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Global Mental Health Policy Brief The rate for the amount of stress people are under, homelessness, and usage of pharmaceutical drugs, street drugs, alcohol, and widespread micronutrient deficiency are increasing everyday. These factors all exacerbate mental health complications and contribute to poor overall health. Mental illness refers to any conditions that affect cognition, emotion, and behavior (Manderscheid, 2009). According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), mental health covers many disorders including: Anxiety Disorder, Depression, Eating Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Panic Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Schizophrenia, are a few; and in which these disorders are often associated with children and adolescents, older adults, men and women (NIMH, 2018).
It affects many different people especially soldiers who are post-war. Many of them are traumatized after returning home from terrifying war situations that may cause them to experience PTSD. When an individual experiences any or accumulation of these mental health disorders it affects them and their loved ones tremendously.
Some cases are severe enough to destroy a person’s life.
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Many people often avoid seeking treatment or talking about mental health because there is this stigma in which people associate mental illness with a negative attitude. It’s disappointing to know that mental health still has a stigma attached to it. Having mental health illness is the same diagnosis as a person who was just diagnosed with coronary heart disease or any other disease. There should not be stigma held for mental health because it is becoming a global burden.
Mental health has a direct burden for everyone globally.
The number of mass shootings has increased significantly as guns, medications, and opportunity has increased for those with mental health issues (Carroll, 2016). The lack of availability of health care services causes an astronomical indirect loss due to decreased ability to teach adequate nutrition to those of poor mental health. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2014 states, “to initiate systems wide change, the current model for nutrition education of health care professionals must be modified (Kris-Etherton, Pratt, Saltzman, & Horn, 2014)”. It is said 70% of adolescence in juvenile justice systems encompass at least one mental health circumstance and at least 20% exist with a severe mental illness.
Mental health has been neglected and leaving millions in a silent nation. Access to services, increased education, empowerment of the population and health care delivery system must be emphasized for sustainable progress. Efforts must be focused on educating health sources on adequate nutritional sources, detoxification methods, stress reduction, and to source the population with this information and make it readily available for immediate improvements in mental health. There is a theory that states that chemical imbalances cause mental illness. Many Americans are now linking depression and schizophrenia as a neurobiological illness that is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain (Pescosolido, 2010 ). Mental health patients are frequently lacking in several nutrients, vital minerals, vitamins, and omega-3 fatty acids.
Crucial micronutrients are lacking from the peoples daily diets, largely due to food being over processed, lack of dietary diversity, and the growing population. There is no knowledge on the nutrition an individual should be eating and many people may not be able to afford a healthy meal which results in them eating a cheap fast food meal that is over processed. There is a serious shortage of those capable to treat mental health patients (MHA, 2018). There needs to be more resources and easier access for treatment. In the areas that do have mental health professionals, there are not an adequate amount of providers for everyone. Most psychiatrists are located in cities, several patients in need are outside these areas, resulting in a long commute to get to the closest psychiatrist (Varrell, 2017). There is a pattern here that we are seeing globally that tends to affect the lower and middle income countries the most.
For example, Lesotho, Africa where there were 39.03 suicides per 100,000 in 2016 (Ritchie & Roser 2018). Many individuals lack access to adequate care. Resources and medical care is a necessity that everyone needs. Some may not have the ability for transportation or finding a therapist that understands their language. Many countries do not have that many psychiatrists. For example, many people in India lacks resources. “In a country with a population of over 1.3 billion, there are just 5,000 psychiatrists and less than 2,000 clinical psychologists (Thomas, 2018).” Some people in India do not believe in depression and anxiety. This may be due to cultural beliefs because many cultures don’t believe in mental illness. This is an issue because someone who is suffering from depression is living in India trapped with this chaos inside seeking for help that can’t be treated. Many people who do regularly seek treatment through their psychiatrists may be prescribed an psychiatric medication of some kind. The psychiatric medications have many side effects.
The physical side effects are insomnia, skin rashes, nausea, muscle pain and joint pain (Harvard Health Publishing, 2014). Continuously being on a psychiatric medication may lose its effect over time and the body becomes less tolerant to the drug (Harvard Health Publishing, 2014). The risk for suicide is higher for anyone on an psychiatric medication. Most mass shooters were on some form of psychiatric medication (Breggin, 2018). “Many studies have followed, and although results vary, there is a consistent trend. When compared with a placebo, all psychiatric medications, including SSRIs, seem to double the risk of suicidal thinking, from 1%–2% to 2%–4%, in both children and adults (Harvard Health Publishing, 2014).” Instead of prescribing pharmaceutical drugs, there are alternatives. There are Omega-3 supplements, St. John’s wort, Maca root and Valerian that are more natural ways to treat mental health (Macdonald, 2015).
The medical field is lacking knowledge in holistic means. The pharmaceutical company does not address the root of these issues. It is only addressing the pain and the symptoms the individual is experiencing at that same moment and not worrying about the long term effects. It causes them to become reliable to pharmaceutical drugs. Supplements containing amino acids possess the ability to decrease symptoms, as they are transformed to neurotransmitters which will lessen depression and further mental health troubles. On the foundation of gathering scientific verification, a successful therapeutic intervention is up-and-coming, specifically dietary supplement/treatment. These could be suitable for getting a handle on and to a degree, stopping bipolar disorder, depression, schizophrenia, autism, addiction, attention deficit disorder (ADD) otherwise known as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety and eating disorders.
The majority of prescription medications, as well as the ordinary psychiatric medications lead to side effects (Moore, 2018). The immediate and long-term needs of the mental health population must be met, and there are cost effective methods for improving mental health. Widespread, community-based micronutrient supplementation must begin immediately to reduce omega-3 fatty acid, vitamin, and mineral deficiency in high risk populations. Supervised weekly nutritional supplementations’ at homeless shelters, wick programs, etc. could prove to reduce the prevalence of mental health issues among those at high risk. “Detoxification is an essential part of a prevention and treatment program for recovery of mental health, including PTSD, depression, and addictions (Korn, 2017)”.
Developing a tailored approach to decreasing stress can assist one in management of mental health conditions and improve quality of life (NAMI, 2018). Using a holistic model of health care treating the person as a whole (considering mental, emotional, physical, social and spiritual states of well-being) rather than how allopathic medicine treats, which merely addresses the symptoms of the problem, is essential in helping mentally ill patients (Moore, 2018). Mental health is a pending concern. It affects poor rural populations predominantly. Americans have exceptional and serious mental health problems due to nutritional deficiencies, toxins, and lack of resources.
There are serious social and economic consequences. Mental health has a direct burden on America. The immediate and long-term needs of the mental health population must be met, and there are cost effective methods for improving mental health. Mental health has a direct impact on the health care delivery system. The government needs to have a mental health as a priority in which they spread awareness of what it is and treatment options. Incorporating mental health in education is important as well as children grow up and start to experience symptoms.
Essay About Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). (2021, Aug 13). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/essay-about-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd-essay
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