mental capacity is developed from biological and social factors; in the event that a child underwent severe psychological trauma like emotional mishandling, physical mishandling, or sexual abuse; then the development of the child’s brain is likely to be hampered.
When a child has undergone the above development challenges, they are not able to make sound decision on their own and have the believe that life is unfair, such believes results to imbalances of the operations of brains nerve system resulting to them making some decisions that are weird.
During early life ages, if a child undergoes through a traumatic event for example the loss of a parent, brother, sister, or a friend that he or she highly regarded and valued, the child is more likely to be challenged in the future. the facts of the case results from having children who feel not worth the kind of life they are living and the misfortune is the challenged brain nerve operations.
In the event that a child suffers neglect and has poor socialization with others, the child is likely to have challenges of brain development.
Environmental factors
The environment that someone lives in has an effect on their mental development; there are certain sensors that can trigger an illness in a person resulting to their brain failing to operate maximally.
When such sensors occur, such a person has the challenge of making sound and upright decisions. some of the factors that act as sensors include death or divorce, living in extreme poverty, changing of lifestyles (this happens more when someone moves from a high living standard to low standard), some stereotypes and social cultural expectations (this happens mostly with women when the society holds some expectations that they cannot reach for example being slim associated with beauty).
In the event that someone has Substance abuse by the person or the person’s parents which might have an effect on brain development and the way they perceive issues.
Brain nerves are sensitive and need to be managed effectively to have stable and well thinking mind; in the event there is a misfortune or an occurrence that have resulted to hampered brain development, then the end result is a person who cannot think right and straight.
Other factors that can result to mental illness include excessive stress response and poor interaction of a person with others.
Prevention of mental illness
Mental illness can cut across age, gender, race, or income, it is thus of importance for medical practitioners and other social workers to devise mechanisms that facilitates prevention of mental illness.
Depending with the cause of the mental illness so does the method of prevention; in the case of medical mental illness, the patients and the medical practitioners have the role of coming up with the best medication that can address a particular patients condition.
To protect the spread among children, parents should be handled and issues around giving birth looked upon; prenatal and infancy home visits or support groups are of importance, there should be enough support from the medical practitioners. Parents should be trained on how to handle their children to prevent any in eventuality that might result to poor brain development.
In post natal and pre-natal clinics, parents should be taught on how to handle their children and protect their brains from external damage. When such measures have been implemented, mental complications resulting from mishandling of children will greatly be reduced.
drug and substance abuse is another area that governments, nongovernmental, and civil societies should address; drugs and substance abuse have an effect on the development of the brain thus when prevented, they will lead to reduced mental illness cases. To reduce drug abuse, the focus will be on cessation education and counselling for drug and substance users including those people who smoke especially when pregnant.
In modern medical environments, there have been fewer advocacies on the need to periodically test for mental fitness; medical practitioners should have targeted short-term mental health therapy that will assist people know their mental status and in the event that some immediate medication or therapy can be done, it is dome with immediate effect.
In contemporary lifestyles, there is need for change in how people live and the kind of lifestyle they adopt; with this notion, governments should enact self-care education for adults; such programs should advocate for exercise, proper nutrition, stress management, relationships and finances management in the society.
Such factors address the social standing of an individual in the wave to manage their social environments. It has been noted that stress and depression is one of the major cause of mental illness among adults; with the revelation, government and should join efforts with individuals to have programs of stress and depression management.
Mentoring and coaching programs for young children is another form that has emerged in recent times; with the style as a child develops, they are allowed to have someone whom they can share the issues facing them. With such a society there will be no accumulation of matters that can hamper the development of the brain or one that can result to poor decision making among children.
When early mental illnesses causes have been addressed by the coaches and mentors, the net effect is a society that has no stressed up people. Still among children, there should be a variety of adult-supervised after-school and weekend activities; with the supervision, parents will be able to learn of issues likely to affect an individual and put such measures that can prevent mental illness (Matson, Wilkins & Fodstad, 2010).
Human rights of people with mental disorders
Mentally challenged people face a number of discrimination; there are times that they find their rights and fundamental freedoms being ignored. They are often ostracized from society and fail to receive the care they require; in some nations or towns they are left to suffer even lack of basic human wants like food and shelter.
according to fundamental human rights and freedom, mental illness save to violent medical case are human conditions which need the society to intervene and show these people love, respect them and guide their ways. With such interventions, the people are likely to become better and improve their decision making.
When symptoms likely to suggest that someone is suffering mentally have been spotted, it should be the role of the government to come up with measures that can assist in establishing and curing the person.
In some states, people with mental illness are discriminated from education, employment and housing, voting, marrying or having children; such moves are discriminatory and needs to be addressed effectively.
To respect mentally handicapped people life, it is important to change people’s attitudes and raise their awareness on the need to respect their rights. It is the role of government’s ministries, family groups and health professionals to address the matter with the urgency it deceives.
Human rights charter to some extent seems to ignore the obvious difference that prevails among intellectually upright people and those who are mentally ill. The charter needs to be reviewed to include such clauses that directly affect the life of mentally ill people.
In some events, it would be important to empower mental health service providers to offer services without fear or favor. policies that can lead to such moves include allocating those enough funds to handle the increasing cases (Steadman Barbera & Dennis, 1994).
Mental illness and criminal justice
one of the main challenge facing the criminal justice system administration is to determine at what extent should mentally challenged people be held accountable for their did. the challenge is even higher because some conditions should be treated the same way as normal case while others have no criminal liability whosoever.
Another challenge some with the event that someone develops the mental illness when already in custody; to address matters of criminal justice and mental illness, SAMHSA Center for Mental Health Services recommends of different measures to ensure that justice prevails and fundamental human rights and freedoms of mentally ill are respected.
Jail diversion is the most common method used by criminal justice administrators assisted by medical practitioners to determine the state on a detainee. the report from the medical department is used to when determining the case; the challenge comes with the timeliness of the action and the fact that the test will take effect after the occurrence of a crime.
There have been moves in the United States to develop community-based mental health dispositions for mentally ill detainees; however the success of the proposal is raging because of technical issues (Crozier & Tincani, 2007).
Conclusion
Mental illness refers to subjective distress in the level of cognitive or emotional well-being of an individual; the condition results from a complex of factors among them biological, psychological, and environmental.
Mentally ill people have been ostracized from many societies worsening their condition; in the United States, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is mandated with the role of researching the best ways to prevent the spread of the condition.
It works alongside non-governmental organizations and civil movements to seek remedy to the challenging issue of integrating mentally ill people in to the society.
References
Crozier, S., & Tincani, M. (2007). Effects of social stories on prosocial behavior of preschool children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders, 37(9), 1803-1814.
Macks, R. J., & Reeve, R. E. (2007). The Adjustment of Non-Disabled Siblings of Children with Autism. Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders, 37(6), 1060-1067.
Matson, J., Wilkins, J., & Fodstad, J. (2010). Children with autism spectrum disorders: a comparison of those who regress vs. those who do not. Developmental Neurorehabilitation, 13(1), 37-45.
Steadman, H., Barbera, S, & Dennis, D. (1994). A national survey of jail diversion programs for mentally ill detainees. Hospital and Community Psychiatry, 45(1), 1109-1113.