...Mental Illness on the rise in America How can we address that Mental illness is a growing problem for the United States? A mental illness is a condition that impacts a person’s thinking, feeling or mood that may affect his or her ability to relate to others and functions on a daily basis. Each person will have different experiences even people with the same diagnosis. Mental Illness is a growing problem in the US. Some people believe that mental illnesses isn’t a growing problem for the United States. This is something that has been happening for the longest, citizens are just noticing how many people actually have a mental illness today than before. For example, A psychiatrist diagnosed Connor with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, and...
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...“Mental illness refers to a wide range of mental health conditions- disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior”, (Mayoclinic). People diagnosed with mental disorders reflect on their past to institute the reason being in the condition they are faced with firsthand. A diagnosis of a mental health condition is not only a fraction of the behavioral effect of the average human being’s behavior, but a dosage of daily struggles one will experience firsthand. Mental illness is a controversial issue, however society needs to understand that mental illness is not something you are born with, but solely a condition that affects the path you take, because of life events and traumatic experiences, not genetic inheritance (The Telegraph). To begin with, mental disorders are nothing to be ashamed of, these conditions associated with changes in thinking, behavior, and functional abilities, however mental illness has become a large factor in contributing to American society. In other words, being diagnosed with a mental disorder impacts the American society in various ways, such as the troubles in daily functioning, distress, and traumatic involuntary memory. In fact, organizations such as the World Health Organization issued a report that 25 percent of the American population is affected by a mental or behavioral disorder during their life (Schmidt). For example, society and individuals romanticize mental illness far too often, social media plays a large role because people aspire...
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...FAMILY PAMPHLET TO MINIMIZE STIGMA FOR PERSONS LIVING WITH A SEVERE MENTAL ILLNESS A project presented to The Faculty and Staff of Saybrook University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (M.A.) in Psychology by R. Paul Johnson San Francisco, CA December 2013 Approval of the Project FAMILY PAMHLET TO MINIMIZ STIGMA FOR PERSONS LIVING WITH A SEVERE MENTAL ILLNESS This project by R. Paul Johnson has been approved by the committee member below, who recommended it be accepted by the faculty of Saybrook University in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Psychology Project Committee: Theopia Jackson, Ph.D. Date Abstract FAMILY PAMPHLET TO MINIMZE STIGMA FOR PERSONS LIVING WITH A SEVERE MENTAL ILLNESS R. Paul Johnson Saybrook University Individuals with mental illness have long experienced societal prejudice and discrimination, including among healthcare professionals. However, the stigma that comes from family and friends may have greater adverse impact. This project-reviewed literature on the stigmas associated with a diagnosis of a serious mental illness (SMI), as experienced by the person and family, as factors that may contribute to family/friends inadvertently perpetuating stigmas. Therefore this project integrates literature review findings and the author’s personal/professional experiences in the design of a pamphlet intended to be utilized by...
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...Cuckoo's Nest as a Tool for Awareness and Education As violence and diseases such as mental illness detrimentally affect individuals across the world, topics like these that occur in literature are censored, and children are shielded from these "harsh," yet unavoidable, realities. Both violence and mental health are reoccurring themes throughout the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kessey, which is why is it often challenged by parents of high school students. Although some concerned parents believe that the violent treatments within One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest are too disturbing and gruesome for adolescents, the book should be included in high school curriculums because it provides education and awareness...
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...be impacted by social media. This claim is true because teenagers are influenced by behavior around them. For example, teenagers who see pictures of people under the influence of drugs tend to seek and experiment with drugs themselves. Teens tend to feel that if others their age do something, then they should do that too. Because teens on social media are more exposed to what others are doing, social media can become addictive to adolescents and can cause depression and mental issues. As the millennial generation is growing, multiple teenagers and young adolescents...
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...leisure time of children. As the children have spent too much time on watching television, they will spent less time on exploring, playing and interacting with parents, friends and others. At age of children, time should be filled with activities that are beneficial for them such as reading books, interact with friends and family have been replace with spent watching television. Secondly, the television also will effect on the taste of the children. Means that, the children who often spent time on watching television will prefer more on adult programme. The negative consequences are they prefer the more violent type of adult programme, including the western, the adventure programme, and crime drama. Other than that, television also has its maximum psychological effect on children. A child with high violent behavior will probably make special use of the aggressive material he finds in a television programme. Many children tend to learn commit a crime by watching television. 1. LEARNING FROM TELEVISION- a good teacher can teach effectively by television. useful activities of education can be carried on by television.On the other hand, to the extent that teaching goes on by means of lecture and demonstration, then television has an unequalled ability to share the best teaching and the best demonstrations. It was found in Canada that children in a television town came -to the first grade of school with vocabularies about a year more advanced than children in a town without...
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...the Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), from public concept, popular media, and personal stories, in order to understand how the disorder is perceived within American culture. The discussion approaches public misgivings and beliefs about ADHD, metaphors surrounding the disorder, and narratives from patients themselves. These topics will assist to analyze the implications of messages surrounding ADHD. Introduction Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common childhood disorders, present in 6% to 9% of all children (Cassels, 2013). For several decades, ADHD was mostly considered a childhood disorder. Symptoms of ADHD in children, however, continue into adulthood in approximately half of all cases, and current estimates of adults with ADHD indicate an incidence rate of 4% to 5% among adults (Kessler et al., 2006). Studies show that the number of children being diagnosed with ADHD is increasing, but it is unclear why. Inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity are the key behaviors of ADHD. It is normal for all children to be inattentive, hyperactive, or impulsive sometimes, but for children with ADHD, these behaviors are more severe and occur more often. To be diagnosed with the disorder, a child must have symptoms for 6 or more months and to a degree that is greater than other children of the same age (Park, 2013). Scientists are not sure what causes ADHD, although many studies suggest that genes play a large role. Like many other illnesses...
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...When children have access to technology and to communicate to anyone, a whole new form of bullying takes place: cyberbullying. Cyberbullying can make a child feel so frightened and unsafe that they feel as though this world has gained a brand new level of danger. A child could feel so helpless that they could take their own life. A man named John Halligan informs an article about his son named Ryan Patrick who killed himself in 2003 after being threatened and bullied by his classmates online for months (“Prosecuting Cyberbullies”). This type of bullying that technology has created makes bullying a child easier because the bullies do not have to see the victim face to face. That gave the bullies more power and led Ryan Patrick to take his own...
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...Though it is very apparent how social media has provided a big impact in ways that benefits the people by means of networking , the more darker and cynical side to which social media brings still widely remains hidden under the cover for many people to see. Mental illnesses are one of the more closely related issues that arise among social media users that cause serious and to some cases even life-threatening problems. Moreover, with the age of technology reaching its prime allowing just about anybody with a gadget as small as a mobile smartphone with the capability of going online, the access to social media cannot as easily be prevented as one would think. With all of us being the human beings we are, influence is a weakness we all have...
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...interests but they differ in their approaches. The primary focus of medicine is the diagnosis, treatment and cure of illness. The focus of health psychology goes beyond that of medicine to stress the prevention and enhancement of health. It expands the biological framework of medicine to also include psychological and social factors. The scope of health psychology is very broad because many theories and methods of psychology can be applied to health-related issues. Maes & van Elderen (1998) (cited in Gross, 2009) defines health psychology as “…a sub-discipline of psychology which addresses the relationship between psychological processes and behaviour on the one hand and health and illness on the other...”. Health psychology aims to understand, explain, develop and test theories by evaluating the role of psychology and its perspectives as factors affecting illness, predicting unhealthy behaviours and understanding and evaluating the role of psychology in the experience and treatment of illness. It also aims to put theory into practice by promoting healthy behaviour, preventing illness and thereby improving the health care system and health policy. For example, from programmes developed to help people reduce risk factors to their health, such as obesity and smoking, to understanding how people respond to the onset of illness, how they deal with their illness, how they cope with pain and how they respond to treatments. Therefore, health psychology is an important discipline...
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...That however was not the case for 79 young adolescents who were sentenced to die in prison. Gail Garinger states in the article “ Juveniles Don’t Deserve Life sentences” that “ These children were told that they could never change and that no one cared what became of them. They were denied access to education and rehabilitation programs and left without help or hope”. Denying access to juveniles who most likely want to recuperate, the Juvenile system endorses that no one deserves a second chance. The fact that there are adults out there who only received minimal sentences is unfair to those juveniles who being trialed as adults because they aren’t being given the same opportunity in life as supposed to Adults. Rehabilitation centers are existent for a purpose. To provide a second chance for those who commit mistakes. If Juveniles aren’t being provided these types of services, then why are they existent? Why create a depiction...
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...and the approaches of sociology in the health and social sector. I will also include the concepts of sociology within health and social care while exploring the elements of health and illness. Sociology is the study of how society is organised and how people experience life, it is based on global issues that can affect the living beings. Sociology helps us to understand the structure and the dynamics of society and the connections between how people behave and individual life changes. It helps examine ways in which the forms of social structure, groups, communities, organisations and other social interactions with how they affect attitude, opportunities and actions. In sociology there are six principal perspectives they are Functionalism, Marxism, Feminism, Interactionism, Postmodernism, Collectivism and New Right. Functionalism In 1951, Talcott Parsons introduced the Functionalist view which studies the social structure fully of how it functions and how each social structure is crucial in the interests of society. Functionalism believes that humans and society have basic needs, institutions. Governments may be responsible to meet the required needs also Functionalist may consider that the different kinds of sources may limit the individual’s behaviour within the chosen society, which may mean that society will behave appropriately based on their behaviour while having the same values. However the Functionalists view does recognise that there may be errors or inequalities...
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...However, when everyday life events cause a person to become increasingly anxious or have panic attacks, which interfere with daily living, a person may have an anxiety disorder (Active Minds, 2015). Anxiety disorders are the most common of all mental illnesses and affect 25 percent of all teens and 30 percent of all teen girls (Elements Behavioral Health). Research indicates that over the last 50-70 years the rates of anxiety among teenagers and young adults in America have been steadily increasing (Bass, 2015). This article has information on the rise in teen anxiety, statistics, and the possible causes for the rise in anxiety. Teens Now and Then It appears in nearly every research article read that teens today are experiencing greater anxiety than the teens of 20, 30, 40 years ago. In fact, rates of anxiety and depression among young adults were far lower even during the Great Depression, during WWII, the Cold War, and the 60’s and 70’s than they are for teens today (Bass, 2015). The results are almost startling and alarming. Some statistics find that five to eight times as many high school and college students meet the criteria for anxiety disorders today, than the students of 50 years ago (Bass, 2015). When testing college students today eighty five percent of them fell above the mental illness score than the students of the 1930’s and 1940’s (Bass, 2015). “Many of us are worried that the number of young people today experiencing mental health problems is on the increase...
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...Media, Medicine and American Expectations What constitutes the media? Changed over time? What constitutes medicine? Health or health culture as alternate name to describe what course encompasses? Bert Hanson – medical breakthrough = social phenomenon * How has promise of medical breakthroughs influenced: media culture and patients expectations relationship between medicine and media place of medicine in American political culture How and why does the medical community use media to communicate with public? Increasingly interdependent spheres w/ differing perspectives on vision of media’s role is in “media-ted” world What makes health “news”? Producing Medical Heroes How and why has American society selected its medical heroes? How has this changed over time? What functions do depictions of heroic doctors (Walter Reed, and House, M.D.) and patients serve? How have fictional medical characters – in novels, Hollywood films, on TV – shaped expectations of medical culture? VD, HIV, and the Media How did the media contribute to the publics perception of venereal diseases and HIV? What images (both visual, and stories told to make a point) came most powerfully to cultural prominence? What were the aims of medical and public health authorities, the state, and media professionals in working to make those images publically visible? What role did the media play in changing public’s image of HIV? Stigmatization, Destigmatization, and Medical...
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...concepts of health and illness This is an explanation of the principal sociological perspectives, which briefly explain the key ideas of each perspective using relevant theorists such as Talcott Parsons as examples. Functionalist is the approach to sociology and is best understood using biological anatomy. Functionalism can be traced back to August Comte (1798-1857). An Individual is born into society and will become the character of all the social influences such as the family, education, media and religion. The body is a complex mechanism and is understood by being studied. The body is studied by considering the basic parts for example the liver, kidneys, heart and lungs; society is just like the body as a society can be studied in positions of the societies. The body functions through the connection of the major organs, there are many devices to deal with diseases and illnesses; this is linked to different institutions in society as society have contributions to make to one another, they work together and have distinctive approach to deal with irregular behaviour from members. Talcott Parsons (1902-1979) saw society as a scheme made up of connected bodies. These connected bodies contribute to a steadiness in society. Parsons believed that the chief role of a society was to socialise individuals and to ensure that they understand the values of society and that they understood the correct way to behave in the society. Parsons argued that the social system had four basic...
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