Background and History

Mental health has been a significant topic of interest that has grown over the past 100 years. During recent years, there has been an increase in awareness in order to try and reduce stigma and encourage people suffering from mental illnesses to seek help. That being said, researchers have begun to analyze how prevention and awareness efforts are effecting society's understanding and viewpoint of mental illness.

In order to fully understand the term “mental illness”, I will provide a couple of definitions. According to the World Health Organization, "Mental disorders compromise a broad range of problems, with different symptoms. They are generally characterized, however, by some combination of disturbed thoughts, emotions, behavior and relationships with others" (2001). On the other hand, mental health is defined as "A state of well-being in which an individual can realize his or her own potential, cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively and make a contribution to the community." (World Health Organization; 2001). According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 4 people will at some point experience a mental or neurological disorder at some point in their lives (World Health Organization; 2001). Not only that, but 450 million people currently suffer from a mental or neurological disorder which means that mental disorders are one of the leading causes of poor health and disability worldwide (World Health Organization; 2001). I share these statistics to show how prevalent mental health is in our society and how important it is to increase the awareness in order to try and reduce the negative stigma toward those with mental illnesses. Mental illness doesn't only affect those who are diagnosed. It affects their family members, friends, and coworkers. That being said, nearly everyone is impacted my mental illness in some sort of way.

Mental illness and its stigmatization dates back to 5 B.C (Unite For Sight; 2012). Many different cultures such as Egyptian, Indian, Greek and Roman cultures have once believed that mental illness is a religious or personal problem. In 5 B.C., Hippocrates tried to break this negative viewpoint so he focused on changing the person’s environment and administering different substances as medication. However, Hippocrates was not able to change culture’s viewpoint on mental illness. In the Middle Ages, many people believed that if you were mentally ill, you were possessed. This mindset led to inhumane ways of treating mental illness such as exorcisms and witch hunts. In the 1840s, Dorothea Dix advocated the betterment of treatment services for the mentally ill. It took 40 years for Dix to persuade the United States government to build 32 psychiatric hospitals. This institutionalization was believed to be one of the most effective ways to care for those who have mental illnesses, but state hospitals were often underfunded which led to poor living conditions.

It wasn’t until the 1950s that the public began promoting deinstitutionalization which encouraged integrating mentally ill people back into communities rather than putting people in institutions. Many people believed that people with mental illnesses would thrive more in a community setting compared to an institution (Unite For Sight; 2012). The United States passed the Community Mental Health Centers Act of 1963 which states that only people “who posed an imminent danger to themselves or someone else” could be forced to stay at an institution (Unite For Sight; 2012). Although deinstitutionalization has good intentions and a desire for a positive outcome, those positive outcome don’t always exist. When deinstitutionalization occurs, many of the patients move to family homes that often times do not have the adequate resources and services to provide effective treatment and care. Other studies show that people with mental illnesses living within their communities often feel lonely and experience bad living conditions and poverty (Unite For Sight; 2012)). However, Chesters (2005) would suggest that no matter what the setting is, there is always going to be some sort of poor treatment. She states, “This counter critique showed that while place was important, no one location guaranteed humane and effective mental illness care. Good, poor and horrific treatment occurred in the community as well as in a range of institutional settings” (Chesters, 2005).

Although the debate with deinstitutionalization still exists, the end goal remains the same: to improve the quality of life and treatment for those with mental illnesses. There have been several different efforts used to reach this goal. In 1909, Mental Health America was founded by Clifford Beers to help better the lives of those with mental illnesses through conducting research as well as lobbying (Unite For Sight; 2012). In 1963, the Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Health Centers Construction Act was passed by Congress (Unite For Sight; 2012). This act gave federal funding to develop community-based mental health services. In order to provide more “support, education, advocacy, and research services for people with serious psychiatric illnesses”, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill was created in 1979. More recently, Obama signed the 21st Century Cures Act which was signed by Obama on December 13, 2016 (Mental Health America; 2016). This act works to establish and fund a new program for children and adults, support integrating health and behavioral care, and funding the employment that will be needed to establish these efforts. Not only will treatment be enhanced, but the rights of those with mental illnesses will be protected, suicide prevention programs as well as crisis intervention will be improved, and ending the ongoing trend of people with mental illnesses being sent to jail and prison for no good reason. Instead, housing, education, and job opportunities will help those with mental illnesses have more equal opportunities as those without a mental illness.

References

Chesters, J. (2005). Deinstitutionalisation: An unrealised desire. Health Sociology Review, 14(3), 272-282. doi:10.5172/hess.14.3.272

Mental Health America (2016). Statement from Paul Gionfriddo, president and CEO on the passage of the helping families in mental health crisis act. Retrieved from http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net.statement-Paul-gionfriddo-president-and-CEO-passage-helping-families-mental-health-crisis-act

Unite For Sight (2012). A brief history of mental illness and the U.S. mental health care system. Unite For Sight. Retrieved from http://www.uniteforsight.org/mental-health/module2

World Health Organization (2001). Mental disorders affect one in four people. World Health Organization. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/whr/2001/media_centre/press_release/en/

World Health Organization (2001). Mental health terms and definitions. World Health Organization. Retrieved from http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/noncommunicable-diseases/mental-health