The Residential Programs for Teens is a program that Red Mountain Colorado introduced. It states that its primary goal is to empower teens to build healthy coping skills and habits that they can use to work through the challenges they face ( Residential Programs , n.d., para. 1). Children of both genders from twelve to eighteen who participate in this program are subject to support from employees and those who find themselves in the same situation. The technique used in Red Mountain Colorado includes adventure, meditation, yoga and martial arts ( ADHD Treatment Center , n.d.). The program managers are convinced that this approach will help develop concentration, and self-esteem, improve social ties and increase self-effectiveness.
ADHD is a complex problem requiring multi-step steps and an integrated approach. Giannotta and Rydell highlight that children with significant attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms are at heightened risk for symptoms of depression in adolescence (p. 40). Even though the Red Mountain Colorado program seems quite valuable for children, it requires small additions. So, in addition to various activities, it is necessary to introduce mandatory work with specialists in psychology into the plan. The psychological correction will help to relieve anxiety, develop communication skills and improve thinking and attention.
In addition to mental treatment, it is also necessary to involve physiological treatment. The first thing organizations need to include in the program is bringing the spine into the correct position. To do this, they need the help of a specialist such as an osteopath or an orthopedic neurologist. For the childs spines physical development, doing a strengthening massage and specific exercises daily for several months is necessary.
The importance of combating attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder is particularly vital in adolescents because, at this age, they undergo many psychological changes. Moreover, at this time, moodiness is increasing and the number of conflicts with peers has risen significantly. In addition, young people become more self-focused and self-conscious. It is crucial to conduct work and educational conversations with children to spread awareness that there are people with disabilities who directly affect how they communicate with others.
Mental health is a crucial problem that has to be addressed by the government to avert local communities from missing out on productive lives, healthy families, and strong interactive relationships. Practically any person from younger children to old adults may be suffering from a variety of mental health disorders due to the prevalence of unsafe behaviors and risky attitudes that might lead them to ultimate self-destruction. As Heun-Johnson et al. (2018) put it, suicide was almost in the top ten leading causes of death across the United States, which is a scary indicator that cannot and should not go unnoticed. Accordingly, mental health illnesses could also be associated with numerous physical states that could be associated with the inability to keep ones mental health intact. In other words, cancer or diabetes could occur in a person even in the case of severe anxiety or stress, causing the body to respond in unpredictable ways.
Heun-Johnson et al. (2018) also contributed to the existing discussion by stating that the long-lasting effects of mental disorders may be hard to mitigate due to the extensive economic and psychosocial costs of interventions and consequences. Nevertheless, there is still hope that mental health disorders can be managed appropriately, as the growing body of evidence hints at the idea that the burden of mental issues could be reduced significantly. The existing project serves as an assessment of the Downers Grove, Illinois community and a thorough review of how previous experience could be utilized to develop a decent strategy to address the mental health of the target population and improve the quality of mental health care in the region. This project might become a pathway to a stronger Downers Grove community where individuals would not be afraid to share their thoughts on how to approach the issue and collaborate with care providers to reduce the stigma of mental health issues as well.
Target Population
When picking the most appropriate target population for the current project, the author decided to consider numerous variables describing the populace, such as gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and geolocation. There is also a need to include specific social conditions in order to gain as much insight as possible into the given community. Some of these were interpersonal relations, intrafamilial and community dynamics, school conditions, and social backing. The information provided in the SAMHSA (2017) report disclosed the presence of numerous risks associated with mental health issues in Illinois youth. This is a hint at the fact that there are not enough resources currently available to the Downers Grove community to establish safe places for the target population to interact and contribute to overall change concerning the attitudes toward mental health issues across the State of Illinois.
On the other hand, that same report published by SAMHSA (2017) is the key to understanding that the biggest population currently affected by mental health illnesses is youth. It is a warning sign for the Downers Grove community, as at least one major depressive episode per annum was found in at least 20% of Illinois youth residents. The percentage seems to increase, as in 2014, that same community reached about 14% of youth residents being exposed to major depressive episodes. In addition, the problem is that less than half (approximately 38%) of Illinois youth received appropriate treatment for their mental health issues. This can be important as well because some of the respondents might be too afraid to ask for help due to certain circumstances such as the socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, or gender.
Ultimately, the target population can be described as male, female, or transgender respondents aged from 15 to 24 who are either suffering from major mental health issues or get exposed to certain episodes that damage their mental health time after time. One of the major trends included in SAMHSA (2017) report is the growing prevalence of psychotic disorders in youth. This problem slowly becomes prevalent because it increases the rates of stigmatization among peers and adults and also increases the time of hospital stays. Depending on the primary reason for hospitalization, care providers have to pick the right approach to their patients, which also means that local youth often faces the challenge of not being enrolled in follow-up care. The lack of appropriate prevention measures makes the Downers Grove youth community an especially vulnerable population that has to be protected.
Summary of Articles
The article written by Buchholz et al. (2015) discloses a number of important points that have to be considered when thinking about the best strategy related to youth coping with mental health issues. The researchers investigated the process of youth disclosing mental health issues to their parents or teachers and reviewed the possible social implications of such communication. Buchholz et al. (2015) found that mental health challenges are exceptionally hard to discuss when there is a risk of being misunderstood or ridiculed in front of others, so many young individuals tend to keep their anxiety and worries to themselves in order to protect themselves from unsafe outcomes. Nevertheless, further communication could be helpful when trying to reduce stigma and build effective relationships with the environment. The results of research conducted by Buchholz et al. (2015) could be utilized to manage possible disclosure decisions in the future and help local youth discuss their mental health issues more without obstruction.
Vohra et al. (2019) touched upon the question of how mental illnesses impact mortality and morbidity in youth. In order to introduce a decent prevention measure, they investigated the potential benefits and challenges associated with the mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) strategy when utilized to address the prevalence of mental health issues in youth. Even though Vohra et al. (2019) could not achieve any specific results in terms of finding any relevant evidence regarding the effectiveness of MBSR in youth with mental health issues, their research allowed them to evaluate the efficacy of this strategy and see how psychological interventions could help when treating mental health issues in youth. The results of the study showed that MBSR could be an effective way for youth to cope with the potential stigma and improper emotional responses linked to the advent of mental health issues.
The article written by Mustanski et al. (2016) dwelled on the possibility of reducing the amount of cumulative victimization that LGBT youth representatives could be exposed to while also suffering from mental disorders. In order to complete their research, the investigators picked a sample including transgender, bisexual, lesbian, and gay youth and screened them for depression and anxiety in order to establish the potential level of stigma that these respondents could be facing on a daily basis. The findings published by Mustanski et al. (2016) showed that in addition to depressive episode, LGBT youth in Illinois was at an elevated risk for PTSD symptoms. Overall, the research concluded that there was an extreme amount of victimization affecting the LGBT youth living across the State of Illinois.
References
Buchholz, B., Aylward, S., McKenzie, S., & Corrigan, P. (2015). Should youth disclose their mental health challenges? Perspectives from students, parents, and school professionals. Journal of Public Mental Health, 14(3), 159-168.
Mustanski, B., Andrews, R., & Puckett, J. A. (2016). The effects of cumulative victimization on mental health among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender adolescents and young adults. American Journal of Public Health, 106(3), 527-533.
Vohra, S., Punja, S., Sibinga, E., Baydala, L., Wikman, E., Singhal, A.,& & Van Vliet, K. J. (2019). Mindfulnessbased stress reduction for mental health in youth: A cluster randomized controlled trial. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 24(1), 29-35.
Mental health is a crucial determining factor of an individuals overall state of well-being. Among the aged, experiences, philosophical differences, independence and dependency are some of the key concepts that influence their mental health and well-being. Integration of mental health care services in primary health provision with a focus put on achieving optimal medication management in health and medicine is vital in ensuring that the aged enjoy all aspects of wellness (Larsen et al., 2011).
This will in turn ensure that the aged achieve psychological resilience, spiritual, intellectual, emotional and physical wellness. As this research proposal will bring to light, many factors in a community determine the mental health and wellness of the aged. Circumstances and environmental factors such as where they live, their income, education level, relationships with family and friends, and the state of the environment determine to a large extent their mental health and wellness.
It is vital to reiterate that emotional wellness is an important aspect of wellness since it assists an individual to know how to deal with challenging emotional situations, express oneself in a healthy manner, manage individual self-esteem, anger issues and emotional IQ. This may be attained by balancing lifes activities with abilities possessed by an individual. Additionally, the mental well-being of an individual may also be described as a state of enhanced mental health with no diagnosable mental health problem (Zivin, Paczkowski & Galea, 2011).
On the same note, mental wellness among the aged is largely influenced and affected by biological factors as well as the nature of immediate social and environmental determinants. This research proposal will examine the aspects of wellness with regards to the dimensions of mental health and among the aged.
Review of Literature
Aspects of wellness and mental health
Mental health, commonly described as the absence of mental-related complications, is a state of well-being whereby an individual can be able to fruitfully and productively perform duties, cope with issues of stress and make a significant contribution to a community. Many aged people display feelings of anxiety and depressive symptoms related to mental illness. As such, this impacts their enjoyment of quality of life with spiritual, social, physical and emotional wellness. In mental health, the focus is normally put on achieving psychological resilience. This may be attained through balancing lifes activities with the abilities that an individual has.
Research studies indicate that the aspects of wellness and mental health among the aged can be realized when they are put in emotionally enriched environments, have optimistic attitudes such as faith, creativity and humor, get adequate sleep and rest, good nutrition and proper physical activity. It is imperative to note that the mental wellbeing of an individual is a state of enhanced mental health with no diagnosable mental health problem. This, therefore, relates mental wellbeing to the aspects of wellness that include spiritual, intellectual, emotional and physical wellness.
There are many factors in a community that determines the mental health of the aged. Circumstances and environmental factors such as where they live, their income, education level, relationships with family and friends, and the state of the environment determine to a large extent their mental health. This clearly indicates that, a persons health is determined by the context of his or her life.
Therefore, it would be inappropriate to give credit for good health or to blame an individual for poor health. This means that the determinants of health are unlikely to be in direct control of an individual. Some of the main determinants of mental health discussed here in relation to the aged include social, biological and environmental factors.
Social factors
These may be triggered by both social and economic factors that the aged live in. This can also become determining factor of their health. Social determinants such as low economic status, stress, traumatic events and losses are primary in determining whether communities, individuals or jurisdictions as a whole become ill or remain healthy spiritually, socially, physically and emotionally (Zivin, Paczkowski & Galea, 2011).
In addition, social determinants are important in determining personal, physical and social resources possessed by an individual that would be used to achieve personal goals, cope with the environment and meet personal needs. Therefore, health experts have realized that alongside improving prognosis and prolonging survival from some deadly illnesses among the aged, it is more important to first tackle social and economic conditions that make them sick (Larsen et al., 2011).
Secondly, the health status of the aged community is determined by behavioral choices that they make at the individual level. The determinants leading to a particular behavior are considered in two mechanisms namely materialist mechanisms and cultural or behavioral mechanisms (Zivin, Paczkowski & Galea, 2011).
The behavioral choices among the aged such as the use of alcohol and tobacco, poor health activities, diet and so on are observed to be causes of illnesses that may lead to death. It is important to note that material conditions of life strongly structure the behavioral choices of an individual. These behavioral risks, consistent with mounting evidence, account for incidences of deterioration of mental health. An individuals material condition can be seen as good working conditions, availability of housing and food, availability of resources to access the amenities life provides among others.
The quality development of family life, community environment and interaction health is influenced by material conditions of life. Also, it may lead to differences in physical, developmental, social and educational problems. As individuals grow old, their mental health deteriorates since most of them tend to lose social support that is necessary for spiritual, social, physical and emotional wellness.
Thirdly, the psychosocial comparison is another social determinant that shapes health. The mental health, spiritual, social, physical and emotional wellness of individuals get affected the instance they begin to lose the support that other age groups are getting. This lack of support and neglect produces a variety of negative and positive effects and exposures in the lives of the aged that may have health outcomes.
For instance, the older individuals who may find themselves in unequal societies where their material needs and health care cannot match with the others may have psychological health effects as the individuals may feel neglected or worthless and adopt health-threatening copying behaviors or additional actions that threaten health in order to alleviate the feeling.
Furthermore, unequal distribution of health resources in a community or in a nation to cater for the aged socially determines their health status. Areas, where hospital care resources have been equally distributed, have many aged individuals with mental wellness and hence narrower exposure to social determinants of health compared to areas where there are fewer health care facilities.
Poor health conditions arise from such unequal jurisdictions (Zivin, Paczkowski & Galea, 2011). Therefore, there is a need for the government to put up in all areas public infrastructure such as health and social services, education, health insurance and support the aged. It is important to note that societal factors like the distribution of resources are determinants of health.
Biological factors
Biological factors influencing well-being and mental health among the aged and other groups include family history, illnesses, medications, and changes in the central nervous system. Biological factors and determinants of health and spiritual, social, physical and emotional wellness can be put into two groups. These are the exogenous and endogenous biological determinants of health (Larsen et al., 2011).
These microorganisms form a relationship with humans. This relationship can either be symbiotic or commensal. Endogenous biological determinants of mental health include immunity and genetic heritage. The latter is determined exposure and response to physical and biological challenges of the environment (Larsen et al., 2011). These exposures may cause conditions like allergies, certain kinds of cancer and errors of metabolism.
In addition, they may influence red blood cell abnormalities to suck as a sickle-cell trait, influence DNA composition and skin pigmentation. Both endogenous and exogenous factors are vital for the mental wellness of an individual.
In addition, immunity plays an important role biological role in determining the mental health and wellness of an individual (Zivin, Paczkowski & Galea, 2011). It is important to note that nutritional status, as well as immunological defenses, determines to a great degree the state of health of a person.
Without proper nutrition, individuals become susceptible to invasion by pathogenic microorganisms. Such individuals are in many cases poorly nourished, deprived of vitamins and starved of proteins. Their bodies lack the ability to develop mechanisms of effective immune defense against pathogens.
Environmental factors
Any external agent such as cultural, social, physical, chemical or biological agents would be considered an environmental health determinant if it causes a change in the health status and spiritual, social, physical or emotional wellness of a person. However, it is important to note that these agents are environmental influences and are involuntary (Larsen et al., 2011).
For example, smoking of tobacco by a second party is considered to be equally the same as polluting the environment since the effects are almost the same. The health outcomes due to the determinants of mental health clearly determine the scope of health promotion, methods and forms to be used. This is done primarily to equip the aged with abilities that will assist them to gain control over determinants of health. Therefore, mental health promotion combines environmental and educational support for conditions and actions of living among the aged, which is conducive to health (Larsen et al., 2011).
The aspects that health promotion touches include personal control of behavior and change in complex lifestyle issues that affect other peoples spiritual, social, physical and emotional wellness like public smoking (Zivin, Paczkowski & Galea, 2011). The government, corporations, groups and individuals are required to take very coercive and aggressive measures to regulate their behavior and actions that may influence the health of other people.
Testable Hypotheses
Based on the literature review, this study proposal hypothesizes that:
Social, biological and environmental determinants of health play a significant role in mental wellness among the aged
The aspects of wellness such as spiritual, occupational, social, environmental, physical, intellectual and emotional wellness are chief components that determine the mental health of older persons.
Lack of aspects of wellness is a cause of mental health.
In many hospitals, the aged diagnosed with serious anxiety and depression bear these symptoms due to a lack of aspects of wellness.
Study Design and Timeline
The study will take a period of 6 months. The table below indicates the processes that the study will follow.
Activity
July
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Searching of clinical staff, mental health coordinators, and the aged patients with mental health problems via websites, through friends, neighbors and through other credible primary and secondary sources until a long list of names are obtained
Collecting of primary data through the use of questionnaires, individual in-depth interviews, group interviews, laboratory tests, routine physical examinations and gathering information from the medical history of the individual participants
Locating and collating secondary observation, field notes, focus groups transcripts as well as structured and semi-structured interviews
Interviews, fieldwork and further visual analysis (conclusion)
Writing of initial draft
Writing of final copy
The information that will be used for this research will be gathered from primary and secondary sources. Secondary data will be obtained using two broad methods. This will include quantitative and qualitative studies. The former will comprise various databases which will contain information on the aspects of wellbeing in relation to mental health among the aged. Some of the resource materials for quantitative analysis of this research study will include published books, peer-reviewed journals, newspapers, magazines and credible websites.
Primary data will be collected from focus groups which will include clinical staff, mental health coordinators, and the aged patients with mental health problems through the use of questionnaires, individual in-depth interviews, group interviews, laboratory tests, routine physical examinations and gathering information from the medical history of the individual participants. This will be necessary in order to establish the medical background of each of the respondents. The information gathered will form a better part of primary data and will be used for qualitative analysis.
The conditions and demographics of patients and caregivers will be obtained by researchers who will conduct focus group discussions. The questionnaires and interviews will help get responses from questions that will be asked like, What do you think can be done to improve the mental well-being of a person?
Additionally, exploratory questions like What should be done to ensure that the aged enjoy the aspects of wellness in order to overcome mental health problems? Follow-up questions will be asked after saturation has been reached such as How can mental health care and treatment be improved in clinics? data analysis will be done from the transcriptions from the interviews. Content analysis on emerging issues from a set of data collected from mental health coordinators, doctors, nurses, caregivers and patients will be carried out at an individual level and then in groups.
Interview questions
How can the roles of social, biological and environmental determinants of health in mental well-being be improved to ensure that issues of anxiety and depression among other mental health problems among the aged are reduced?
What can be done to provide the aspects of wellness such as spiritual, occupational, social, environmental, physical, intellectual and emotional wellness to the aged to enable them to have better mental health?
What are some of the barriers to mental health and wellness?
Why would doctors and nurses underreport the seriousness of anxiety and depression symptoms in patients?
Sampling Plan
In carrying out this research, a cross-sectional qualitative study design and quantitative method will be used. The quantitative study this research study will focus on up to 450 aged people, 16 health centers and 2 clinics. The mental health patients that will be included in this research will be those suffering from acute, common mental problems such as adjustment disorders and acute anxiety and those with chronic major psychiatric conditions like dementia, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The age group selected for interviews will be between the ages of 50-80 years.
The research study has found the age 50-80 convenient since most individuals at these ages are susceptible to being neglected and as such lack the necessary aspects of wellness. The interview will not be gender biased at all. The 450 aged people, 16 health centers and 2 clinics will be searched for via websites, through friends, neighbors and through other credible primary and secondary sources until a long list of names is obtained.
There are some groups that will be excluded from this research. Those will include the aged with a primary diagnosis of mental retardation, those with common problems like sexual difficulties, HIV and spouse abuse issues. Additionally, those with mental health problems but without a concomitant psychiatric diagnosis will be excluded. Such individuals will include those with epilepsy, as this is not a mental health problem.
Data Analysis Strategy
During the study, content analysis will be used to assess gathered information and reports from the data collected. It is imperative to note that for easy evaluation of themes from recorded information collected from primary sources, content analysis will be the preferred method that will be used. The researcher will systematically evaluate collected data, and put into smaller categories a large number of words for quick synthesis.
Even though the research study will seek to gain information from other medical practitioners, the focus of the study will be on the aged. The age to be researched on will be identified first, their health problem and aspect of wellness. Then their levels of performance, activities and sustainability will be determined.
In conducting content analysis, CRA methodology will be applied. This is a system that uses Crawdad, a specifically developed analytical software package, to analyze reports gathered from quantitative data, interpret and determine meanings of words and phrases. It achieves this through the representation of concepts, checking the position of words and building upon inference based on network theory and a combination of linguistics.
The study will use CRA methodology as it is important for analyzing and giving meaning to data that will be gathered from primary sources that have phrases or words through bringing out their inter-relationships, their influence, and main concepts. Individual depth interviews will be conducted when gathering data using the quantitative method. In-depth interviews will be important for this research study since the respondents will provide detailed information and answers to interview questions.
Opportunities/significance of the research study
This research study is will be important in health and medicine for purposes of understanding that health, both mental and physical, is affected by cultural, social, emotional, and mental factors. Gaining recognition of this knowledge will be imperative for making progress in giving individual health an overall approach. It is a fact that most doctors give little notice to the need to integrate the aspects of wellness when dealing with mental issues among the aged. Some exclusively deal with the body while others with the mind.
This study will call for health and medicine practitioners to give mental health issues a holistic look and understand it broadly within the concepts of the aspects of well-being, mental health and illness. This will help correct the problems coming from providers and patients who are dissatisfied and lack compliance, as well as other problems related to misdiagnoses and miscommunication.
Additionally, the study will create an understanding that aspects of well-being and mental health are inseparable. In this sense, medical practitioners will be armed with the knowledge that will ensure that diagnosing and describing symptoms of mental health is done properly and in a way compatible with the biomedical model. Moreover, the concepts surrounding aspects of wellness and mental health explored in this research study will aid health caregivers in distinguishing physical states from mental states.
Furthermore, it will aim at ensuring that people, other than making healthy choices, take mental wellness as their own personal concern. This calls for the intervention of all sectors across the health department, economy and the nation such as education, welfare, justice, housing, community and families among others to provide support towards effective and urgent action to realize the goal of having a mentally healthy nation. This will happen when all the mentioned sectors and people will offer support in all ways. For instance, the support can be social whereby the communities and other sectors will network to enhance mental health promotion.
In order to achieve this, the support needs to be equitable, reciprocal and comprehensive by showing empathy assurances, advice, material support, respect and a sense of belonging. Upon achieving this, both the poor and rich in their respective circumstances will largely benefit from wellness due to good mental health. In making wellness and mental health everyones business, the research will call for personal empowerment of each individual in order to enhance the perception of control and power and be able to fully develop health-wise.
Moreover, it will call for the formation of small groups to provide support for lifestyle choices to help promote personal behavior change and improve social support. The research will also call for political action. This is by practicing democracy in participation in matters of health, supporting broad-based social movements, and creating a vision of a better, manageable, preferred future.
Future research studies should advocate for public policies that target healthy living alongside promoting collaborations and proper conflict resolutions in order to achieve consensus. Moreover, the study should seek to develop local actions attached to community levels, lower conflicts to manageable levels and have critical professional and community dialogue.
Besides, in mental wellness, it is pertinent to note that currently, there are quite a number of factors that if not properly handled would continue acting as weak points and a hindrance to achieving the. These issues range from psychological factors to morbidity and mortality. For instance, there are a number of individuals who are living in isolation, they are so poor, and have low self-esteem. Some lack social support, work in a dangerous polluted environments and have low economic power.
Study Limitations
The potential limitation to this study may occur in obtaining primary data from patients with mental problems who may not be successfully interviewed. Another limitation is that most of the findings of this study will be based on interviews as the primary source of information. Indeed, there will be the inevitable challenges of inability by patients to fill questionnaires.
Conclusions
To sum up, the mental wellness of the aged population is significant. This research intends to indicate the importance of accomplishing mental wellness by improving social status, social gradient and ways of acquiring income by any given population.
In addition, the ability to offer food security, access to health services, education on health issues, better and safe working conditions among other things have been identified as some of the important parameters in ensuring healthy mental well-being. Furthermore, it calls for a strategy to be devised in setting viable healthcare infrastructure, interventions, preventions, detecting, screening, treating and managing mental health issues. Therefore, it is imperative to understand that the aforementioned factors are important for the well-being of an individual.
Hence, all societal influences on mental health should be managed well. The deleterious consequence of societal influences on mental health would in fact be mental illness. Therefore, there is a need for individuals to be empowered. This empowerment can be at personal, small group, organizational level or even entire community as part and parcel of building capacity, gaining and utilizing resources in order to enhance control over health determinants.
References
Larsen, T. et al. (2011). Early detection of psychosis: positive effects on the 5-year outcome. Psychological Medicine, 41(7), 1461-1469.
Zivin, K., Paczkowski, M. & Galea, S. (2011). Economic downturns and population mental health: research findings, gaps, challenges and priorities. Psychological Medicine, 41(7), 1343-1348.
The patient suffering from a kind of mental health disorder and distributed personal identity starts to recognize his own personality as a united whole.
The patient easily identifies himself/herself.
The patient has fewer difficulties when communicating with others.
Plan
Mitigation of the negative impact of any mental health disorder is a complex process that demands specific and individualized approaches to provide a patient with the most important and efficient methods that will promote his/her recovery and general improvement. For this reason, a plan that considers individualized needs of a patient, his/her current status and diagnosis is needed.
The chosen patient, 47-year-old male, suffers from schizophrenia. One of nursing diagnoses that could be applied to him is disturbed personal identity. Moreover, impaired verbal communication could also be related to him.
For this reason, a following nursing care plan and interventions could be suggested.
The main goal of this set of actions it the general improvement of the patients state, and his reporting about the decrease of the number of problems related to self-esteem and personal identity.
Speak clearly and directly to the patient in an understandable and professional manner for him to acquire the information and be able to process it.
Explain the nature of the problem and the main troubles that might result from it.
Explain the necessity and outstanding importance of treatment by pointing out possible complications and complete loss of personal identity.
Teach the patient how to use specialized techniques that might help him to gain control over his feelings and emotions and realize himself as a certain individual.
Provide the patient with an opportunity to perform various kinds of activity that might help him to remain an active member of society as it is important for his self-esteem.
devote time to one-on-one interaction with the patient to improve his self-esteem.
inform the patient when he starts to lose his own personality.
speak with the patient about his personal interests, hobbies, preferable activities, games, etc. to admit the unique peculiarities of his personality.
create the communicational pattern that appeals to the patients self-esteem and his feeling of dignity.
gain trust and establish comfortable relations with the patient.
avoid any actions that might trigger the growths of the patients dissatisfaction and suspiciousness.
teach the patient social skills to interact with people and relatives.
provide encouragement and praise for all success attained by the patient.
These actions and interventions have a certain scientific rationale that predetermines the expected outcomes and proves the necessity of the implementation of these measures. The fact is that the patient suffering from schizophrenia and characterized by a distributed personal identity has certain problems with socialization and realization of their place in a certain community or society (Townsend, 2011). For this reason, all interventions should be aimed at the assistance with the communication and socialization skills. Moreover, patients suffering from this disease might fail to establish trustful relations with people who surround them and provide support. For this reason, it is crucial to create the environment that will promote the establishment of close relations between the patient and his nurse. It will have the great positive impact on the recovery process and contribute to the improved outcomes. However, the patient should be able to function without any significant assistance and realize his personality as a united whole.
Evaluation
Evaluating the given plan and suggested interventions, it is possible to state several crucial points. First of all, the suggested course of actions has a scientific rationale that comes from the researches related to the issue. Schizophrenia could be considered a great problem of the modern age and there are numerous attempts to mitigate its negative impact by providing appropriate care for patients who suffer from it. In this regard, the suggested plan aims at providing the patient with the most important conditions, medications, and treatments that might result in better outcomes. Yet, if to investigate the outlined goals and outcomes, it is possible to admit the fact that the focus on the restoration of the patients self-esteem and assistance in the reconsideration of the attitude to his personality is crucial for the whole recovery process as it might guarantee the improvement of the quality of life. Furthermore, there are certain specific nursing interventions that are suggested to mitigate the negative impact of schizophrenia and help a patient to continue his existence.
These should also promote the establishment of trustful relations between a nurse and the patient and the further evolution of their cooperation. As one can notice, the majority of interventions are aimed at the explanation of the problems a person suffering from the disease might face and the ways to overcome these very problems. Besides, a nurse should also be ready to devote a certain amount of time to the communication with the patient. These interventions are needed to establish relations between a nurse and the patient and promote the further improvement of their cooperation. Finally, there are also interventions that are introduced to improve the patients understanding of his identity by emphasizing activities, hobbies , and games he likes. These unique parts of a persons character determine its formation and serve as distinctive features between individuals. That is why their consideration is extremely important for a patient as it will help him to preserve the main aspects of his personality.
Altogether, the given plan could be considered efficient enough to guarantee the improvement of the patients state and his further existence as a part of local community or family. The plans obvious strengths are its focus on the individualized needs of the patient and creation of the main interventions that should satisfy these very needs. Moreover, it also contributes to the recognition the importance and necessity of the prescribed treatment. The patient will obviously accept the course and engage in the process. However, there are also several weaknesses of the suggested plan. First, it is not able to foresee all possible complications that might appear in the course of treatment. Additionally, there might also be some problems with the assessment of a patients state and provision of a relevant response to new alterations.
The creation of the efficient plan is an integral aspect of the modern system of the delivery of nursing care as it helps to improve the state of a patient and guarantee his speedy recovery. That is why a specialist should be ready to implement the interventions that might contribute to the better outcomes.
References
NADA. (n.d.). The complete list of NANDA nursing diagnosis for 2012-2014. Web.
Townsend, M. (2011). Nursing diagnoses in psychiatric nursing: Care plans and psychotropic medications. Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company.
In Canada, the early childhood education field is growing rapidly. There are currently over 69,000 early childhood educators in the country, which is expected to increase significantly in the coming years (Travers & Cooper, 2018). The mental health of these educators is an important issue that must be addressed. If early childhood educators are not satisfied with their jobs, it can lead to serious problems for the individual and society.
In addition, an educated workforce is essential to the development of children (Wang et al., 2018). Educators must also be able to care for themselves to provide optimal care for their students. Many programs are being implemented across Canada to improve the mental health of early childhood educators and help them maintain good mental health. A substantial amount of research is available on job satisfaction and its relationship to employee mental health and well-being, but little is understood about how ECEs mental health is impacted by work satisfaction. This research paper examines the negative effects of job satisfaction in relation to mental health among early childhood educators in Canada.
Literature Review
Early childhood educators must have robust mental health in todays world. It is because an educators job involves a lot of responsibility, especially regarding childrens safety and well-being. Teachers are tasked with creating an environment where kids can grow and learn in a safe and nurturing way (Wang et al., 2018). They are responsible for caring for and educating young children, which requires great emotional intelligence. Early childhood educators must maintain an appropriate balance between their personal needs and the needs of the children in their care (Boamah et al., 2018). They must also be able to cope with stressful situations and emotional challenges during their work day.
In the recent past, there has been a great deal of research on the connection between work happiness and mental health. In Canada, mental health has been on the rise in recent years. According to researchers, a positive work environment can directly impact an employees mental health (Wang et al., 2018). Travers & Cooper (2018) found that job satisfaction, or lack thereof, can significantly impact an early childhood educators mental health.
The study surveyed approximately 1,500 early childhood educators in Canada. It showed that those who were dissatisfied with their occupations were more likely than people who were content with their work to have higher levels of stress and anxiety (Travers & Cooper, 2018). Another study showed that employees dissatisfied with their jobs are more likely to take sick days or quit (Won & Chang, 2020). This finding is particularly relevant because it highlights how important it is for early childhood educators to feel like they are doing good work. If they believe they are not making a difference in the lives of children or families, they may get disheartened and unhappy, which may cause them to quit their jobs.
Theoretical Perspectives
The theoretical perspectives guiding this research are Maslachs Burnout Model. It states that burnout is characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a lack of personal accomplishment (Madigan & Kim, 2021). Emotional exhaustion is associated with feeling emotionally drained by work situations and events. Feelings of inefficacy or distance from others characterize depersonalization. Personal accomplishment stems from feeling like one has made significant contributions to their job or organization. The second perspective is Herzbergs two-factor theory of motivation (Jeon et al., 2018).
It states that intrinsic factors such as recognition, achievement, personal growth, and responsibility lead to job satisfaction and extrinsic factors such as salary and fringe benefits lead to dissatisfaction (Jeon et al., 2018). The third perspective is Vrooms Expectancy Theory, which states that an individuals motivation is determined by the expected outcomes of their actions and behaviors (Fleury et al., 2018).
The fourth perspective is McClellands Need Hierarchy Theory which states that individuals are motivated when they have needs that are not satisfied in their current position or environment (Kurt & Demirbolat, 2019). The results from this study will be useful for both employers and employees because it will provide information about how job satisfaction affects early childhood educators mental health in Canada.
Statement of the Research Question
The research question for this paper is How does job satisfaction affect Early Childhood Educators mental health in Canada? This question is important because it can lead to a better understanding of what contributes to, or detracts from, the mental health of ECEs. This knowledge can help with developing strategies and interventions that can be used to improve the mental health of early childhood educators in Canada.
The Rationale of the Research
The study aims to determine how job satisfaction affects Early Childhood Educators mental health in Canada. The rationale for this research is that early childhood educators are frequent targets of violence and abuse in the workplace, which can impact their mental health. It is also important to understand how job satisfaction impacts mental health because it allows for more effective interventions to be developed for early educators, who are often isolated in their work environments and may not feel comfortable seeking out help. The results may provide insight into the relationships between job satisfaction, mental health, and well-being among early childhood educators in Canada.
Research Purpose
The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of job satisfaction on early childhood educators mental health in Canada. This research will be used to inform policy makers and other stakeholders about the correlation between job satisfaction and mental health among early childhood educators in Canada.
Research Design
This study will be conducted by surveying 100 Early Childhood Educators on their job satisfaction and mental health, as well as asking them about the things that make them feel satisfied with their jobs. The study will also involve a survey sent out to a focus group where participants can tell about their experiences (Kurt & Demirbolat, 2019). The research design for this project has been carefully crafted to ensure that it achieves its objectives. The first step is to create an online survey that will ask questions about job satisfaction and mental health, along with other relevant information such as age, gender, and ethnicity.
The second step is distributing this survey through social media websites like Facebook and Twitter. It will allow the researcher to reach many people without spending much money advertising our research project because people who use these platforms are already interested in what is happening around them. The third step is to set up a focus group where participants can tell about their experiences working with children or teaching preschoolers at home. This way, the study will get insight into how they feel about their jobs and whether or not they are satisfied with what they do daily.
Research Methodology
The study plans to use a survey method as the primary source of information because it is the most convenient and cost-effective (Kurt & Demirbolat, 2019). This method will allow the researcher to collect information easily from a large sample of respondents. The survey will be sent out online and open-ended so that participants can answer the questions in their own words, which should provide more accurate information than a multiple-choice format would allow. The study will have to make sure that the survey is accessible. It needs to be available in English and French so everyone who works as an early childhood educator can participate. Also, since many people are busy with work or other responsibilities, the study will try to keep the survey short by only asking about the most important factors affecting early childhood educators job satisfaction.
In addition to using a survey method, the study will employ qualitative methods such as interviews, observation, and document analysis (Won & Chang, 2020). These qualitative methods will help collect more detailed information about Early Childhood Educators experiences of stressors at work and their impact on their mental health. The biggest challenge for the study will likely be getting enough responses from participants to get an accurate picture of how job satisfaction affects mental health for early childhood educators in Canada.
If there are not enough responses, then it will not be possible for the study to draw any conclusions or make recommendations based on the results from the survey; thus, it will need some help from others. In order to avoid a low response rate, the study will use an online survey as opposed to an in-person survey. The use of an online survey will allow the researcher to reach a wider range of participants than an in-person survey would. In addition, the use of an online survey will help eliminate any potential bias or influence from other people in the room who may be answering questions that are not relevant to them.
Sampling Procedures, Data collection, and Data Analysis
The study has chosen a random sample technique because it will help obtain an unbiased representation of Early Childhood Educators in Canada (Won & Chang, 2020). The study will only reflect the opinions of those who volunteered to participate in the study (Katsantonis, 2019). A sample size of 100 early childhood educators will be selected randomly from across Canada. The data will be collected using a questionnaire that contains questions related to job satisfaction and mental health issues. The responses to these questions are then compiled and analyzed using statistical software. The field data collection method will be through interviews and observations (Kurt & Demirbolat, 2019). Qualitative data obtained from observations will be analyzed using a qualitative content analysis method which involves coding the content into categories based on similar meanings within each category.
Anticipated Outcomes
Early Childhood Educators are employed in various settings, including daycares, preschools, family daycares, and private homes. They work with children from birth to school age. They assist with dressing, feeding, bathing, and entertaining the children. They also guide play activities, social skills, communication skills, and cognitive development (Jeon et al., 2018). The anticipated outcomes of this study are that it will show that job satisfaction is significantly correlated with an increase in mental health and there are big differences between people who are happy with their jobs on a scale from 0 to 100 (Jeon et al., 2018).
This research also has implications for social work practice as it could be used to determine whether or not the early childhood education system should be updated based on the studys results. The significance of this study lies in its potential to improve the lives of Canadas early childhood educators, who are often underpaid and overworked. If these educators are happier with their jobs, they may have better mental health overall (Katsantonis, 2019). It will make them more effective at teaching young children who will become adults with good mental health.
Potential Ethical Issues
The ethical issues that may arise from this research include privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity. The need for confidentiality and anonymity lies within the fact that there are many sensitive issues involved with these types of researchers. For example, if an individual does not have good self-esteem or confidence, they may be reluctant to answer questions about their mental health (Fleury et al., 2018).
Confidentiality is also important when conducting any research because it ensures that no one knows who participated or what they answered (Fleury et al., 2018). Privacy is another important factor because it helps protect individuals from being judged by others if they choose not to participate in the study (Jeon et al., 2018). The study will engage in self-reflection and self-awareness during all stages of my research. It will also be actively seeking feedback from more knowledgeable people concerning this topic.
Conclusion
The research question examines and fields this topic from different perspectives, including psychosocial, microsystemic, organizational, macrosystemic, and societal. The mental health issues faced by ECEs will affect the children in their care. These factors that contribute to the mental health problems of ECEs can be managed to improve their quality of life through personal actions, social support, and community support.
Additionally, ECEs have a high influence on child development; hence, they strongly link with early childhood success. Achieving job satisfaction is not easy, and our education system needs to look into the matter to create a conducive teacher environment. It will help build a healthy foundation for early childhood development. That is why it is beneficial for governments to set up preschools according to the national curriculum guide and international standards. With ample opportunities for ECEs to work on implementing curriculum, it creates an ideal environment for children to bloom in. Moreover, to achieve the best results, teachers must go through various experiences that will cover educational philosophies, theories, and fun equipment, which will lead them to the right road to becoming successful educators.
References
Boamah, S. A., Laschinger, H. K. S., Wong, C., & Clarke, S. (2018). Effect of transformational leadership on job satisfaction and patient safety outcomes. Nursing Outlook, 66(2), 180-189. Web.
Fleury, M. J., Grenier, G., Bamvita, J. M., & Farand, L. (2018). Variables associated with job satisfaction among mental health professionals. PloS one, 13(10), e0205963.
Jeon, L., Buettner, C. K., & Grant, A. A. (2018). Early childhood teachers psychological well-being: Exploring potential predictors of depression, stress, and emotional exhaustion. Early education and development, 29(1), 53-69. Web.
Katsantonis, I. G. (2019). Investigation of the impact of school climate and teachers self-efficacy on job satisfaction: a cross-cultural approach. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology, and Education, 10(1), 119-133.
Kurt, N., & Demirbolat, A. O. (2019). Investigation of the Relationship between Psychological Capital Perception, Psychological Well-Being and Job Satisfaction of Teachers. Journal of Education and Learning, 8(1), 87-99. Web.
Madigan, D. J., & Kim, L. E. (2021). Towards an understanding of teacher attrition: A meta-analysis of burnout, job satisfaction, and teachers intentions to quit. Teaching and teacher education, 105, 103425.
Travers, C. J., & Cooper, C. L. (2018). Mental health, job satisfaction and occupational stress among UK teachers. In Managerial, Occupational and Organizational Stress Research (pp. 291-307). Routledge.
Wang, F., Pollock, K. E., & Hauseman, C. (2018). School principals job satisfaction: The effects of work intensification. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 185, 73. Web.
Won, S. D., & Chang, E. J. (2020). The relationship between school violence-related stress and quality of life in school teachers through coping self-efficacy and job satisfaction. School Mental Health, 12(1), 136-144. Web.
Appendices
Interview Questions
Please describe your current job situation.
What is your greatest challenge at work?
How do you feel about it?
What do you like most about your current position?
What are the factors that make you happy at work?
What are the factors that make you unhappy at work?
How can early childhood educators experience job satisfaction to improve their mental health?
How do you feel about your career decision to become an early childhood educator?
How do you feel your job satisfaction affects your mental health?
Have you ever felt stressed out at work? Why do you think that happened?
Are there any ways to avoid feeling stressed out at work?
Do you feel there are enough professional growth opportunities in your current position? If not, what is missing? What would make it better?
Do you feel there are enough opportunities for personal growth in your current position? If not, what is missing? What would make it better?
What has changed how you recently approached your work and home life?
Nurturing Mental Resilience: Transforming Minds for Wellness
“Raising the Tide of Mental Wellness” by Russ Rausch, director of Behavioral Medicine at the University of Alabama, addresses the issue of high stress, boredom, and repetition that influence Alabama student-athletes on a day-to-day basis. Athletic directors, managers, coaches, and sports overseers also feel immense pressure in the collegiate athletic department. “As stress increases, we see rises in attention deficit, anxiety, depression, and destructive behavior” (Rausch). To get to the bottom of why many student-athletes and administrators go about life negatively, Rausch believes the human brain is the problem. “The mind produces thousands of thoughts a day, and some psychologists suggest they’re in a ratio of eight negative thoughts to every positive thought” (Rausch).
The purpose of “Raising the Tide of Mental Wellness” to student-athletes and faculty members of Alabama is to improve mental health and steer individuals to the right mindset. It can be difficult to immediately change behavior. Impact automatic thought and automatic emotions need to be enforced. Our brain is the most complex organ in the body that produces our thoughts, actions, feelings, memories, and experiences. Poor mental health can impact the one experiencing daily traumatic thoughts but can also impact loved ones.
Enhancing Mental Health for Student-Athletes through Mindfulness and Training
Approaching the issue of mental health, the article aims to implement mental training, meditation, mindfulness, and self-care for those affected at the University. Our brains automatically produce positive and negative emotions. “Student-athletes often struggle with a lot of things; criticism, their responsibilities, studying, and the challenging process” (Rausch). Mental training allows student-athletes to focus on the right expectations and to focus on what they can ultimately control, which is their behavior and reaction.
A few key points from the article include meditation and mindfulness. By consistency of meditating and being aware of the surroundings, the Alabama women’s gymnastics coach, Dana Duckworth, is pleased with her team’s performance. “Many of the gymnasts are finding they are controlling their emotional impulses, and their mental processing is actually changing” (Rausch). The University of Alabama began Vision Pursue, a program started by Athletic Director and NACDA Vive President Greg Byrne to help student-athlete’s mental wellness. “After a few weeks, I was experiencing major benefits. Less stress, more sleep, and increased focus on things I could control rather than things I couldn’t control” (Byrne). Good meditation can improve focus and clarity in thoughts.
Some recommendations that were mentioned are repetitive training, mentally. “We wanted a solution that had a lasting impact” (Rausch). Training is needed for everyone. For example, training to do well in academics takes ongoing studying. Training is needed to perform well. “Raising the Tide of Mental Wellness” seeks to give student-athletes and coaches a number of opportunities to improve overall mental health so they can be better and do better.
References:
Rausch, R. Raising the Tide of Mental Wellness. Journal/Source Title.
Byrne, G. Title of the article or interview. Source Title.
Mental and Emotional Health: A Multifaceted Impact
Health plays an important role in every person’s life, and having even one health issue can affect many different areas of the body. A big health issue that many people deal with is mental and emotional health. The definition of mental health by Merriam Webster dictionary is “the condition of being sound mentally and emotionally that is characterized by the absence of mental illness and by adequate adjustment especially as reflected in feeling comfortable about oneself, positive feelings about others, and the ability to meet the demands of daily life.”
Mental and emotional health often tie in together with the ability to function in everyday life and how it can affect people. Mental and emotional health often leads people to be physically, socially, and psychologically unhealthy. Some people will cope with this type of health by drinking, smoking, or taking drugs which can lead to poor social choices. Mental health can lead to criminal acts or abuse towards another person. There are many different types of people and situations that can cause mental and emotional health in our society today.
Diverse Cultures
Diverse cultures deal with different mental health problems depending on how much the culture demands of a person and how they see people in each stage of life. For instance, many American cultures see elderly people as not being able to accomplish many things in life, and this leads to treating them as being disabled. It is shown that about twenty percent of people over 55 years of age deal with depression, anxiety, and mood disorders, and as elderly people grow older, it only becomes worse (CDC, 2008). Healthy People 2020 have become aware of this and want to work with doctors on prevention programs to better assist and take care of the elderly (CDC, 2008).
It is important for seniors to have the support they need, exercise, eat healthily, and ability to socialize. Also, there is significance in the healthcare giver being knowledgeable in knowing how to best assist in taking care of a loved one. Healthcare services should take the time to educate people on how to stay healthy and better equip themselves as they get older. When the elderly become more disabled, physically and mentally, they often live in assisted living places or a nursing home which can lead to their mental and emotional state detrition. It is significant to treat the elderly with proper care and respect for their ability to accomplish tasks in life. Another culture that can have mental and emotional problems is people who live in rural areas.
These people often have financial problems, poor living conditions, and a lack of education, and their social environment is often not healthy. There is frequently a lack of healthcare provided, healthy places to eat, a safe environment, school activities, and support/counseling in their schools. Unfortunately, there has not been much research done to help rural communities to help better their lifestyle. Creating the ability for children in rural areas to have proper education and activities and teaching them about health would change their lives for the better. Something every school deals with is bullying; it happens at almost any age. When students are bullied in school, it causes them to have mental and emotional health issues.
They typically have a lack of self-esteem and the ability to properly move forwards through the school years, which can cause certain disorders. Also, kids who are bullied typically start to bully someone younger than them, and it is a constant cycle of bullying. There have been prevention programs that have been successful if continued throughout the school years and required in every grade. There was an online intervention that was tested with some students and ended with good results. The stages were post-pre-intervention, intervention, and follow up-stage, and the best results were during the post-intervention and follow-up stages. After three months, the people started showing signs again of psychological depression and anxiety, which shows that online interventions should be continued long-term and not only temporarily.
Work Environment
Another common situation that causes people mental and emotional health concerns is their work environment. Many people have jobs that pay low wages, have bullying, harassment, safety issues, and boss’s expectations being too high and demanding too much. This can cause people to start drinking, smoking, and eating unhealthy for comfort and to destress (Naveen, 2017). To keep this from happening, businesses should promote good mental health, a positive environment, and support for their employees (Naveen, 2017).
If a company has an unhealthy work environment, this can cost them millions of dollars for the medical needs of their employees and the absence they take from work. This can furthermore lead to an unhappy home life if spouses are bringing home their stress from work. By promoting teamwork, positive attitudes, and hard work, a company will prosper a lot better. Unemployment is similarly another problem when it comes to mental health. If someone is unemployed for a long period, this brings finical stress, emotional stress, and a lack of self-esteem. Not providing for oneself and their family can cause a person to feel as though they are a failure and lacking in their duties.
Child Abuse
One of the top sources of mental and emotional health problems comes from child abuse. Child development is very important from birth, and when children are abused at a young age, this can cause many health issues and is something they have to work through throughout their life. Many survivors of child abuse often make choices based on their abuse experiences and not analyzing the current situation (Nair & Shukla, 2017). It can lead to young adults abusing people younger than them to try and overcome their traumatic experiences.
Research has shown that victims of sexual abuse often have higher rates of stress, personality disorders, and psychological disorders (Nair & Shukla, 2017). Over the years, therapists have found techniques on how to help people who have been abused, such as eye movement desensitization regression to help survivors be free of upsetting images, biofeedback that helps a person to use signals from their own body language in a way that benefits their health-wise, cognitive behavior therapy, journaling, and meditation (Nair Shukla, 2017). Many people have benefited from therapy techniques to help cope with their abuse and how to not let it overcome them.
Conclusion
There are many different areas that cause mental and emotional health in a person. It can happen to the elderly, at work, in communities, in schools, to adults, and children. It would be challenging to have mental or emotional health in any area of a person’s life, but it is important for people to know how to cope with it with support from friends, family, and therapists. It similarly benefits to be healthy in all other areas, such as physical health, social health, spiritual health, community health, and environmental health, if achievable. If a person is lacking health in one area, it would be important to make every other health area stable and healthy. It is essential for healthcare professionals to create ways that people can better their health through the knowledge and understanding of interventions and health programs.
References:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2008). Depression and Anxiety Among Older Adults: An Overview. CDC Healthy Aging Program. https://www.cdc.gov/aging/pdf/mental_health.pdf
Naveen, R. (2017). Mental Health in the Workplace: A Comprehensive Analysis of Causes and Solutions. International Journal of Innovative Research and Development, 6(12), 101-104.
Nair, J. M., & Shukla, S. (2017). Child Abuse and Mental Health: A Comprehensive Review. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, 39(5), 606-612. doi:10.4103/0253-7176.217025
Recognizing Mental Health Neglect and the Need for Change
Importance of Mental Health Programs The topic of mental health has risen in popularity in the last decade. With this emergence, many college campuses have developed specific departments and programs that specialize in tackling these issues for their students and faculty. The importance of the implantation of these has been a topic have become a source of an argument that seems to teeter both ways. I believe that they are a vital part of a student’s development and are extremely important. I will be analyzing this argument in order to justify my stance.
The importance of mental health is a problem that has been ignored for years. Due to ignorance, many people dismiss mental health problems as people being dramatic or overreacting. For many years mental health has been downplayed as something that is a simple fix when in fact, mental preservation takes effort and proper resources. Before the emergence of modern-day social media within the last decade, the rhetoric of mental health was not often discussed. “According to a Washington Post report, it is estimated there is only one psychiatrist per 1,807 children who need mental health services in this country.
More than half of the counties nationwide do not have a practicing psychiatrist, psychologist, or social worker. These numbers are staggering and unacceptable” (Chamberlain). For many years serious mental health issues have been brushed past due to ignorance, and it is impacting students everywhere. When my classmates and I were growing up throughout middle school and high school, the topic of mental health was not a common one. As someone who has had anxiety for a while, I was never educated on the subject and grew up just believing that what I was experiencing was being shy.
With the change in social pressures from high school to when entering college and being exposed to new things, I had to adjust. “The ability to establish connections with others and a sense of belonging at the university is necessary for success. While making connections on campus can be helpful for students, it can also increase feelings of stress. Oddly enough, if the support a student receives on campus is not meeting the student’s needs, it can actually become a source of stress. Stress results when students feel pulled into different directions.
Navigating College Transitions and Mental Health Challenges
While trying to meet one’s need to fit in with others and form healthy connections with others, some students may feel major pressure to fit in.” (Suzanne, 33). Once one enters college, they start to see a growth in rhetoric on the subject. Facebook and Twitter are now scoured with messages of encouragement and resources. Many people come forward about their own experiences and how they deal with them. This has opened the door to the importance of building communities dedicated to its awareness.
Paired with that, colleges have programs in which students parade the campus, offering solutions and guidance to those who are experiencing hardships. This awareness that has emerged should continue if we want to see a continuous flow of improvement in mental health. The correlation between mental health issues and college stress is undeniable. College is a time when young minds fresh out of high school are molded. Many kids are inexperienced and experiencing many new things in their social life as well as academic careers.
It is also a time when students begin to experience feelings of alienation. Many decide to attend schools that are very far distances from close family and friends. Others have not experienced traveling away from their significant others for long periods of time. This causes them to be taken out of their comfort zone. “Emerging adulthood is a time when goals that focus largely on the exploration of identity and life course, including career, education, and relationships, unfold.
Arnett described this period of role hiatus in which burgeoning autonomy, coupled with a lack of persistent adult responsibilities, allows individuals to experiment and explore.” (Suzanne, 3) These types of experiences trigger mental health issues such as anxiety. In my experience, starting college was a completely new journey. It was a time of self-growth combined with a drastic change. The change in location, along with being away from my family, was a whole new experience. I had to learn to adjust to being an adult in all situations in life.
Challenges and Bridging Mental Health Education
In high school, most students are dependent upon their teachers and are not expected to be responsible for many things other than what is told or provided to them. The format in high school is a complete 180 from the colleges. In college, students are expected to manage their school work on their own, watch deadlines, submit assignments, and sometimes have employment. When anyone is trying something new, it is a period of experimentation as they will need to figure out what will work for them, when this period of exploration is met with difficulties where the line of mental health comes in.
“Considering the individual student’s characteristics and life experiences can inform responses to both identified and anticipated needs, as well as support development within each realm. We must remember that while the college experience brings together groups of students facing similar transitions and challenges, students will also face their own personal challenges that reflect their identities and personal path.” (Suzanne, 4) Many students are not educated on how to balance academics with mental health, as it is not often discussed. The implementation of these programs does just that. Often these programs are offered for free only in school environments.
Most jobs don’t offer mental health services that can assist their employees in their personal life. If a person is going through a mental struggle, they are expected to go out and get a therapist, which can be a very expensive venture. When resources are made available to the students from they are in school, they can learn the skills that will assist them in managing their own mental health personally. Therefore, when they graduate and don’t have these avenues, they can be better prepared to handle them on their own.
Not only do they offer education that will last beyond the student’s years in college, but they also offer resources for the students to deal with any mental health struggles they are battling at the moment. The need for mental health programs in high-stress environments is shown to be more important now than ever before with the countless gun violence situations that have occurred. Many school shootings that occur on college campuses are said to be done by people with mental illnesses. It only takes an instance for that person to go over the edge and harm many other students.
Ensuring Continuous Mental Health Support for Prevention and Awareness
There is hope that this attention and recognition of mental health issues will continue. Without the general public being educated and demanding these programs, it could be easy for a university to decide it is not worth the budget anymore and pull funding. “It’s estimated that 1 in 5 adults suffer from a mental illness, and nearly 60 percent of these people haven’t received treatment in the past year. In a high school, many teens could be struggling with unaddressed mental health issues, since 1 in 5 young people ages 13-18 have a mental health condition.” (Chamberlain).
Many tragic events could have been prevented had many people been evaluated and guided mentally from being younger in middle, high school, and also college. Prevention is often an easier task than mitigation. Mental health programs serve as a preventive tool for many students who are close to experiencing rock bottom. There is hope that this attention and recognition of mental health issues will continue. With the many benefits that these programs provide, their importance is evident. Mental Health programs are extremely important for schools because they raise awareness, offer guidance and prevent damaging situations.
References:
A Developmental Approach, edited by Suzanne, PhD, LMHC, LPC, NCCDegges-White, and Christine, PhD, LPCBorzumato–Gainey, Springer Publishing Company, 2013. ProQuest E-book Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/fau/detail.action?docID=1394869.
Chamberlain, Sarah. “Florida Shooting Shows the Need for More Mental Health Programs.” Fox News, FOX News Network, www.foxnews.com/opinion/florida- shooting-shows-the-need-for-more-mental-health-programs.
Dimalanta 1 Sharlyne Dimalanta Yeager English 3 AP 24 February 2019 Mental Health In America Mental health has been an ongoing, devastating topic that needs more attention. At times, it has resulted in suicide and violent outbreaks, which have caused heartbreaks in the families and friends involved. Society needs to acknowledge behavioral changes in hopes of early intervention, prevention, and treatment. Early detection of warning signs and symptoms plays a huge role in preventing unwanted actions. By not recognizing the warning signs of a person with mental illness, it becomes a failure to acknowledge the situation’s seriousness and provide a course of action to help. An article exclaims, “Children spend most of their days in school, where they are likely to exhibit learning and behavioral challenges” (Gruttadaro, 24).
Schools have the ability to take steps to address the need for early identification and intervention. During one’s childhood, school is the place where kids spend nearly all of their time, which allows access for teachers to find any unusual behavior. Programs need to arise to help educators learn to identify early warning signs of mental illness. Some signs include distinct changes in school performance, negative moods, frequent outbursts, opposition to authority, etc. Once people learn of mental identification, they will be able to provide assistance further.
Building Supportive Communities
The community should be aware of how to approach one with a mental condition and the possible treatment needed. Helpers often notice behavioral changes that suggest a mental health Dimalanta 2 problem or the beginning of an illness. “When considering their potential involvement, participants often spoke in terms of whether they ‘could’ or ‘should’ help” (Rossetto et al.). Various factors come into whether a person should help, such as their relationship with the recipient, the helper’s feeling of responsibility or capacity to help, and the danger and safety concerns for the recipient. In other cases, those simply knowing that a person was anguished influenced their choice to automatically help. Most instances where the receiver was helped were shown to have beneficial outcomes in their circumstance and well-being.
Such outcomes were receiving professional help and recovering, ceasing the unsafe behavior due to intervention, or the management of the mental condition. The feeling after successfully helping a person with a mental condition in any way is worth the time to approach. Society should be educated about bullying and the lasting effects it may have on children’s mental health. Being tormented by bullying raises the risk of depressive disorders that will need psychiatric treatment later in the years. The National Committee for Mental Hygiene’s “goals were to improve attitudes toward mental illness and people with them” (Edwards, 14).
One of their focal points should be the decrease of bullying among students. Bullying can affect one’s health, both emotionally and physically. It can lead to physical injury, emotional and social problems, and possibly death. School faculty must rapidly and consistently respond to bullying behavior. Doing so sends a message that it is not tolerated. The community can help students prevent bullying by talking about it and constructing a safer environment. Bullying demonstrates harmful effects on mental health, which should motivate schools to intervene prematurely to grapple with the issue. A support system must be established in order to provide a positive environment for Dimalanta 3 healing and understanding.
Having support from those around increases the chance of students suffering from a mental condition to feel safe enough to talk about it. An article, Government should invest in helping people, not guns, states, “We must invest in creating a more supportive and educated network and resources everything from stress and anxiety to bipolar disorder or schizophrenia to name a few.” Schools can assist students to feel more comfortable and seek help.
Nurturing Supportive Schools and Breaking Stigmas
They can emphasize the available school counselors and psychologists that may provide guidance and coping skills. In serious cases, students require more rigorous mental health services and support systems in which schools should be willing to collaborate with outside sources. Schools should advise students of the importance of sharing concerns with a trusted adult and should take charge of communicating with families about mental health concerns. Notifying the population of the occurring issues leads to a stronger support group amongst friends, families, and staff. Overall, addressing student mental health with support creates a more optimistic and productive school atmosphere for everyone.
Although society is aware that we must help those with mental conditions, social stigmas are still in place, as well as debates over gun control. The ongoing issue doesn’t have the attention it deserves, and yet society is distracted by other nonentities. Others have admitted that a “stigma continues to be a major barrier for youth seeking the help they need, and this often leads to students struggling in silence’ (Gruttadaro, 24).
In society’s supposed effort to understand the reason for such activities, we stigmatize and remote those who live with mental illness. Isolating these children does not provide a supportive community for the child to open up and is the opposite direction of caring for mental health. Another misdirection is the debate over gun control. Rather than discussing this controversy, people need to be fixing the Dimalanta 4 issue regarding mental health. Most adults say they want what’s best for their children, so why not prioritize their health? As said frequently, the young are the future.
Mental health should be one of America’s top priorities relating to social welfare. Communities need to be educated and involved in recognizing any behavioral changes in order to provide early assistance which may prevent the worst from occurring. Efforts in educating school staff members and the community may provide a better surrounding and increase the chances of early intervention and the road to recovery. The community needs to rid of the upheld stigma, but it’s okay to come out of the darkness and get succor.Dimalanta 1 Sharlyne Dimalanta Yeager English 3 AP 24 February 2019 Works Cited Edwards, Douglas J. ‘Ringing out hope: for 100 years Mental Health America has been working to improve the well-being of all citizens.’
Gruttadaro, Darcy. ‘Out of the darkness: making student mental health a priority: together, educators and families can recognize and treat student mental illness.’ Principal Leadership, Apr. 2015, p. 24+. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A450505504/AONE?u=j079901003&sid=AONE&xid=7bf4 10b7. Accessed 26 Feb. 2019.
Nierenberg, Cari. “Childhood Bullying Can Have Lasting Effects on Mental Health.” LiveScience, Purch, 9 Dec. 2015, www.livescience.com/53034-childhood-bullying-lasting-mental-health-effects.html. Rossetto, Alyssia, etal.
‘Developing a model of help giving towards people with a mental health problem: a qualitative study of Mental Health First Aid participants.’ International Journal of Mental Health Systems, vol. 12, no. 1, 2018. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A551190492/AONE?u=j079901003&sid=AONE&xid=e6d9 1105. Accessed 26 Feb. 2019.
Government should invest in helping people, not guns.’ UWIRE Text, 13 Oct. 2015, p. 1. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A431516348/AONE?u=j079901003&sid=AONE&xid=edce 5559.
Accessed 2 “How Does Bullying Affect Health and Well-Being?” Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/bullying/conditioninfo/health.
I am interested in learning more about the causes of therapeutic failure. Why do gold-standard treatments still fall short for so many patients? First, I want to know how effective various treatments are, to what degree they are effective, what methodological limitations the research has, and what types of people respond best to treatment. I may limit my research to major depressive disorder and CBT to keep the topic more constrained. I want to collect more evidence before I form my thesis, but it will be something in the form of “a certain amount of therapeutic failure can be attributed to insert findings.”
From my limited look over the literature, the evidence for the methods of CBT is not completely overwhelming. Many studies conclude, for example, that CBT is as effective as commonly prescribed anti-depressants and some mixed evidence on the effects of combining them. However, the evidence in favor of the effectiveness of anti-depressants over placebo has been seriously called into question in recent years. Even for those who are helped by treatment, it is very limited in many cases. It is hard to pin down what exactly in CBT is playing a causal role. I found a suggestive study that tackles this problem head-on, but the sample size is way too small to conclude anything seriously.
Empathy & Motivation: Keys to Treatment Success
One cause of therapeutic failure may be the inability of therapists to properly measure how empathic and understanding they are towards their patients. From what I can tell, having a properly supportive therapist plays an important causal role in treatment success regardless of the treatment methods or style, something like 30%. However, there is also evidence that therapists are not very good at knowing how warm, empathic, and understanding they are. In fact, some evidence suggests the connection between therapists’ beliefs about how proficient they are in empathy and patient’s perceptions of them is shockingly minimal.
Patient motivation arguably plays a very large causal role in predicting therapeutic success. For example, in one set of studies that have been duplicated a few times, patients who reported being the most willing to try out coping strategies, confront fears, do psychotherapy homework, etc., predicted more strongly therapeutic success over the type of therapy used or their expectations about the success of treatment.
I want to understand more about how motivation is dealt with in therapy. The theories that I am aware of about therapeutic resistance do not paint overly positive portrayals of patients. Some behaviorists might say that patients get some hidden positive reinforcement from their depression, for example. Depth psychologists may think that depression is sometimes a way of spurning a loved one. I also wonder if the desire to help patients plays a role in causing patients to resist. I know from personal experience and talking to others that attempts from someone “on high” to help can backfire dramatically. I am looking for material on this train of thought.