“It is estimated that 1 in 4
Americans experiences a diagnosable mental health problem, while 1 in 17 lives
with a serious illness such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder”(Nealon-Woods). I am that 1
in 4. Mental health is a major issue in the United States, but it is often
overlooked and underrepresented leaving those suffering in more chaos than
their disorders already give them. The inequalities surrounding mental health
were highlighted in our class reading, Global Health Watch 3. Globally over a billion people are dealing
with mental disorders, but the governments are not stepping up to solve the
issue. Global Health Watch 3 says, “Mental health is not just the absence of
mental disorder. It is defined as a state of well-being in which every
individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses
of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution
to her or his community” (People’s, 154). This definition shows the ability to
provide a sufficient life as one of the characteristics of mental health;
however it is commonly known that the amount of people who struggle to meet
their basic needs is enormous. Does this mean that everyone that cannot provide
is mentally unstable? I personally do not think that. I do though think that
the inability to provide for oneself and one’s family increases the likelihood
of mental illness. Some people in those circumstances I am sure already have
mental illness and the inequalities are just making the illness more severe. “Mental
health is not only affected by inequalities, but inequalities are also deepened
and exacerbated by mental disorders” (People’s, 155).
Our streets of Seattle and cities elsewhere are littered with homeless folk; many
with mental disorders. These people have been thrown out by the system. Many of these people had mental illness
initially such as depression that negatively affected their ability to work
landing them on the streets. The poverty while living on the streets gave them
poor nutrition, sanitary conditions, medical treatment, among other things.
This just contributes to their mental disorder putting them in a worsened
condition. Worldwide, governments are believing that ignoring the homeless and
mentally ill is acceptable and that the issue will just go away. However,
ignoring the situation does not benefit themselves or the people suffering with
the conditions. I found an article about government spending on mental illness
in South Africa. “According to Professor Crick Lund who estimates that in 2003
South Africa lost approximately U$3.6 billion due to lack of productivity and
income caused by mental illness, compared to the U$59 million the country actually
spends on it every year” (Stassen). That is a significant difference. The
government has an opportunity to build up its workforce with it current
citizens and lose way less money in the process. Instead they allow the
inequality to persist.
Homeless people in the United States and all over the world represent a large population of people struggling with mental disorders that cannot do anything about their condition because of the inequality displayed by their governments.
While it was not recorded much in the past, mental illness definitely had its
place in history. Unfortunately, the past ways of dealing with mental illness
were not any better, maybe even worse than the system we have now. In the 1600s
people with mental disorders often were shunned or even accused of being
witches. The isolation continued into the industrial age. At this point people
with mental disorders were just grouped into the category of “retarded,”
regardless of their actual mental diagnosis. In the US things actually
developed, and wealthy people are now properly diagnosed and treated. The
poor do not have that luxury and suffer. In third world countries the people are
generally treated how our poor people are treated. Last fall, the poor of the
US had an uprising called the “Occupy Movement.” This movement was not innately
about mental health inequality but about how the government favors the rich.
The rich or “1%” get more benefits than the poor in regards to tax breaks and
health care. A ‘cacophony of voices’ stood up for equal rights. The “Occupy
Movement” had little success, but it still was a valiant effort to spread the
idea of equality to the US and the world.
In class
we discussed how governments frequently get in the way of bringing health care
to its citizens. In Guatemala for example, the government officials made
influenza treatment very difficult to receive. They did not want to provide the
resources for the citizens. Mental illness is having a similar struggle. I
believe it is because it is such a subjective illness. Government officials
realize that it is an easy issue to ignore, so they do. Mental illness is more
than that though. The government gets in the way and allows the poverty and
inequality to increase. “In fact, more evidence is coming to light, linking
mental illness to poverty. In addition to the health costs incurred by treating
mental illness, the condition often results in income loss due to absenteeism,
decreased productivity and job loss” (Stassen).
Inequality
in mental illness is just one of the countless global health issues in our
world today. Like was stated in lecture, social change is necessary to solve a
global health problem. The people of the
US have tried striking and while valiant, it was a failure. Our world has the
opportunity to spread awareness of the issues regarding mental illness with the
click of a mouse. So many people in our world are suffering and we have the
ability to help them. It may seem easier to just ignore the problem, but it
does us bad and does the person even worse. I struggle with my own mental
health and if the government were to throw me in the toilet and tell me to deal
with it obviously I would not be happy. My depression would be heightened. Our
brains are curious objects that can feel love or sometimes pain. We cannot
always control the health of our brain, but the little we can control we should
take advantage of and inequalities should not get in the way of that control.
Stacie Larsen
Stacie Larsen
Nealon-Woods, Michele. "Fight for Equality in Mental Health Coverage." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 14 Sept. 2012. Web. 30 Sept. 2012. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michele-nealonwoods/mental-health-stigma_b_1881967.html>.
People's Health Movement. Global Health Watch 3. New York: People's Health Movement, 2011. Print.
Stassen, Wilma. "AllAfrica." AllAfrica.com: South Africa: Investing in Mental Health Can Boost Economy. N.p., 6 Sept. 2012. Web. 03 Oct. 2012. <http://allafrica.com/stories/201209070152.html>.
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ReplyDeleteWhen one in every four people in the U.S. can be diagnosed with a mental disorder, it not only brings into question the ways in which we as a society deal with mental disorders, but also how we define the idea of normal. This blog connects individual people’s struggles with mental disorders to the inability in some cases to deal with the problems of everyday life and vice versa. It also connects with the idea of how some might view sickness and suffering and the social implications and constructions surrounding these ideas. Furthermore, as it links these problems with inequalities in general, and more specifically to homelessness, it helps to connect mental disorders with our social structure and the tangible results of not being able to reconcile the two.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this blog for many reasons, but especially for the connection between our ideas surrounding mental health and how it shapes our society and individual lives. As someone who doesn’t have much personal experience with mental health issues, I tend to wonder about its connection with, and construction by, society. By defining something as a disorder, we are subsequently defining what is normal even if we had an idea of what is normal beforehand. Once we make this distinction though, we are inferring a sort of legitimacy to those we have determined to be normal. Our ideas of what it means to be typical are influenced by many different things including culture and institutions, and personal and shared histories. It seems that mental disorders is a broad category that manifests itself in many ways and with many different degrees of problems. Mental disorders also bring into contrast the medical anthropology terms of illness, disease and sickness. There are many of these disorders that are labeled and medically identifiable, but the connection between this medical diagnosis and the actual illness of what an individual is experiencing seems to be partially socially constructed. Furthermore, the social implications of this kind of sickness are inherently tied to the disease itself, because for many mental disorders the symptoms themselves are a social abnormality. So how do we decide as a culture, or as a medical institution, what is a mental disorder and what is normal? Is it the inability to be a productive member of society, or the inability or lack of desire to fit in? Also, who gets to determine what is abnormal and why do they label something as such? There are many different kinds and degrees of mental disorders that affect people in different ways. Some of them seem to be issues that people bear quietly and with little noticeable interruption to their lives, while others determine dramatically the possibilities of what someone can and cannot do. While this idea of what constitutes a mental disorder seems to be partially socially constructed, it doesn’t mean that many people don’t suffer from these illnesses every day. I think that the way we view an issue as a society has a big impact on the possibilities of how we can go about handling that issue, and the large impact on many people’s lives that having a mental disorder causes, is reason to rethink the way we deal with this illness as a society.
David Coomes
The fact that you chose to blog about the inequalities of those who have a mental disorder is clearly a personal issue for you. As you have stated that you are also part of the statistic that 1 in 4 Americans have a diagnosed case of a mental health problem. I felt compelled to read your blogs out of all the other blogs because I am also like you, a statistic. But people who have a mental health problem are more than a statistic because mental health problems I feel are so overly stigmatized, thus go undertreated and diagnosed. It’s interesting how you went on the Global Health Watch to find the definition of mental health because for so long it’s more than a disease. Mental health problems most often are not conveyed physically as with people with a physical disability and so people don’t actually “see” that we have a problem. I was diagnosed with ADHD almost 3 years ago and can relate to this quote especially, “Mental health is not only affected by inequalities, but inequalities are also deepened and exacerbated by mental disorders” (People’s, 155) because I don’t feel as though I should be looked upon differently because of my mental health problem. It’s not that I am any less competent than my peers without ADHD, but it’s the fact that I have to take medication, have a proper diet, and exercise in order to manage my symptoms such that I have function normally.
ReplyDeleteIt is clear that mental health problems are not heavily focused in the health care system, but more so on the homeless population as they have been ignored from a system that should be taking care of them. Many of these people are homeless because of an untreated and undiagnosed case of a mental illness. Some of who may have left their work due to the difficulty in managing their illness and that the lack of food, poverty, medical treatment and etc. is only acting as a catalyst to their illness. The blog goes on to stating that governments worldwide do not place an emphasis on educating and treating mental health disorders of the homeless and that only the rich are properly treated and diagnosed. And that ignoring this disparity would not benefit the government or the people suffering from such conditions.
I do agree that many of the homeless people are ridden with some sort of mental illness I do have to wonder how many of them have an illness as a result of using drugs such as methamphetamines, crack and heroine? Perhaps there is a good amount of homeless people that suffer from PTSD as a result of serving in the Vietnam War and other wars. And they could no longer cope with everyday civilian life. But what about the drug addicts that have paranoia and schizophrenia from using methamphetamines? As you have stated we should not ignore the situation because it does not benefit anyone. Drug addicts may already have a mental health problem as a result of being abused as a child or some traumatic event has happened and has never properly coped with it psychologically and emotionally. Some may even have a genetic predisposition to addiction and need professional help. Thus there are some underlying issues that may have caused the mental illness that should also be addressed as well. But nonetheless I do feel for people who are not properly diagnosed and treated.
Sophia Leung
Stacie,
ReplyDeleteThanks for writing this blog! I also thought it was very interesting. In the past two years, four out of four of my closest friends from home have been diagnosed with a mental disorder and have been prescribed medication. Not to mention, half of my family members and several of my other friends also take medication for mental disorders. This has triggered a lot of thought and research on my part as to the deeper roots of mental disorders in society. You mentioned that mental health was not as well recorded but definitely a major part of health historically. I completely agree with this, but I would argue further that mental health has changed significantly in recent years and that progress can only come from studying that change.
As we discussed in class and as Dr. Birn said in her lecture, long-term solutions to public health issues are tricky and it is very tempting to go for immediate impact. It is truly different for every single case, but overall, the United States mental health attitude tends to lean toward medication fixes rather than social change. We need the medication and treatment absolutely and it is right to prescribe it, but I think we should focus on finding out what is causing one fourth of the population to suffer. What characteristic of our society leads to the emerging mental health disorders of this century? I’m speaking now of ADHD, depression, and anxiety.
I should be clear that I’m talking very much about the future, and not the present. For the present, I agree that disparities in mental health care are appalling as is the lack of funding for treatment worldwide. We should invest in the holistic health of people because doing so will improve health and equality in all other aspects of life.
To think ahead is important too though, because we can’t keep letting one fourth of the population develop an illness that makes them suffer and then treating the individuals. We should try to prevent it from developing in the first place. A great deal of mental health is genetic, true, but I think the environment has more to do with it. This means that much of the mental illness of this country is preventable. One theory to explain the increase in ADHD, depression, and anxiety involves the increased speed and efficiency of the media over the last century. Watching TV, going on the Internet, and seeing posters and ads everywhere has fostered the expectation for a life that is unattainable. Americans from birth see images of wealth, beauty, and ease in almost everything they do. I’m looking at one right now in an ad for Safeway on my sidebar.
I’ve only researched this all out of concern for my friends, and I can’t really offer a solution yet, but this theory about the inconsistence of expectations and reality in US society as being a source of population-wide anxiety, depression, and attention deficits makes sense to me. I think we should try to look at how to work on this as part of the solution to what I agree is a grossly overlooked problem. Maybe banning extensive body photoshopping in advertisements could be a baby step in the right direction? Anyway, good post and thanks again for bringing up this very important topic!
Molly Reid
I really liked that you chose to address the issue of mental illness. It is an emerging issue that I believe will attract much more attention and hopefully more forms of proper medical and social intervention in the future. I have personally struggled with depression in the past as well and at times felt that it was threatening my life. At this point it tends to be a seasonal issue and I have been able to pinpoint some of the triggers. That being said, it seems that depression, despite the neurological science of it regarding the brains chemical imbalances, is greatly influenced by one’s circumstances; the triggers that one may experience which initiate a mental issue. How often do you hear high school students getting depressed because they’re getting straight As, have a supportive group of friends and have been able to stay away from negative influences? Although, all forms of mental illness are incredibly individualistic. I don’t feel that one person’s form of mental illness can be exactly the same as another’s. This is not the case for physical illness where one persons illness can be cured with the same prescription another is taking. Mental illness improvements in individuals take long periods of time that usually involve, or should involve, more social treatments. Feeding mental patients cocktails of medications to improve their chemical balances can only do so much. To actually get to the idea I am addressing, though, I’d like to challenge your statement regarding the roll of government in caring for the issues of the mentally ill.
ReplyDeleteConsidering how incredibly individualistic mental illness is and the social implications it has not only involving its victims but also the societies in which that individual is a part of puts a significant portion of care in the hands of the members of those societies apart from the mental illness victims. In many cases it is the social environment that one is a part of that will drive them into whatever issue they can face that will trigger or exacerbate their mental health issues. For example, taking one of the mildest forms of mental illness into consideration, depression, I feel that we could make a conclusion that depression is influenced by ones social environment to a certain extent. Keeping that in mind, it would make sense that a change in that social environment may assist in the healing of the mental disorder an individual has developed due to their social environment. That puts the task of healing in the hand of the societies in which these victimized individuals are a part of. The government can only do so much in addressing these issues because they are not completely able to control the mindset of their different societies, however, they can provide funding for programs to assist in the healing of the mentally ill. The point I am trying to make though, is that the responsibility of healing, I feel, lies within the general attitudes of the individuals surrounding the mentally ill members of their societies.
Rain Daley
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ReplyDeleteI enjoyed how you made this blog very personal to you. Public health/global health issues are issues that everyone can connect to. I can connect to this because my brother has a mental health problem. My aunt has a mental health problem. 1 in 4 American’s have a diagnosed mental illness is not just a statistic for me. It’s reality. What was most interesting about your blog to me was how you addressed that homeless people do in fact have mental disorders. Poverty in any area creates public and global health issues whether that is physical or mental issues. It’s great that you made the connection between poverty and mental health issues in which I will address in this comment as well.
ReplyDeleteI one hundred percent agree with you that poverty creates a lot of mental issues as it does physical issues. Specifically speaking in terms of homeless people, many people think that homeless people are homeless because they did that to themselves. I always get the “you’re so naïve” response when I plead my case about helping and improving the homelessness in areas such as Seattle, or even my home town Spokane. As a public health major one of my goals is to address and improve this issue because I feel very passionately about it. Yes, it may be true that someone is homeless because they chose to be lazy, not get a job, and get addicted to drugs and alcohol and end up there. But like you said a lot of it is due to the fact that many homeless people have mental disorder disorders that they don’t know of or haven’t got treated. I agree that many of them cannot properly apply and work a job to keep a regular income. Many of them also do not have family that can support them either. This also then relates to the issue that you brought up with the increase in health care. Those who can afford proper health care are that 1% that is wealthy enough as you said. This relates back to the issue of poverty and health issues. Many people can’t afford health care for physical and evident health issues. The general public already thinks that mental health issues are not a main concern and priority so someone who doesn’t have money and think’s their mental health issue is not that important can’t get it fixed. Therefore this leads to the increase of homelessness. Just in my area which is Seattle and Spokane alone, the amount of homeless people is much greater than it should be and it is only going to increase if people don’t begin to get treatment for their mental illness. I think you and I are not saying that mental illness is the only reason to homelessness, but just like any public issue there are many factors. But definitely mental illness is a big issue because untreated mental illness leads to the inability to work, which jobs are scarce at this time anyways and in return leads to homelessness. Mental health in general needs to be paid more attention to because the effects of them are just as large as a physical illness.
First of all, thanks Stacie for sharing this! I think this is definitely an issue that I also thought was quite neglected or easily turned away from, from the society and the government. I remember learning in my health services class that when people think about health, usually it’s the physical aspect, such as cancer, diseases, etc., that people would think about as the number 1 concerning health issue. Mental illnesses seem to come out later in the list. Even normal people, when we see people with mental illness(s) some of the people can think “people with mental disorders … grouped into the category of “retarded,” regardless of their actual mental diagnosis.” Those people can treat them like weird people, without thinking that there is actually a medical reason behind it. This kind of reminds me of the case with a male student who committed suicide last spring at McMahon. Although the student did have some flushing disorder, his mental illness did much more of an impact on him because of all the stress, loneliness that he had to endure. That suicide attempt could have been prevented if the people looked into his mental state. However, the news did state that it was very hard for his peers and his family member to know that he was not only suffering the flushing syndrome, but no one knew about his depression. Mental illness definitely is quite a complex issue to deal with since when treating people, there seems to be a way the patient can get away with what the doctor asks. Though I don’t know much about what the government has done in this field, it seems more likely for them to focus on something what can be seen and be treated, such as cancer. Whereas, diagnosing a mental illness can be a long and hard process. It’s not an easy thing to do when making diagnosis when it deal with our minds since, again, patients can evade questions asked by physicians when it comes to some sensitive issue. So for the government, it seem like that is one of the reason they would be focusing on something that is evidently there versus investing something what can or may not be there. But I think this is really unfair for mentally disabled or suffering an illness. This is definitely discriminating these people and the more we ignore it, the problem will never be solved and just get worse.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that I can definitely agree to you is the statement that you made about the homeless, “Many of these people had mental illness initially such as depression that negatively affected their ability to work landing them on the streets.” I have previously went on a mission trip that specifically worked with the homeless and talked with many of them people. These people are just like us, except they just don’t have a home due to circumstances like loss of job, poverty, etc. As a results, there quite a lot of people suffering from depression or showed signs of some sort of other mental illnesses. Their current situation did make a huge impact on these people and more and more people will fall into suffering some mental health problems if no one does anything about this.
Krystal Pak
Some aspects of this post reminded me of a scientific concept known as the feedback loop. A feedback loop can be either negative or positive. When the presence of a particular trend triggers a chain of events which causes that trend to slow or reverse, it is a negative feedback loop. Consider what happens when a responsible adult consumes alcohol. After a few drinks, the drinker begins to feel the effects, such as lightheadedness or mild euphoria. These feelings make the person slightly apprehensive, and he dials back the drinking. A sound mind and body are maintained throughout the evening. Thus, a negative feedback loop is stable. What happens to an alcoholic in the same situation is a positive feedback loop. The more he drinks, the drunker he gets. The drunker he gets, the faster he drinks. From this point on, the alcoholic’s behavior spirals out of control, leading to one of many unfavorable outcomes. According to this post, the plight of the mentally ill is another example of a positive feedback loop. The mentally unbalanced individual has trouble affording treatment. There are no viable publically-funded alternatives; therefore, his or her problems go untreated. These issues then lead to trouble in the workplace and subsequent loss of income. This loss raises additional obstacles to care, which in turn exacerbates the individual’s financial situation, and so on and so forth. The post claims that it is the responsibility of the government and of the wealthy to break this cycle, once and for all. The question is: how can they do it?
ReplyDeleteThere is no getting around the fact that social welfare programs are an inherently tricky proposition. One might describe our current system as a leaky piggybank, overseen by the disillusioned and decorated in red tape. Setting aside colorful language, the obstacles to implementing a universal healthcare system are numerous enough; adding a universal mental health plan is practically a nightmare. If a person were to establish a free psychiatric clinic in a low income neighborhood, the line of drug seekers would stretch around the block. It would take considerable effort to (a) distinguish those seeking pharmaceutical gratification from those with legitimate issues and (b) persuading genuinely down-on-their-luck citizens from seeking care in the first place. Even if enough free clinics were established to treat the purported 1 in 4 Americans suffering from a mental affliction, there is no guaranty that these facilities would be fully utilized. It is still the popular view, particularly among men, that sitting around in a room talking about your feelings is either weak, useless, or both. Furthermore, problems like these tend to discourage both legislators and private citizens from funding such programs. Their reasoning is simple and difficult to argue against. How can we help people who don’t want our help? All the rhetoric in the world will not provide a useful answer to that question. To be clear, I am absolutely not a member of the 1%. My coffers are probably emptier than those of anybody reading these words. My only point is that accountability is a two-way street. The powers that be can only do so much. At some point the sufferers of mental illness must take on a certain amount of responsibility for their own recovery.