MENTAL ILL HEALTH ACCROSS THE GLOBE: AN INTERNATIONAL

COMARATIVE ANALYSIS
 Table of Contents
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 3

Compare and contrast metal wellbeing, mental health and mental illness using cultural and

historical perspectives to contextualize understanding ................................................................... 3

Appraise range of models used to explain mental distress and the conflict they generated ........... 7

Family Model .............................................................................................................................. 8

Psychological Model ................................................................................................................... 8

Medical Model ............................................................................................................................ 9

Discuss the experiences and impact of mental disorder on individuals, cares families groups, and

society ........................................................................................................................................... 10

Analyze the causes of stigma and the impact of social exclusions and its effects on recovery for

individuals with mental ill health .................................................................................................. 11

Conclusion and Recommendations ............................................................................................... 13

References ..................................................................................................................................... 15

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Introduction

Mental illness is one of the booming problem in today’s world. In this study, I am playing the

role of a public health worker, who is responsible for providing healthcare services toward

mental patients. This study provides a core concept of mental wellbeing, mental health, and

mental illness. Moreover, this study provides compare and contrast on mental wellbeing, mental

health, and mental illness by utilizing historical data. At the same time, this particular study also

provides several types of mental illness models that help psychologist to predict mental diseases

significantly. This study provides the experiences and impact of mental disorders on individuals.

Simultaneously, this study also provides the causes of stigma and impact of social exclusions,

which are discussed below. Finally, this study also provides certain recommendations that need

to be incorporated by healthcare organizations for protecting their mentally disordered patients.

Compare and contrast metal wellbeing, mental health and mental illness using cultural and

historical perspectives to contextualize understanding

In order to understand, mental wellbeing and mental illness, it is important to understand, what

mental-health is. Like physical health, which includes wellbeing of the body, where whenever

there is any problem in any part of the body, a general physician in normal cases, and a specialist

needs to be seen in acute cases. Likewise, in case of mental health, in any psychological

problems, a doctor needs to be seen. To understand, if a person is mentally healthy, some

abilities need to be checked (Rogers and Pilgrim, 2014).

The term “mental hygiene” was termed in middle of 19th century by William Sweetser. However,

Dorothea Dix has helped in developing the “mental hygiene” movement. Before this movement,

it was common to see people with mental illness being left alone in very bad condition, they did
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not even had sufficient clothing, let alone food and shelter (Schmitt et al., 2014). After this

historical movement, there was a surge in the number of mental patients in those mental health

care organizations. However, there were not sufficient official members to take proper care of

them. Mental health signifies the emotional, behavioral wellbeing of a person. It can also be

asserted that mental health has significantly affected the daily life schedule of a person as well as

affected the physical health. WHO provide a clear definition on the mental health, which is

“mental health is not just the absence of mental disorder” (World Health Organization, 2014).

Mental illness is a kind of mental disorder, or disease, which causes disturbance in thought, and

sometimes along with that, in their behavior. It may result in being unable to do life’s very

ordinary tasks and fulfill the demand of the life (Pilgrim, 2017). Some common examples of

mental disorders are depression, anxiety disorder, dementia, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Due to rising stress in today’s world, mental illnesses are increasing, which in turn is affecting

physical wellbeing. Genetic factors, environmental stress are considered as the major causes of

mental illness. Some symptoms of mental illness are strange thoughts, excessive fear, worries

and anxieties; suicidal thoughts; substance abuse; hallucinations; strong feeling of anger; social

withdrawal and so on (Rogers and Pilgrim, 2014). It can also be identified that in UK 1 among 4

person has experienced psychological problem each year (Schizophrenia.com, 2010).

Mental wellbeing is having positive mentality towards the goal of life. Some key factors of well-

being are as following- there must be a purpose in life, self-acceptance, growing as a person,

having positive relationships with other people, not having the feeling of helplessness, capable of

taking one’s decisions etc. In case of a family member’s illness, he/she needs to have adequate

knowledge to handle unusual behavior of other person. In addition, family members should take

time out to discuss and understand the diseased person condition, which will help the depressed

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person to share their reason of depression (Schmitt et al., 2014). In the regard, it will help to

identify the adequate steps to mitigate the impact of depression. Along with all these, everyone

should treat the ill person in a systematic way, which helps to improve the social attachment.

Moreover, mentally disordered person should go for counselling to mitigate their problems

significantly. Mental wellbeing is dynamic in nature. It can be stated that if a person has a good

mental wellbeing, then he and she will able to develop an upright relationship with others and

also able to fight against stress. Whereas, a person who has low mental wellbeing, then he or she

feels stressed and upright from their personal and professional life (Ryff, 2014).

Contrast between Mental Wellbeing, Mental Health, and Mental Illness

Mental wellbeing, mental health, and mental illness are already discussed before. A mentally

healthy person means he/she is free from any mental illness. Mental health alone can predict if a

person is satisfied in life or not. On the other hand, mental illness indicates, how poor an

individual’s wellbeing is. Mental wellbeing determines the quality of the life of an individual in

his/her later age. In order to be mentally healthy and also to keep others the same, each person

needs to understand the symptoms of different mental illness, never to ignore them. Moreover,

everybody should try to sympathetically deal with the person and visit psychiatrist or counselor

in case of any mental illness, just like the way they seek help from doctors for any physical

problems (Rogers and Pilgrim, 2014).

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 Fig.1: Schizophrenia Rate in UK (Based on Age & Gender)

(Source: Schizophrenia.com, 2010)

Schizophrenia is one of the mental disorders, which begins in the adulthood. On the basis of this

figure, it can be observed men are affected by schizophrenia slightly earlier as compare to

women. At the same time, it can be stated that majority of the males are between 16 to 25 years,

while the symptoms of schizophrenia in women is noticeable after the age of 30.

Fig.2: Schizophrenia Rate in UK (Based on Social Class)

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 (Source: Schizophrenia.com, 2010)

On the basis of the social class of UK, women are comparatively affected by the mental

disorders as compared to men.

Fig.3: Schizophrenia Rate in US (Based on Age and Gender)

(Source: Albert and McCaig, 2013)

From the aforementioned figure, it can be observed that in US, 40-49 age-grouped people are

highly affected by schizophrenia disease. Whereas, men get more affected by schizophrenia than

women.

Appraise range of models used to explain mental distress and the conflict they generated

Mental illness is one of the most popular sociological terminologies. Mental distress models

significantly influenced the internal and external behavior of an individual. There are several

mental distress models, which are described below:

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Family Model

Family therapy is one of the popular treatment procedures that are designed by the psychologists

to address mental issues significantly. However, the main goal of family therapy model is to

build a strong, healthy and effective relationship between the family members. Moreover, this

model helps to identify the risk of the family members who may be targeted by any kind of

violence (Diamond, Diamond and Levy, 2014). At the same time, family therapy provides

adequate knowledge to the family members that they should not adopt the addictive behaviour.

Family therapy provider should have a neutral approach, where, people can easily share their

views. In other words, family therapy provides an opportunity for patients to share their family

life that may influence their addictive behaviours, such as unemployment, marital conflicts, and

others. Moreover, it can also be asserted that family therapy has been conducted in the

counsellor’s chamber, rehab centre, and hospital. It is one of the prime responsibilities of the

family therapists to conduct individual counselling session for each family member to gather

information (Fishman, 2017). For example, if parents are addicted, then the home atmosphere is

became disturbed. Therefore, it is necessary for a child to play a role of caretaker for their

parents. In the case of schizophrenia, the Family model helps the patients to build develop and

improve the relations between the family members. It will help the schizophrenia-effected people

to overcome their diseases significantly. At the same time, this theory may be also affected

adversely the psychological mind of the patients. Extreme participation of the family members

may be negatively affected the inner mind of the patients.

Psychological Model

Psychological models play an important role to fight against mental illness in a significant

manner. The psychodynamic model provides an elongated knowledge to determine the roots of

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mental disorders. According to the psychologist Freud, it can be asserted that the unconscious

mind is considered as the primary roots of human behaviour (Kourkoutas and Hart, 2015). At the

same time, on the basis of the psychodynamic theory, it can be argued that the childhood

memory has significantly influenced the behaviour of adults. Moreover, it can also be stated that

the behaviour of an individual is caused by their unconscious factors. For example, negative

childhood experiences have adversely impacted the current behaviour of a person (Zeeck,Zipfel

and Friederich, 2015). The biopsychosocial model is the mixture biological, social and

psychological model, which provides an appropriate knowledge towards the psychologists to

mitigate the mental health issues. Genetics, psychological condition, social influence has

significantly influenced the psychological and physiological health of an individual (Wade and

Halligan, 2017). This model helps the psychologists to take care of the schizophrenic patients in

an effective manner.

Medical Model

Medical model is one of the most popular psychological models. This model is based upon the

medical science, which has significantly helped the psychologists to provide medication service

towards the schizophrenic patients. But, this model is unable to describe the perception of every

individual, which may adversely effected the medication procedure (Meichenbaum, 2017).

Therefore, the psychologists to determine the impact of mental illness should incorporate the

aforementioned models. On the other hand, family therapy model is one of the most popular

therapies, which helps psychologist to provide appropriate guidelines to manage their patients in

an efficient manner.

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Discuss the experiences and impact of mental disorder on individuals, cares families

groups, and society

There are several types of mental disorders such as anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder,

schizophrenia. According to various research studies, it can be asserted that biological,

psychological and environmental factors are significantly influenced the mental condition of a

human being. Moreover, the basic emotional symptoms of mental health problems are chronic

anxiety, impulsive action, erratic thinking (Clement et al., 2015). The mental disorder people are

neglected by society. In addition, the majority of people are considered them as a human being.

It is unfortunate but it is one of the true. Furthermore, mental disorder people are discriminated

by everyone. It is also identified that the employment rate of mental patients is very low. Hence,

it is one of the prime responsibilities of the organizations to hire mental disorder people and also

encourage them to work properly, which help to improve the quality of life of a mentally

disordered patient. At the same time, the higher authorities of an organization should organize

training and development programme to educate their employees to interact with mental patients,

which will help an organization to build a healthy atmosphere (Thornicroft et al., 2016).

Because of anxiety and stress, people are not willing to take any social gathering, so it is our

prime responsibility to interact with the mental patients and build a friendly relationship, which

will help them to share their view and also maintain their social relationship. Mental disorders

also hamper the regular life of an individual, because it breaks the harmony of a life cycle.

Moreover, mental disorders have adversely affected the physiology health of a human being.

Hence, it is the prime responsibility of the family member of schizophrenic patients to visit the

chamber of psychologists and general physician for their health checkup (Kinnear et al., 2016).

Furthermore, stigma has also affected the activities of family members. It can be asserted that the

10
family members of schizophrenic patients are also facing several problems because of the

activities of their patients. Hence, the health care organization and healthcare professionals

should organize several types of awareness programme to educate the family members and other

people about the cause and consensuses of mental diseases. This upright initiative helps the

mental patients to lead their life successfully.

Analyze the causes of stigma and the impact of social exclusions and its effects on recovery

for individuals with mental ill health

According to many research journals, it can be asserted that three out of four metal patients have

experienced stigma. For example, if a person is recognized by his or her illness, then he or she is

not seen as an individual. However, they are considered as the group member of the stereotyped

group. The adverse belief towards those people creates a negative environment within the society

that leads to discrimination. At the same time, it can be asserted that stigma has negatively

impacted the activities of the family members. In the medical dictionary, stigma is considered as

the abnormal or corrupted activities, whereas, in the field of psychology, stigma is observed with

specious way (Major,Tomiyama and Hunger, 2018). Moreover, psychological patients are unable

to take rational decisions, which is one of the vital reason for stigma.

Simultaneously, stigma has adversely affected the internal mind of mental patients. It brings a

mixed feeling of loneliness, hopelessness, which has negatively affected their regular life.

According to a global survey, it can be found that the majority of the surveyed people were

suffering from depression. Whereas, it can also be identified that the people were not interested

to vote for any political leader because of their disturbed mindset (Thornicroft et al., 2016). On

the basis of another surveyed report, it can be identified that the majority of the depressed people

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were not willing to share the reason for their depression. In addition, it can also be observed that

the majority of the surveyed people claimed that the schizophrenia-affected people are

unpredictable in nature and sometimes they are becoming dangerous. Therefore, it can be stated

that it is one of the main reason for enhancing the stigmatizing attitude toward mental patients

who are suffering from schizophrenia. According to global report, it can be observed that

moreover than 220000 fellow citizen of England are suffering from Schizophrenia (World Health

Organization, 2014).

Mental patients have continuously faced stigma as well as social exclusion, which has considered

as the major barrier to their physical and psychological health. Because of the stigma, peoples

are interested to attain any social gathering. In this context, it is measured as one of the reasons

for damaging their social relationships. Moreover, stigma has adversely affected the mental state

of the people, who are suffering from several types of mental diseases. It also reduces their self-

esteem and their dignity (World Health Organization, 2014). Besides, the research scholars of

Amnesty International Ireland have conducted a research to determine the impact of

discrimination on mental health problems. On the basis of the survey report, it can be identified

the majority of the surveyed respondents claimed that discriminative behaviour is one of the

main reason for any kind of mental health problem (Clement et al., 2015).

Proper education, protest, and contact may significantly reduce the impact of stigma. With the

help of protest, people are encouraged that they are not to engage in stigmatize activities. The

healthcare organizations and professionals should conduct awareness programmes for their local

communities to awareness them by providing sufficient knowledge of mental illness. Apart from

that, contact is also playing an essential role to mitigate the impact of stigma (Meichenbaum,

2017). At the same time, social marketing campaigns are also considered as the most innovative

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steps that should be incorporated by the healthcare organizations to aware their people about the

mental diseases and also educate the people that they should not distinguish people by their

illness. These aforementioned steps help the mental patients to run their regular life significantly.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Grounded on the different aspects, it can be stated that mental illness has adversely affected the

regular life of an individual. Moreover, it is one of the prime responsibilities of the family

members to identify the different symptoms of mental illness. In addition, it can also be argued

that the family members should bring their patients to the chamber of psychologists for providing

a beet mental health. On the basis of the above discussion, it can be argued that everybody

should have sympathy and try to interact with them sympathetically. Family therapy is one of the

popular mental illness models that have an upright aim to develop a strong relationship between

the family members. Similarly, family therapy provides an opportunity for individuals to share

their family life with the psychologist and they think the influence of family life is considered as

one of the reasons of their addictive behaviour. Based on this discussion, it can be concluded that

everybody should take sympathetic approaches to communicate and build a friendly relationship

with mental patients.

With the help of this study, I, as a public health worker, have recommended that the healthcare

organization should organize awareness programmes to educate common people about the

causes and consequences of mental diseases, which will help to reduce the stigma. Consequently,

the healthcare professional should communicate with their patients to determine their patient’s

mind appropriately. For this reason, healthcare organizations should conduct training and

development programme for their healthcare professionals and other staff members to enhance

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their skills and knowledge, which will help the healthcare professionals to interact and

communicate their mental patients appropriately.

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References

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