The documentary, Shadow Voices: Finding hope in Mental Illness, was a great introduction to some of the stigmas and issues that patients with a mental illness and their families face. What impacted me the most was learning about the financial burden that mental illness places on families as well as the unfair judgement from the community that their family faces. The documentary addressed the financial burden that patients with mental illness incur as a result of health insurance companies lack of recognizing mental illness as true disease. Prior to watching the documentary I was unaware of the unending cycle that patients may fall into. During the film, an individual with a mental illness, said she was forced to quit her job so that she could receive adequate insurance coverage to cover her medical bills, but because of her unemployment she wasn’t able to cover her other living expenses. …show more content…
I am happy to see that my other classmates have been so open and trusting to share their personal experiences with mental illness. Specifically one of my classmates shared that her brother is bipolar. The more people who share and express their personal beliefs, the higher the likelihood that mental illness will be recognized as an actual disease rather than a condition that the community attempts to reject or turn a blind eye to. As more share their stories and debunk the myths of mental illness, then community members will place less shame on their family members and have more knowledge about mental illness. The more knowledgeable we are about mental illness and where it stems, will result in less biases and
In Shadow House:The Gathering, by Dan Poblocki, he writes this book in 3rd person omniscient. He includes horrific pictures and events that happen in the book, so this book’s genre is horror and mystery. He makes the book nerve racking, engaging, and a terrifying adventure. This book includes 215 pages of non-stop thrills.
Through Deaf Eyes is a documentary conveying various aspects of Deaf life, such as school, culture, and deaf history. It was filled with information and provides a great overview. Although my reactions varied throughout the movie, I really enjoyed it. The parts about how segregation impacted the black and white deaf communities interested me; I hadn’t considered how that would affect deaf culture.
I will cite examples of how intercultural imperatives relate to the 1995 American short documentary film, “The Shadow of Hate”, directed by Charles Guggenheim. I will define and describe two imperatives demographic and ethical imperatives.
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 healthcare has a long and murky past in the United States. In the early 1900s, patients could live in institutions for many years. The treatments and conditions were, at times, inhumane. Legislation in the 1980s and 1990s created programs to protect this vulnerable population from abuse and discrimination. In the last 20 years, mental health advocacy groups and legislators have made gains in bringing attention to the disparity between physical and mental health programs. However, diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses continues to be less than optimal. Mental health disparities continue to exist in all areas of the world.
Most importantly, collecting testimonies from people who are dealing with a mental health disorder.I find this to be extremely important because we become aware that isolation, forced medication/over use of medication, use of leather strap downs, do not work. As the result of being uninformed “people with mental illness are robbed of the opportunities that define a quality life: good jobs, safe housing, satisfactory health care, and affiliation with a diverse group of people.”(Corrigan and Watson. 2002). As we are begin to understand the good and bad about the diagnosis we also see systemically what is not working for mental health community.
If the United States had unlimited funds, the appropriate response to such a high number of mentally ill Americans should naturally be to provide universal coverage that doesn’t discriminate between healthcare and mental healthcare. The United States doesn’t have unlimited funds to provide universal healthcare at this point, but the country does have the ability to stop coverage discrimination. A quarter of the 15.7 million Americans who received mental health care listed themselves as the main payer for the services, according to one survey that looked at those services from 2005 to 2009. 3 Separate research from the same agency found 45 percent of those not receiving mental health care listing cost as a barrier.3 President Obama and the advisors who helped construct The Affordable Care Act recognized the problem that confronts the mentally ill. Mental healthcare had to be more affordable and different measures had to be taken to help patients recover. Although The Affordable Care Act doesn’t provide mentally ill patients will universal coverage, the act has made substantial changes to the options available to them.
“Insurance companies often cover mental illness in a more limited fashion than physical illness” (Christensen). The lack of mental health care provided for the mentally ill has been a growing issue in the US during the previous years, and there has been some progress. For example, there has been the Mental Health Care and Parity Law of 2008 that was enacted so that the insurers would cover mental illness just as they would cover other illnesses. In addition, the Affordable Care Act was enacted to enforce that the insurers abide by the rules. Unfortunately, that hasn’t helped much, hence: the sneaky behavior of insurance companies. This sneaky behavior seems to be unnoticed by the government the majority of the time unless the patient or his family decides to file a lawsuit. Until then, insurance companies have been constantly bending rules and finding loopholes to not pay insurance for mental illness.
I have really enjoyed doing the research for this project. Mental illnesses are something that I have been really fascinated in, and by writing about several of these illnesses I have learned quite a bit. I never realized that some of these mental illnesses could be so similar yet affect their lives so differently. Many people could not live a happy life if it was not for the help of their loved ones, and the doctors that make their treatments available.
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.
Many people diagnosed with a mental illness are living in low-income areas and may not have insurance. Health insurance is expensive and many people with a mental illness can not afford it and not be treated. Laws have been passed on both the federal and state levels requiring insurance companies to cover more mental health costs in their plans. Many people will try and apply for Medicare; the federal government assisted health
There are many ways in which the mentally ill are degraded and shamed. Most commonly, people are stated to be “depressed” rather than someone who “has depression”. It is a common perception that mental illnesses are not a priority when it comes to Government spending just as it is forgotten that most mental health disorders can be treated and lead a normal life if treatment is successful. The effect of this makes a sufferer feels embarrassed and feel dehumanized. A common perception is that they should be feared or looked down upon for something they have not caused. People experience stigma as a barrier that can affect nearly every aspect of life—limiting opportunities for employment, housing and education, causing the loss of family ...
The purpose of this would be to help raise awareness for mental health, education on how to deal with mental illnesses both interpersonally and intrapersonally, and to remove the stigmatization around mental illnesses. Throughout history mental illnesses has received a negative connotation closely tied to violence and currently this stigma is still relevant.
This is a critique of" Roger And Me", a documentary by Michael Moore. This is a film about a city that at one time had a great economy. The working class people lived the American dream. The majority of people in this town worked at the large GM factory. The factory is what gave these people security in their middle working class home life. Life in the city of Flint was good until Roger Smith the CEO of GM decided to close the factory. This destroyed the city. Violent crime became the highest in the nation, businesses went bankrupt, people were evicted from their rented homes. There were no jobs and no opportunity. Life was so bad that Money magazine named Flint the worst place to live in the entire nation. When news of the factory closing first broke, Michael Moore a native of flint decided to search for Roger Smith and bring him to Flint.