Mental illness affects people of diverse age ranges, genders, and ethnicities. How widespread is mental illness in America? Looking at the National institution mental health data chart females in comparison to men have a higher rate of mental illness. The highest age range where mental illness is most most prevalent is 17-25. According to NIMH “ 44.7 million adults aged 18 or older represents 18 percent of adults are affected by mental illness in the united states.” Recently, Americans have seen a increasement in gun violence like the parkland shooting. President trump tweeted “ the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed.” By looking at the recent shootings there has been increase discussion to improve mental health resources. After
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Show MoreIn the 1950’s, it was common so see people with frightened, uneasy, rejecting, and even arrogant attitudes towards people with mental illnesses. They considered those who were mentally ill as psychotic, violent and frightening. In the today, people are more accepting and understanding when it comes to mental illness, but some people are still ignorant with their responses, just like back then. In the 1950’s mental health treatment was typically provided in large state hospitals and other intuitions. Back then, topics like mental health were kept hush hush; people much rather putting those who were mentally in away in a state facility where someone else could monitor them. Today, people are more understanding.
Mental illness plagues one out of four American citizens. Mental illness varies greatly from person to person. The spectrum of mental illness includes many illnesses including, depression and anxiety as well as some more serious illnesses such as Down syndrome. All mental illness plays a role in how this person is going to function in society. These individuals have unique needs and individual strengths that need evaluated for proper care.
On December 14, 2012, a 20-year-old mentally ill young man named Adam Lanza walked into an elementary school in Connecticut and shot 20 children and six adults. This was the catalyst for a national debate surrounding the issues of mass shootings, media violence, and especially gun control. Under the direction of House leadership, the only psychologist in Congress began studying comprehensive reform of the United States mental healthcare system. One year later, Dr. Tim Murphy, Representative from Pennsylvania’s 18th District introduced H.R. 3717, The Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. The bill’s intent is to address the lack of treatment options at the local level, the absence of science in funding decisions, and to fundamentally restructure the governance of our national mental health treatment system. The following discussion describes the background of the bill and uses the special interest groups that have come out in support or opposition of the legislation to exemplify group theory.
In the 1950s mental illness wasn’t as big of a deal is it is now. There wasn’t as many treatment options or institutions with good conditions. Mental ill people had a hard time with discrimination to where they would be in poverty and/or homeless. Most people looked at them like they were freaks. They feared them, rejected them, and thought they were very violent and dangerous. That was only because they were different and people didn’t know how to react to something they didn’t understand. That’s understandable though, but it still doesn’t seem right to treat someone like that just because they have problems they can’t control and never wanted. Mental illnesses were treated, approached and look at differently in the 1950s than they are nowadays.
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.
Media Portrayal of Mental Illness in America The media in American society has a major influential impact on the minds and beliefs of millions of people. Whether through the news, television shows, or film, the media acts as a huge database for knowledge and instruction. It is both an auditory and visual database that can press images and ideas into people's minds. Even if the individual has no prior exposure or knowledge of something, the media can project into people's minds and leave a lasting impression.
have shown the firearm homicide and suicide rates in the US are several times higher than that of any other industrialized country” (Towers 2). The automatic reaction people have to mass shooting is talking about gun control and mental illness policies. Every time a mass shooting occurs both the people and the government go crazy trying to find a solution yet there is no solution. The United States needs to set up mental illness awareness programs to decrease the number of mass shootings.
The answer to the inquiry questions will be answered via extensive review and analysis of literature. It is hypothesized that looser gun laws will predict a higher rate of occurrence of public mass shootings involving adult males ages 18-35 with untreated mental illness. Meanwhile, the untreated mental illness of males ages 18-35 will predict a higher rate of public mass shootings compared to that of other adult males who are not afflicted with mental
Mental health illness affects 26.2 % of the United states adults ages 18 and up. That is 1 in 4 people as of 2004 ("The Number"). Mental health illness does affect over a quarter of the United states population to include me as one of the people who suffer from it. This has affected me and changed my life drastically. Aside from the difficulties of having a mental health illness is how people react to me once they find out. This is widely due to mass media creating a stigma for the mental health ill people that most of the general population tend to believe in the United states.
Out of that population, 6.9%, or 16 million had at least one major depressive episode in the last year. This high prevalence of mental health issues has led to around $193.2 billion in lost revenue per year for American’s alone. The National Alliance on Mental Health (2002) has also speculated that serious mental illness, such as major depressive disorder, have accrued approximately $106.8 billion in healthcare expenditures and federally paid disability
Mental illness is an increasing problem in America. Currently about 26.2% of Americans suffer from a mental disorder. A mental illness/disorder is a medical condition that disrupts a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, and ability to relate to others and daily functions. Mental illness can affect humans of any age, race, gender and socioeconomic status. However the care that is needed to effectively cure and help the people affected by the illness is not equal for everyone here in American, especially for African Americans.
Mental Health treatment disparities amongst under-class white and African American women. Mental health used to be a taboo topic to discuss in public, or even to the people closest to you. Now it is becoming more acceptable to talk about some aspects of the once controversial topic. Everywhere people look now they are being constantly reminded about how important mental health awareness is, whether it be a suicide prevention hotline posters, celebrities raising awareness on social media, or even in movies. Mental Health is an upcoming social topic that is rightfully becoming more socially acceptable to discuss rather than sweep it under the rug. It is very important that awareness is being practiced whether it be for more common illnesses like depression , or something more serious like schizophrenia it is important that people are educated about mental illnesses so they know how to cope with them, and treat them Although the solution sounds easy it isn't because not everyone has equal access to mental health treatment.There are invisible barriers in the way for some people when it comes to access to mental health treatment. Race and class are two variables that are huge
Research has done consisting 14 nations from 1997 to 2002 on articles on gun violence and serious mental illness. The articles consist of how people with a serious mental illness can be the cause of gun violence and it can change people's behavior and opinion on the situation. Many news channels during the Sandy Hook shooting, involved how the shooter had a mental illness, "even though this heightened public attention to the issue may raise public support for gun violence prevention policies, it may also exacerbate negative attitudes about persons with SMI" (McGinty, Emma E). In the news coverage, they are focusing on violent events caused by someone with a serious mental illness, and it causes people to think that anyone with a serious mental illness can threaten the safety for the world. There is no way for audiences to see someone with a mental illness as being a nonviolent person because only 16% of the articles in the study said that they person was not
Today’s headlines are often filled with the tragedy of a life or lives taken by gun violence. The American people have cried out to their leaders that enough is enough and something must be done to prevent such tragedies from continuing. The Governments solution is to call for health care reform pertaining to patients who suffer from mental health issues like schizophrenia or psychosis. However, the passing of HIPA has caused confusion among the states as well as the actual definition of mental health. Also many criminologists, psychologists, and forensic psychologists state that no psychologist or therapist can predict which patients will harm others and who will not. Instead of focusing on a path that will not help curb gun violence
The fact that almost 46% of Americans could be diagnosed with a mental disorder is just appalling. Although the number of mental disorders should have increased as the psychological field has grown to identify more diseases and the world is geared to be more strenuous on the mind than ever before, this drastic increase in mental disorders is just ridiculous. I have realized that with modern studies, a lot of Americans are considered unhealthy in all aspects (diet physical health, sun exposure, etc.). But to call almost half of Americans mentally ill is just wrong. The main cause of this improper labeling is that mental states that were previously considered Normal as well, as things that are medical in nature as a mental illness in the main cause of this.