Week One Essay

Cheryl Tompkins Week One Essay There is two terms that come to mind before I start this essay and they are mental health and mental illness, mental health is the successful performance of mental function, resulting in productive activities, fulfilling relationships with other people, and the ability to adapt to change and to cope with adversity and this is from early childhood until late life. Mental illness is a term that refers collectively to all mental disorders. Mental disorders are health conditions that are characterized by alterations in thinking, mood, or behavior (or some combination) associated with distress and/or functioning. (www.surgeongeneral.gov/mentalhealth/summary.html) In American today I found during my research and skimming of our book for this course that there is a wide range of problems considered psychological disorders. Each of them is very different and very complex in its own rite. According to the surgeon general there are over 20 million Americans that suffer from some sort of mental disorder, such as depression, anxiety, OCD, and schizophrenia (www.surgeongeneral.gov/mentalhealth/summary.html). I believe most people in America today don’t realize how difficult these disorders are to live with. I also believe that there is not enough known about mental illness in America today. I believe that the public needs to be made aware of how serious these diseases really are. Each disease is different, with different causes, different symptoms, and different treatment that are needed, but in America there is this problem I believe with the mentally ill and it is they are lumped into a category as “crazy” and left to rot. Fewer and fewer of the mentally ill are getting the help they need, which I believe is the only solution for them at the point in which they are in the progress of their illness. There was a survey conducted a few years back that was conducted toward normal people that had no mental illnesses and is says that 43% of the people believed they the mental illness is brought on by the sufferer. Also 71% of those surveyed believed that mental illness is caused by emotional weakness and 65% believe that mental illness is caused by bad parenting (www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-numberscount-mental-disorders-in-america). No wonder why our America Health system is so screwed up and ignores mental illness. I feel they say it is a way for them to escape consequences to their actions. I believe we need to stop trying to place blame and work on getting more help for people who need it. Another problem within our health system in America is if there are budget cuts they seem to always cut out mental health first. For example during my research the state budget in Utah and California fall short, and they both said it means cuts for mental health services (www.prospect.org/csnc) I do understand being in the nursing field that it is hard to put together adequate treatment for those with a mental health problem because of every type of mental disorder out there, it is also a stigmatized illness that goes undiagnosed only to end up with the person unemployed, homeless, incarcerated or with a substance abuse problem. This article says Chicago is closing 4 mental health clinics, Tennessee is facing budget cuts

that will reduce funding and counseling for treatment of mental health patients, and Utah budget cut was 5.5 million in mental health services. This is where our America Health system stands. I think it is a joke. Mental disorders are common in the United States and increasing in numbers that is why there should not be any cuts but there should be some kind of growth in the mental health field. These people are like you and me they just need a little boost to get back on the right track or a big boost to help them function in today’s ever stress full economy and life. It is estimated that 26.2% of Americans ages 18 and older (about 1 in 4 adults) suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year. Many people suffer from a serious mental disorder and many suffer from more than one mental disorder at a given time. Nearly half (45%) of those with any mental disorders meet the criteria for 2 or more disorders, with severity strongly related to comorbiditys. The Golden Burden of Disease study commissioned by the World Health Organization and the World Bank showed 4 out of 10 leading causes of disability for persons ages 5 and older are mental disorders. Among developed nations, including the US, major depression is the leading cause of disability (www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/summary.html). More statistics show that approximately 20.9 million American adults, population 18and older have a mood disorder, major depression disorder affects 14.8 million American adults in a given year, bipolar affects approximately 5.7 million adults in the US ages 18 and older in a given year. In 2004, 32,439 people died of suicide in the US. More than 90 percent of people who kill themselves have a diagnosable mentaldisorder. The highest suicide rates in the US are found in white men over age 85. Schizophrenia affects 2.4 million American adults in a given year and Anxiety disorders affect approximately 40 million people in the US in a given year (www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/thenumbers-count-mental-disorders-in-america). If I had to prioritize which mental disorder I think is the most problematic to our society is Depression. I believe in every way that depression is a growing problem. Rates of depression have steadily climbed over the last 50 years and are significantly higher in those born after 1954 than those born before. In addition the average age of onset is steadily decreasing it is now mid 20’s where it once was mid 30’s (www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-numbers-count-mental-disorders-inamerica). And according to the surgeon general one in seven depressed people will commit an act of violence against themselves or others. My experience when I did my clinical rotation at Silver Hill Hospital for the nursing program here at Fairfield is that depression is very difficult to understand. I believe that depression symptoms that we see in a person can be scary to a person and very complex to us. Imagine what they feel like we only see the outside imagine what is on the inside. The reason why I believe that Depression is the most problematic is it is not diagnosed as much at the other mental disorders. I believe people just hope it will pass with time, I believe this is becausethey just don’t know enough about depression to go and get the help. Depression causes people to get divorced, lose their jobs, it makes them not be able to

go out in public. It is a very dark time for people. Most people who commit suicide were depressed. Earlier in this essay I wrote about the statistics and if you look back you will see that the rates in the US are higher for people with depression than any other mental illness. Like I said before 20.9 million American adults, population 18and older have a mood disorder, major depression disorder affects 14.8 million American adults in a given year, compared to Schizophrenia that affects 2.4 million American adults in a given year. I believe that communities need to get more involved with the treatment of these people. I bet we all know someone that is on the border of depression but we are afraid to say anything because we do not have the knowledge of what depression really is about. We need to educate the public to get rid of the stereotype and try to see what really happens in getting this person the help that he or she needs. We need to try to figure out what is really happening to this person. There are also good facilities out there with good caring people that want to help the mentally ill. But I do believe that there should be more resources and doctors that will ensure that the mentally ill have the places to go and the people to help them when they are in a crisis. In conclusion I believe the future of health care is in our own hands, and by looking to other countries and states, for examples, we can create a system in our own country that considers everyone who lives here. A system that doesn’t overlook those with treatable illnesses such as depression, but rather works on improving the health care problems that our country is facing today.