The Mental Illness Of The United States Essay - 1652 Words

Lydia Anderson Period 1 There are many people in the United States that have a mental illness that is either not able to be treated or is never diagnosed at all. This is because treatment is very expensive and hard to access, and without proactive care of the mentally ill there can be various unfortunate outcomes, sadly including, death. So, why is access to mental health care so limited and what is the government of Ohio doing to solve it and what else should be done? Mental illnesses are very common in the United States, with one in five of adolescents having a diagnosed mental illness and in the last year less than half of these adolescents have received proper treatment. The most common mental disorders, anxiety and depression, can disrupt daily life and result in suicide, which is the third most frequent cause of death in teenagers (â€Å"The Office of Adolescent Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services†). Ten percent of adolescents did not have health insurance in 2013 and those who did, had a very limited amount of mental health care services provided to them (â€Å"The Office of Adolescent Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services†). It has been proved that it is even less likely that adolescents who are poor, homeless, gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender will receive the care that is necessary for their health and even life (â€Å"The Office of Adolescent Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services†). Mental disorders are not only anShow MoreRelatedMental Illness in the United States 2006 Words   |  8 Pages Anxiety disorder is a common mental in illness in the United States. This disorder is affecting about 4o million adults18 years or older. This is about 18% of the United States population. I know you probably heard of OCD, but what is it really? Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is an anxiety disorder that is known for having uncontrollable and unwanted thoughts. Someone with OCD may tent to perform rep etitive behaviors. A person with OCD may recognize that their obsessive thoughts and compulsive thoughtsRead MoreMental Illness Of The United States1506 Words   |  7 Pagessuffering from a mental illness were cast away from society. Those admitted were locked away within the confines of an insane asylum, where they were ruthlessly tortured; many never seeing signs of improvement and subsequently never seeing the freedoms that lie beyond the confines of the asylum. Thus it is not hard to believe that as awareness of this treatment spread, civil rights activists took action toward protecting these patients. Patients diagnosed with mental illness were granted the followingRead MoreMental Illness Within The United States984 Words   |  4 PagesMental illness is an issue that impacts all prison systems throughout the United States. The wellbeing of inmates is a long debated issue. There is much improvement that can be done in the prison systems to help rehabilitate and treat inm ates while they are incarcerated to better prepare them for a successful reintegration into society. An examination of the current rehabilitation and treatment programs for inmates diagnosed with psychological illness will assist in identifying failures in withinRead MoreThe Effects Of Mental Illness On The United States1790 Words   |  8 Pages The United States is a frontrunner in global topics such as women’s rights and environmental issues. However, when discussing mental illness the United States chooses to look at the subject in a mindset that is stuck in the 1950’s using the â€Å"don’t ask don’t tell† policy. The federal government has only begun to recently talk about mental illness and its effects in the media. Yet, when they do this they choose to cover topics such as ‘gun rights’ with mental illness, while the real topic of conversationRead MoreMental Illness Among Prisons And The United States1576 Words   |  7 Pagesa society is to be judged how it treats its most disadvantaged members, then the United States is in a very lowly state of affairs. The United States currently incarcerates over 356,000 individuals diagnosed with some form of mental illness. This is ten-fold the number of people receiving treatment in psychiatric hospitals, around 35,000 (Frances). L eaving us with the question, when did suffering from a mental illness become a crime worthy of incarceration? Doubt no longer remains as to if the thisRead MoreHow Does The United States Media Affects Mental Illness? Essay998 Words   |  4 PagesResearch Question How does the United States media, specifically in television, portray mental illness? Methodology Modern television shows will be analyzed to find any indication of a shift from misrepresentation of the mentally ill to a portrayal that does not represent them as incapable or unable to perform well socially in the real world, or in a job. Shows such as Grey’s Anatomy and Homeland will be evaluated based on the correct representation of disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorderRead MoreLack Of Adequate Discharge Planning For Incarcerated Adults With Serious Mental Illness986 Words   |  4 PagesIn the United States, over the past 200 years, the practice of federal and state governmental treatment and geographical disposition of the seriously mentally ill has seemed cyclical. Essentially, persons with serious mental illness went from community-living to incarceration to hospitalization to community-living and finally back to incarceration (Matjekowski, Draine, Solomon Salzer, 2011, Ostermann Matjekowski, 2014 Raphael Stoll, 2013). Currently, the United States has a federal mandateRead MoreThe Death Penalty And Mental Illness1594 Words   |  7 PagesThe Death Penalty and Mental Illness Receiving the death penalty is the worst and final penalty that the United States Justice System can administer, especially for those who are mentally ill. Many Americans are questioning the morality of executing mentally ill convicts, as well as the validity of the death penalty itself. These are the questions Americans should be asking, or at least putting some thought into. One might be surprised at how much knowledge one has about the death penalty and veryRead MoreIncrease The Funding For The Mentally Ill1462 Words   |  6 PagesFunding for the Mentally Ill Mental illness is not getting the proper attention it needs. The United States should provide more funding to the mentally ill, for research, and medical purposes. Over fifteen million people are diagnosed with a mental illness every year. Many of them have difficulties to afford the treatment they need. Some do not even know that they have a mental illness because they never had a reason or even the finances to get checked. A mental illness can be detected at a young ageRead MoreThe Effects Of Crime And Mental Illness1245 Words   |  5 PagesTypically, mental conditions affect the cognitive and emotional aspects of a person. Thus, people with mental illness face a high risk of engaging in criminalized behaviors. Many pieces of research show that the US has the largest number of its citizens in prison with severe mental illness. This essay will analyze how crime and mental illness is a crisis in America that has fundamentally been avoided over the years that have seen the decline i n institutions that were previously designed to help this