Introduction Understanding mental illness in today’s society can be extremely difficult if an individual is unaware of the signs and symptoms. Some people do not seek to understand this population unless it benefits the individuals personally and/or professional. In order to help those and stop the stigma of mental illness, it will take the community to help create more resources and awareness. Investing time to receive awareness and training can help the mental health population as a whole. The stigma of mental health can be reduced tremendously if individual understood the population. Time and time again many people with a mental illness are not receiving service or seeking treatment due to lack of awareness. Understanding the mentally ill …show more content…
According to Atkins (2017), The Mental Health First Aid Act was given $15 million in grants to organizations for training emergency services personnel, teachers/school administrators, primary care professionals, students, and police officers in the program. The Mental Health First Aid program teaches all participants the five-step action plan to support someone with signs and symptoms of mental illness (Atkins, 2017). According to Jorm et al. five-steps include assessing for risk of suicide or harm to someone or self, listening with a nonjudgmental attitude, give reassurance and provide information, encourage the person to seek professional help and self-help to take care of …show more content…
The policy measures the effectiveness of the program by administering surveys to the respondents and interviewees’ reports to the policymaker. The National Council recommends the program following-up with the training program participants by asking how they used the Mental Health First Aid training and education in both professional and personal life. Many research tested the Mental Health First Aid program in a case study to measure the effectiveness of the program (Kitchener, Sawyer, Scales, & Cvetkovski, 2010; Hart, Mason, Kelly, Cvetkovski, & Jorm, 2016 ). One study showed educating teachers on the Mental Health First Aid course allowed the teachers to have a better knowledge about mental health and reduce the stigma (Kitchener et al.) Conducting a study with teens on mental health education showed effective results on how teens' mental health knowledge did improve at the end of the course (Hart et
[3, 4] However, regardless the availability and accessibility of resources, many students feel discouraged towards accessing these services due to fear of adverse consequences, which may eventually have a huge negative impact on their future. [1, 5] Aside from the issue of availability and accessibility of services, another challenge is the lack of community awareness that adds to the threat against the mental health status of many students. [6] To add to the concern, most of the states in USA have scored poorly in the mental health report i.e. out of all 51 states, a total of 45 states scored either a C, D or F, but none scored an A.
For a very long time, mental health was a disease people would not dare speak about. The stigma associated with mental health meant that it was viewed as a curse or simply poor upbringing. Crazy, right? (Pardon the pun). Although it’s not seen as a curse by us in this generation any more, many people with mental health issues still have to face ignorance, prejudice and discrimination from our society just because of their lack of understanding or reluctance to try and understand. Be that as it may, these attitudes directly impact upon how and if people choose to seek help, making the negative and ignorant opinions and attitudes of others potentially dangerous to many individuals and the people around them.
The stigma and negative associations that go with mental illness have been around as long as mental illness itself has been recognized. As society has advanced, little changes have been made to the deep-rooted ideas that go along with psychological disorders. It is clearly seen throughout history that people with mental illness are discriminated against, cast out of society, and deemed “damaged”. They are unable to escape the stigma that goes along with their illness, and are often left to defend themselves in a world that is not accepting of differences in people. Society needs to realize what it is doing, and how it is affecting these people who are affected with mental illness.
Mental illness is more common than one would like to believe. In reality, one in five Americans will suffer from a mental disorder in any given year. Though that ratio is about equivalent to more than fifty-four million people, mental illness still remains a shameful and stigmatized topic (National Institute of Mental Health, n.d.). The taboo of mental illness has an extensive and exhausting history, dating back to the beginning of American colonization. It has not been an easy road, to say the least.
Majority of individuals with severe mental health disorder are faced with double challenges. On one hand, they battle with the signs, symptoms, mark and defects associated with the disease. On the other hand, they are faced with stigma, stereotypes, discrimination and prejudice as a result of mental health misconception. Hence, individuals with mental health diseases are deprived quality life opportunities such as good job, stable income, and relationships (Corrigan et al, 2000). There are basically two types of stigma, namely; public and self-stigma. Public stigma as to do with how the general population responds to individuals with mental health illness. While self-stigma is the preconceived notion which mental health patients use against themselves (Corrigan et al, 2000). Evidence show that magnanimous percentage of United State citizens and several European countries all indulge in mental health stigmatization (Phelan et al, 2000; Madianos et 1987). Furthermore, Effective strategies to reduce public stigma are classified in three processes; protest, education and contact (Corrigan & Penn, 1999). Studies show that engaging in mental health education programs led to
Spencer, Susan. “Mental Health First Aid: A Concept Whose Time Has Come.” Worcester Telegram & Gazette [Massachusetts] 15 Jan. 2014: n. pag. NewsBank Special Reports. Web. 7 Apr. 2014.
In today’s society, the stigma around mental health has caused many people to fear seeking medical treatment for problems they are dealing with. With an abundance of hateful outlooks and stereotypical labels such as: crazy, psycho, and dangerous, it is clear that people with a mental illness have a genuine reason to avoid pursuing medical treatments. Along with mental health stigma, psychiatric facilities that patients with a mental health issue attend in order to receive treatment obtain an excessive amount of unfavorable stereotypes.
In today’s society there is a greater awareness of mental illnesses. With this greater awareness one might assume that there would be a substantial increase in government involvement or funding in the area of mental illness treatment. Unfortunately this isn’t the case in the U.S. today. There are hundreds of thousands of people with mental illness that go untreated. These potential patients go untreated for many reasons. These reasons are discussed in the Time article “Mental Health Reform: What Would it Really Take.
“Mental illness refers to a wide range of mental health conditions — disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior” (Mayo Clinic). Mental disorders can happen many times through one’s life, but mental illness is classified as an ongoing problem with the symptoms that can affect the ability to perform normal day to day tasks (Mayo Clinic). Many people look at those afflicted with mental disorders as being crazy or clinically insane, while the reality is a problem many people live with on a daily basis with help from medications, psychologist visits, family, friends, help groups, and many other support systems. The lack of support available to mentally ill patients, the more that will refuse treatment and refuse to find help for their disorders. Many people who were born with mental disorders grow up knowing they have a problem, but people who develop them later in age don’t understand how to cope with it.
Funding for mental health care comes from various sources. States typically derive the larger amount of their funds from Medicaid and state general funds that are administered by state mental health authorities. In 2007, 46% of funding was through Medicaid, and 40% of funding was through state general funds (Honberg et al. 2). Overall, states consistently assemble their budget from state general funds, federal Medicaid, federal block grants, and private grants (Honberg et al. 3).
The mental health stigma has become a prevalent issue in the world of medical care. It can prevent people from receiving proper medical care and the quality of care people may receive. Stigma is defined as members of groups who violate the norms established by the dominant or privileged group and, as such, are marked as deviant (Jr. and Kite). Stigma can also lead to discrimination. The way we can try and diminish the severity of the stigma is to create transparency and openness about mental illness. Seeing that people are not defined by their disorder and can be successful regardless of the diagnosis. That they are not defined by their diagnosis they just have and suffer with the disorder. Also promoting education about mental health issues can diminish the myths about these issues thus lessening the amount of stigma. I have seen instances on our own campus in which they could have promoted counseling and mental health among the student body. I think the staff body could have took a more proactive approach to mental health. Instead of waiting until after students committed suicide and trying to fix the problem they could actively be promoting it regardless of the instances on the university campus. There are two different types of stigma; public and self-stigma. These stigmas can have different effects on the individual. Everyone has mental health and raising awareness about it and eliminating the stigma can help the world learn how to discuss and change this problem.
Why is there a cloud of judgment and misunderstanding still surrounding the subject? People with a mental disorder or with a history of mental health issues are continually ostracized by society. This results in it being more difficult than it already is for the mentally ill to admit their symptoms to others and to seek treatment. To towards understanding mental illness is to finally lift the stigma, and to finally let sufferers feel safe and accepted within today’s society. There are many ways in which the mentally ill are degraded and shamed.
In conclusion, stigma still effects millions of individuals dealing with mental illness, and taking away opportunities for a better life. However, no direct answers have been made on how to diminish mental health stigma. Protest, education, and contact have been research time and again. The research shows that more research is needed in order to change beliefs of the general public and employees. One author suggested that anxiety and stress in working environment is related to the social stigma of mental illness and to change the stigma or perception contact with individuals is needed (Jorm et al. 2009, p. 184).
If there are 40 students in the classroom, at least two of them could be living with serious mental illness. Although mental illness is something that is familiar to us, there is still misunderstood and stigma towards mental illness. Then why do many people still have wrong knowledge and attitude toward mental illness? There are many sources of the stigma, but one of the main sources is people’s ignorance toward mental illness.
Mass media “references to people with mental health problems found more than four in ten articles in the press used derogatory terms about mental health and nearly half of press coverage related mental illness to violence and crime” (Esseler, 244). This is causing for people to look down upon the mention of mental illnesses and many times ignore the importance of confronting this issue. Therefore the importance of removing this stigmatization is crucial. Education allows to make more informed decisions and then changing the perception of mental illness can lead towards policy changes toward the improvement of mental health (Sakellari,