Running Head: ADULT MENTAL HEALTH

Adult Mental Health

Name
Professor
Institution
Course
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ADULT MENTAL HEALTH

Adult mental health

Adult mental health is a great concern to the contemporary world due to its adverse
effects. According to psychologists and therapists, adult mental health disorders start by
adolescence. This means that it is hard to comprehend mental illness disturbing adults unless
there is appreciation of what they have been going through in their previous life (Grant and
Potenza, 2010). Therefore, consideration of the childhood and adolescence phase would be vital
stages in terms of comprehending causes and mechanisms of adult mental disorder. Zarit (2006)
argues that the existing challenge of adult mental health can only be met successfully only
through deep philosophical and historical comprehension of health regime within the setting.
However, many biological, social and psychological factors determine the level of mental health
of an adult at any point of time. For instance, most of the older adults lose their capability to live
freely due to chronic pain, incomplete mobility or other mental complications, and need some of
perpetual care. Adult mental health has an influence on physical health if not treated well. As
with all health and social care services, adult mental health can be complex and have a
comprehensive range of interventions and elements (Grant and Potenza, 2010). The duration of
time in which a person is treated within adult mental health is subject to the nature of their
problem, persons willingness to participate in the treatment and type of intervention required.
Accordingly, different influential writers have influenced the development of social work.
Beginning with the seminal work of Octavio Hill, social work is described as a means to improve
self-respect in the society (Dulmus and Sowers, 2012). Octavio Hill developed a great emphasis
on small-scale and individual social work when she refused to accept that important government
intervention could be required to deal with major social challenges such as housing,

ADULT MENTAL HEALTH

unemployment and poverty. In her opinion, government intervention should never substitute
social work action. Hill is outstanding in the history of social work since she rejected donations.
She believed in an intervention that could change the altitudes of poor people and this
contributed greatly in the development of social work (Rengasamy, n.d.).
Without any doubt, Mary Ellen Richmond also influenced the development of social
work. It is significant to note that the current social work need diagnosis and research before care
provision. However, it was Richmond who introduced the methodology and content of diagnosis
during early 1910. Richmond developed the principle that concentrates on the person within her
or his condition. According to Rengasamy (n.d.), her popular circle diagram envisioned the
communication of client and environment, whereby she explained treatment measures on the
basis of reducing the prevalence of disorder. Through her methodology to exploration, Richmond
gave social work clients a voice for the first moment. In this case, she unlocked a new and
productive area of social research which is up to now a foundation of social work (Murdach,
2011).
Consequently, the historical context of adult mental health focuses on the psychological
and behavioral features of individual people, rather than on conditions in society as whole. This
is because, most of the interventions and approaches were implemented with mental health
orientation towards tackling mental disorders. For history, therapists and social workers created
change by including their clients in order to limit and provide solutions for their mental illness.
Nonetheless, psychoanalysts and counselors had certain limitations that oversimplified their
process of tacking adult mental health. In other words, they based their interventions on simple
assumptions by framing problems in solvable forms (Dulmus and Sowers, 2012).

ADULT MENTAL HEALTH

References
Dulmus, C. N., & Sowers, K. M. (Eds.). (2012). the profession of social work: Guided by
history, led by evidence. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Grant, J. E., & Potenza, M. N. (2010). Young adult mental health. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Murdach, A. D. (2011). Mary Richmond and the image of social work. Social Work, 56(1), 92
94. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Rengasamy, S. (n.d.). Understanding history through historical phases. In History of social
welfare/social

work (pp.

59). Retrieved

September

7,

2015,

from

http://www.scribd.com/doc/14826079/History-of-Social-Work
Zarit, S. H., & Zarit, J. M. (2006). Mental disorders in older adults: Fundamentals of assessment
and treatment. New York: Guilford.