Understanding Mental Health In Society

Three Major Social Factors That Influence Mental Ill Health

Discuss about the Report for Understanding Mental Health In Society.

There is often a misunderstanding that mental health is the opposite of mental disorder. The absence of mental disorder does not mean that the person has good mental health. A person with mental –ill health can live a satisfying and meaningful life within the limits of his painful and distressful symptoms.

Anxiety, depression, alcohol abuse, drug addiction and schizophrenia are all symptoms of mental disorder. The most common cause of  mental disorder is the stressful experience,  but it can also occur otherwise. Moreover, not all stressful experiences lead to mental disorder. Most of these experiences come from the society or are influenced by them. Therefore, it is important to understand the social factors which influence the mental health of an individual and how we can take steps to prevent mental health disorders.

The three major social factors that influence mental ill health are:

Discrimination and violence – People who act or look differently are usually discriminated and are treated negatively. Discrimination may be due to color, sex, race, ethnicity, social and economic status and mental ill health itself. There have also been numerous cases where the women suffer from depression because of the domestic violence they suffer at home. Even though one out of four people in UK experience mental ill health at some point in their life, but still there is strong social stigma related to it, and mentally ill people experience discrimination in most areas of their life like in society, in workplace, in community, etc. people have this perception that a mentally ill patient is violent and dangerous, so they always like to keep a safe distance. There are few actions that can be undertaken to reduce the negative attitude of people. People can be educated and trained about the causes of mental illness and mental treatment. Contact strategy can be used where people interact with mentally ill people which help to remove stereotypes and prejudices. Media plays a major role in perception formation among people, so mass media can be used to spread awareness and correct information.

Social exclusion – There are many reasons for the social exclusion of a mentally ill patient like lack of money, some effects of illness like low self-esteem, reduced social contact as the patient is busy with his treatment and hospitalisation, stigma, unemployment. By addressing these issues, social exclusion can be reduced to a great extent. Steps like employment, preventing discrimination, educating the society, access to health services and giving them basic right like a decent home, transport and financial guidance.

Discrimination and Violence

Employment – it is a well-established fact that employment is important for the mental health of an individual. Moreover, the mental disordersaffects beyond the person who is suffering – it affects their partner, children and the community. Unemployment or low quality employment are major risk factors for mental ill health. By providing work to people with mental health problems, they have a sustainable income which reflects their skill and experience. It gives them a sense of value and control in life. By this way of employment, these people also participate in the society and are not isolated.

Earlier there was not adequate knowledge and training for diagnosing, treatment and maintenance of a mentally ill patient. But nowadays with the increasing number of cases, it is becoming an important area of study and practice.

Unlike previous times, now the treatment and management are  targeted to specific categories of mental illnesses. Moreover, the treatment is now focusing on the specific functional disabilities related to a particular type of mental illness.

The treatment is now targeted at the deficit areas specific to the requirement of the patient in his work, home and other areas of life.

The Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders have helped the practitioner a great deal in providing a standard for diagnosis which was earlier missing.

The treatment now exhibits a positive view of the patient; it has learning orientation which helps to educate the patient about themselves and their condition and also about other people and it also teaches them skills to cope with difficult situations.

The treatment has an objective and if it is not met, the treatment process is modified. Now a days the treatment make effective use of nonprofessional resources like peers and families to enhance the outcome of the treatment.

Few new treatment and management modalities are

Targeted-intermittent long term treatment – it involves providing the intensive treatment initially but when the patient’s functioning improves it is provided intermittently. Depending on the progress, the direct treatment from the psychologist can be reduced to weekly, biweekly and monthly sessions. It provides effective and economical therapy in addition to reducing the hospital treatments.

Cognitive-behavioural social skills training – it is the most important and effective treatment for mentally ill patients. It provides training in communication and problem-solving skills which can be used in different settings be it family, social life with friends or the community in general.

Social Exclusion

Individual psychotherapy skills training – this training helps the patient to understand internal thoughts and processes and makes them a more skilled while participating in the therapy. This therapy evaluated the want of an individual and applies problem solving skills to find out if and how these want may be met.

Therapeutic contracting program – this model helps to overcome resistance, denial and lack of motivation in people while increasing their self-efficacy. It not only improves the interaction among the patient and family but also among the patients themselves. Very patient helps the other patient in identifying a problem, coming up with alternative solutions and then selecting the best alternative for them. This exercise brings a feeling of worth and value in all the helpers that they made apositive influence in other person’s life. and

Multiple family therapy – in this modality the supportive aspects of the family interaction are incorporated in the treatment, and the dysfunctional aspects of the interactions are corrected with the help of social skills training.

(i) There can be various reasons for the mental-ill health of older people like previous life-experiences or a particular experience, reasons specific to ageing like bereavement, the perception of loss of status and importance, physical ill health, less contact with family and friends, lack of mobility/ active life, living alone. Many studies have shown that the risk for depression increase to a great extent after the age of 80 years. The main reason for depression older men is chronic ill health and in older women it is mainly due to isolation from family and society, belongingness to faith and community groups. Besides the normal stresses in life, elderly people are not able to live independently because of many reasons like mobility is limited, long-standing pains and other physical problems. All these problems cause psychological stress and leads to mental ill health. The three problems that is specific to elderly people – dementia, depression and anxiety disorders like phobias and obsessive compulsive disorder. Dementia is the reduced ability to memorise, think, act and perform every day activities. Though it is not limited to older people, 47.5 million people in the world are suffering from it, and the numbers are constantly increasing.  The other problem that is depression is a cause of lots of suffering and impairs the daily functioning of the individual. Depression is very common in elderly people, but it often goes undiagnosed and is not treated properly especially in primary care centres mostly because the symptoms of depression coincide with other problems that the elderly people face. A depressed person feels that he is not well and visits the hospital often though his cause for not being well may remain undiagnosed. Anxiety is often difficult to differentiate in healthcare setting from the normal worries of elderly people. Anxiety is of serious concern and older people suffering from it find it extremely difficult to manage the day to day activities. This puts them at increased risk for premature mortality, social isolation, depressions and institutionalisation. There are different types of anxiety disorders like generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder, specific phobias, OCDs and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Employment

(ii) Older people usually under-utilise the mental health services which  may be due to individual reasons or systemic barriers which hinder the provision of appropriate care and treatment. There are different modalities which are used for the  treatment of mental illness in older people like psychotherapies, psychiatric medication, integrating mental and physical health services, telemedicine which involves counselling and finally supportive care. Despite all the health services for elderly people with mental illness there exists some problems because of which they are not able to fully benefit from these services. The three main problems are overuse of institutions, limited access to services and uneven quality of service in institutions and community.

(iii) The mental disorder does not only affect the person who is suffering from it but it also affects the family and friends. So, the older individual and the other people involved in care can benefit from the supportive services that are available. Some such supportive services are the community-based group program, health promotion and wellness programs, mental health outreach services, support groups and peer counselling programs, respite care and finally care giver programs. Though there are many programs, there exists few problems hindering their effectiveness like caregivers do not make full use of these services, the programs have a general framework and are not tailored to the particular situation of the care giver, which reduces its effectiveness and relevance and lack of knowledge of the services available and its relevance to them.

References

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