How+is+Australia+dealing+with+Mental+Health+now+compared+to+how+it+used+to+be+dealt+with?

How is Australia dealing with Mental Health now compared to how it used to be dealt with? = = =---=


 * Name: Courtney Casey**
 * Student Number: N08318280**
 * Tutor: Judith Meiklejohn**

//“…..the essence of physicianhood is putting the good of the patient first. Just how far medicine has deviated from this principle is evident from a single distressing fact: “Patients with serious mental illness die 25 years earlier than the general population.” (Parks et al. 2006). They die from psychiatric, medical, and social neglect. If anything, the problem is worsening (Saha et al 2007). Neglect leads to unrecognized and untreated cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, to diabetes and its complications, to infectious diseases including HIV, to substance abuse, and to other diseases that afflict the ill-housed, the ill-fed, and the abandoned (Brown et al. 1999; Brown et al. 2000; Osborn et al. 2007). Care of the severely mentally ill should have been the focus of our professional careers; advocacy for their rights should have been our role as citizens. Instead, we have engaged in solipsistic debates about brain versus mind – about psychotherapy versus drugs – about genes versus environment. Preoccupied with our theories and ourselves, we abandoned the sickest patients”.// Leon Eisenberg (2009) ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍- Professor of Psychiatry and Social Medicine, Emeritus, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

How far have we come in terms of mental health awareness and treatment? Are we making any real progress on this issue? If so, who is doing well, and what are they doing, what is not working?
 * Topic: ** "Green, Gold and Blue: How Well Does Australia Deal With Mental Health in 2011?"

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Artefact

This Artefact depicts how mental health patients were treated back in society of the 1970’s and even before that time. Asylums were for ‘loonies’ and ‘crazy people’ who had mental problems. They were called lunatic asylums. These people were treated like prisoners and often chained up or even put in strait jackets. They were chained up because it was lead to be believed that they would do harm to others. The mental health patients weren’t treated the same as prisoners and often were not allowed to be put up for parole (Mental Health Foundation of Australia, Victoria, 2009). The social stigma towards mental health patience was so bad that people hid family members and looked them away, for others would have looked down on them for having a loony in the family (Mental Health Foundation of Australia, Victoria, 2009).

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Public Health Issue

The public health issue at hand is mental health amongst Australians. The artefact shows how incredibly inhumane mental health patients were treated. It took away dignity and closed them off from the world and from their families. It shows how far we have come within our society, and how different the social stigma is compared to the olden days (back when asylums existed). “Mental health is one of the leading causes of non-fatal burden of disease and injury in Australia,” (AIHW, 2010). This report will discuss how mental health is dealt by Australians today and how different it used to be back in 1980. The paper explains what is working with the health issue and what isn’t. It will explain that social stigma is something that needs to be changed in order to help mental health patience in having a normal life and to help them to achieve positive outcomes with their treatment.

Literature Review

Dr Graham Dene Burrows, Graeme Angus, Anne Thomson, The Reverent Alan Jones and Albert Moore were the five people who gathered at the Department of Psychiatry at Melbourne University to form the Mental Health Foundation of Australia. This acquired in 1981. “Mental Health Foundation of Australia is a charitable organisation which draws and heightens attention to the nation’s rapidly mounting mental health problem and mould a collective effort to combat it”, (Mental Health Foundation of Australia (Victoria), 2009). In 1980 the closures of asylums had started. This was when the social stigma started to change.

Treatment has definitely changed over the years. Treatment all depends on what the patient is diagnosed, and how serious the illness is, and what would help benefit them. It could either be medication, individual therapy or various supports in the community. According to Sane Australia (2010), many doctors say that the patient has to help themselves as well. Physiological help is when a patient and a professional psychiatrist speaks one on one and discusses and listens to the persons problems. Also medication can be per scripted for the patient but with the modern world today people think that taking pills will help with the illness which might not be the case. Community support groups help the recurrent problem and help the patient stay healthy in their everyday environment. Clinical treatment generally takes place in the community rather than in a hospital, this makes the patient more comfortable and more equal. Today mental health is treated with care because it is a very important issue that needs to be brought more forward in politics.

According to Sane Australia (2010) for a mental health patient they need to help themselves. Ways of helping themselves is to recover a balanced life. Healthy eating, getting plenty of sleep and regular physical activity are all important to good mental health. Learning skills which help deal with stress, feeling down, relationships or the symptoms of the illness, are also ways in which someone with a mental illness can look after themselves.

In 1984 the Mental Health Foundation of Australia pioneered the introduction of the National Depression Awareness Campaign. The National Depression Awareness Campaign provided the motivation to start up the National Depression Initiative (beyond blue). Mental health foundation of Australia stated that in 2005, the MHFA launched a major initiative called the “Embrace the Future” program. This was directed towards helping children to overcome difficult circumstances and go on to lead healthy, successful lives. In 2006, the MHFA played a major role in the introduction of the five years National Mental Health Plan with attached funding of $4 billion.

One in five Australians continue to experience a mental illness in a given year. This is confirmed when it comes to a significant time when governments invest in effort to improve outcomes for people with mental illness, their families and carers (Australian Government, 2010). A new National Mental Health Policy (the Policy) was endorsed by health ministers in December 2008. This was called the Fourth National Mental Health Plan (the Fourth Plan). According to Mental Health and Wellbeing by the Australian Government (2010), “The Policy gave a vision for mental health in Australia: … a mental health system that enables recovery, that prevents and detects mental illness early and ensures that all Australians with a mental illness can access effective and appropriate treatment and community support to enable them to participate fully in the community.” This plan was to work over five years through monitoring the change and responding to development of the broader health systems. The priorities are: Priority area number one, Social inclusion and recovery, this includes outcomes and actions. Action will take place by:

“Improve community and service understanding and attitudes through a sustained and comprehensive national stigma reduction strategy.

Coordinate the health, education and employment sectors to expand supported education, employment and vocational programs which are linked to mental health programs.

Improve coordination between primary care and specialist mental health services in the community to enhance consumer choice and facilitate ‘wrap around’ service provision.

Adopt a recovery oriented culture within mental health services, underpinned by appropriate values and service models. Develop integrated programs between mental health support services and housing agencies to provide tailored assistance to people with mental illness and mental health problems living in the community.

Develop integrated approaches between housing, justice, community and aged care sectors to facilitate access to mental health programs for people at risk of homelessness and other forms of disadvantage.

Lead the development of coordinated actions to implement a renewed Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander Social and Emotional Well Being Framework,” (Australian Government, 2010).

Priority area two is Prevention and early intervention. The government is planning to work with schools more closely, workplaces, communities and to improve mental health literacy and enhance resilience. The early intervention and prevention program are for children and they do this by working with the partnership between families, maternal and child health services. There is a lot of action within prevention and early intervention even within the field of drugs and alcohol consumption being acknowledged. Priority number three is Service access, coordination and continuity of care. This is to develop a national framework and to establish regional partnerships of funders, service providers, carers and to improve the communication. Priority four is Quality improvement and innovation. This is reviewing the mental health system and issue at hand and to improve the policy where needed. Priority five is Accountability—measuring and reporting progress. This is to “establish comprehensive, timely and regular national reporting on the progress of mental health reform which responds to the full range of stakeholder needs. Conduct a rigorous evaluation of the Fourth National Mental Health Plan,” (Australian Government, 2010).

The quote by Leon Eisenberg (2009) states that the mental health system today is all about handing out drugs to patients instead of dealing with their issues at hand. And it somewhat is true with the amount of drugs contributed to the physiatrists today they simply have a drug for almost every mental illness. This can do a lot of damage in the life of a mentally ill person. The Fourth National Mental Health Plan (the Fourth Plan) policy that has been discussed will be put in place to improve the health system and to lessen the drug usage in the mental health patients.



This graph is based on Statistics Australian Bureau of Statistics 1997 and 2007 National Surveys of Mental Health and Wellbeing. This was conducted over the past 10 years observing the change of one aspect of the mental health system. The number one poll is only 12% and number two is at 22%. This graph is the statistics of how many people went to seek help from a professional for their mental health illness in 1997 and 2007. It has increased by a lot but it hasn’t increased as much as the Australian government would like. The methodology at hand has been the social stigma of mental health and the drugs being handed out to the patients instead of being treated more by listening and helping the environment in which they live in. The Fourth National Mental Health Plan is trying to redress this by incorporating a five step framework. This policy is to increase the help needed for the mental health sufferers. By doing this more and more people will come forward to a professional to seek help.

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Cultural and Social Analysis

The public health issue of mental illness always has a social stigma attached to it. In the past people would class mental health patients to be unstable humans that were in fact lunatics. From this case they were placed into a lunatic asylum to be prisoned and strapped up in strait jackets. People did not let others know of their family member’s existence if they had a mental health problem. This is dramatically changed since the 1980’s. According to the Mental Health Foundation of Australia (Victoria, 2009), severely ill people were committed to asylums to live as tormented prisoners in cells with barred windows. Their treatment was a little better than the jail inmates. The public stigma needs to be changed to make sure that the mental health patients are looked after instead of being treated in inhuman and careless ways. People who are sufferers from this disease aren’t put in a social category as ‘loonies’ or ‘crazy people’ because mental health is on the rise in the population but the social stigma is still in today’s society but in a different way to the history of mental illness. Now the fight is against discrimination of mental health sufferers (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2009).

According to the Australian Bureau of statistics of social trends (2009) “In 2007, 45% of Australians aged 16-85 years (or 7.3 million people) had, at some point in their lifetime, experienced at least one of the selected mental disorders (anxiety, mood or substance use disorders). Since relatively many more men than women meet the criteria for a substance use disorder (often alcohol-related) at some stage, men were more likely than women to have had a mental disorder in their lifetime.”

This was reversed when 12 months prior to the survey observing mental disorders women were the more likely to have symptoms of mental illness then men (22% and 18% respectively). The higher rate was contributed by anxiety disorders which was the most common disorder suffered by women and this was differential across all age groups (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2009). The rates of mental illness were higher for men aged 16-34 years (23%) and women aged 16-24 years (30%) compared with older age groups (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2009).

The cultural effects on specific illnesses like depression are being put out their letting the public know how bad of an issue it is. Television shows have episodes of people who are sick with depression all the time contributing to the culture of mental health putting it into a category of a social norm. People aren’t being treated fairly and the awareness of this issue is important so if the social stigma was gone from the diseases, people would be able to have a much more normal life instead of being judged by their health problem. Sane Australia states (2010) “Schools, universities and colleges, community organisations, health services and others now all run events for Mental Health Week. Illnesses like anxiety, depression and post -traumatic stress disorder are regarded by many as relatively "normal illnesses", and the sufferers are not seen as aliens from Mars”.

With the five year policy from the Fourth National Mental Health Plan the first priority is Social inclusion and recovery. This helps patients with becoming more and more accepted in their community and service understanding and attitudes through a sustained and comprehensive national stigma reduction. This will decrease the discrimination amongst people and mentally ill people.

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Analysis of the Artefact and My Own Learning Reflections

The artefact shown above shows a man who looks to be lying on the ground who has been there for a while not being able to move because of the large metal item that is attached to his leg by a metal chain, this is inhumane to let someone just lay their all day getting watched by other people. In those days it was normal for ‘lunatics’ to be chained up or strapped in a strait jacket to contain them from hurting others or themselves. It was cruel and undignified to have locked people away in asylums so they wouldn’t have to be dealt with by family members. Back then they didn’t understand the mental health issue at hand but it was still not right to treat a human being like they had.

In today’s society it has changed because of the treatment. It is disturbing to know about how people with mental health issues were treated back in 1980. When they did eventually close the asylums down it helped with decreasing the negativity of the public stigma. Today’s treatment is for a professional to listen and talk to a patient so that they can help them through whatever illness they have. With modern science there are a lot of drugs being given to patients with depression or anxiety. This can be harmful for the person because the drugs are merely to help the psychiatrist or physiologist in being able to ‘do’ something when in fact their job is to help someone overcome their illness by talking and listening to the problems and rehabilitating them into the community. What I have learnt is that The Fourth National Mental Health Plan (policy) is a great way to stop the contributing of drugs and to help the mental health system improve itself.

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Reflection Task:

Comments

Wiki: Athlete or Sex Symbol? [|n08318280] just now

The artefact was well picked because it showed exactly what it meant in this article which was sex sells. It depicted women being sex symbols which worked well with the topic chosen. This essay was well weitten with great vocabulary used. I enjoyed reading this essay, it was attention grabbing right from the start. It helped me understand how hard it is for women to be taken seriously in the sporting industry. Also showing how less important society thinks women sport is compared to mens. I also found it interesting the sport that is covered in the media are the sports like gymnastics which is a sport that is concentrated on the beauty of the competitor. This is just like womens vollyball when there uniform has to be skimpy to attract viewers. You did a really good job.

Wiki: Attitudes towards mental illness - we’ve got to change our minds [|n08318280] just now

I liked your chouce of artefact. It was sad because someone is wanting answers to their illness and they asked this question with a rhyme. The darkness of the photo could portray their lonliness because whoever knows them so well doesn't realise they are depressed and what you had written how it is a sense of hopelessness and anger. My subject was mental health as well and I knew a lot about the social stigma affecting people who suffered from the illness but i hadnt reviewed the survey recovred. I was shocked at how 50% of Australians believed a person living with a mental illness can just 'snap out of it' and it is a 'sign of weakness'. I couldn't believe the number 50% with negative comments about the illness. I did know a lot of people wouldn't tell anyone they had a problem because of the stigma attached to mental illness. It was a good essay and I liked reading it. Your artefact analysis/learning reflection was very interesting to read as well.

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Links:

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare- Mental Health

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Australia’s National Mental Health Strategy

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Reference List:

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2008). National survey of mental health and wellbeing of Australians: Summary of results. Retrieved from []

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2009). Australian social trends, 2009. Retrieved from []

Australian Government. (2010). National mental health strategy. Retrieved from []

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2011). Mental Health. Retrieved from

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Eisenberg, L (2009). Six quotes from Leon Eisenberg. Retrieved from []

Mental Health Foundation of Australia (Victoria), (2000-2009), Our History, retrieved 18/10/11 from,

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Sane Australia (2010), Treatments for mental illness, retrieved 10/10/11 from,

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