The+Different+Faces+Aiding+Mental+Illness

Name: Vahoi Halaufia Tutors Name: Abbey Diaz

Artefact: The above portrait was painted by Freys and posted on the ‘DeviantART’ website. This image depicts the different faces which people choose to display to the world and how a member of society can have multiple faces and multiple struggles. This image was used to describe a specifically mental illness known as //Dissociative Personality// //Disorder// or known in lay terms as //Multiple Personality Disorder.// This image has attracted many comments ranging from ‘beautiful’ and ‘amazing’ through to ‘tortured… really emotional’. Majority of comments on this image have all relayed an emotional response to the image.
 * Depicting the Artefact: **

This artefact will assist in answering the question //How well does Australia deal with Mental Health in 2011?// This forum will be specifically focussing on whether or not the social programs, policies and processes, which are already in place, successfully aid the mental health of the population or not. The following forum will capture the different faces of society towards people who experience a mental illness and the different faces that people choose to display when dealing with programs for mentally ill patients. This issue will be analysed within a literature review, cultural and social analysis and concluding with an analysis of Freys’ image and a personal learning reflection.
 * Public Health Issue: **

Australian mental health is an important health issue as one in five Australian adults will experience a mental illness at some point in their life (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIWH], 2010). This section of the forum will describe how and why the funding of resources, social programs and policies are an important issue to be discussed and constantly reviewed and the reasons as to why access to resources and use of resources is an important concept, the thoughts and studies of researchers and theorists alike within the past ten years and the methodologies which they are using and how these are limited in redressing the issue.
 * Literature Review: **

Mental illnesses are on the rise and at a significantly fast speed at that. It can be seen in numerous studies that there are many factors affecting mental health. Some of these can be attributed to the growing economic state of countries and the pressure being placed upon working individuals to maintain a secure job, daily stress for individuals studying and prevalence of violence within families and the post-traumatic experiences to name a few. To be able to contain mental illnesses from continuing is virtually impossible due to the amounts of factors which induce and/or affect it however being able to attend to people’s needs who experience such an illness can be delivered.

Of the 20% of Australians experiencing a mental illness, 35% of those people within a 12-month period had been reported to have accessed a form of mental health service to aid their illness (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIWH], 2011). In the past twenty years there has been a 137% increase in expenditure on total government spending on mental health and only a 120% increase in expenditure on total government spending on health in general (Department of Health and Ageing, 2010). This dramatic increase in expenditure demonstrates that the funding allocations are attempting to be in proportion to the dramatic increase in mental illnesses which is prevalent in the population, and thus making it a very important face of Australia.

With a large number of Australians experiencing a mental illness, access and use of resources is used as a key indicator of the level of funding required to assist this population. The governments of Australia have compiled the National Mental Health Report (2010) where the strategy is to maintain expenditure on specialized mental health services and record whether that maintenance is occurring through an annual data collection of all publicly funded mental health services. With the previously mentioned increase in expenditure on mental health, specifically in 2011 the Mental Health Council of Australia has recently had the largest mental health investment in Australian history with more than $2.2 billion in new initiatives, which includes $571.3 million over five years for more and better coordinated services (Department of Health and Ageing, 2011).

There are many services available for persons experiencing a mental illness. The funding allocated to Mental Health not only goes into research of mental illnesses for mental illness but also campaigns, media advertisements, initiatives, hospitals and many other facilities which aid in awareness of mental illness.

The spread of awareness of mental illness can be attributed to a long history of stigmatization which becomes attached to persons who experience this illness. Wilkins (2001) described deviance as another way of expressing the concept of boundary conditions and is a concept related to normality, so therefore unacceptable deviance is a variation of the norm which is perceived as abnormal. Historically, mental illness has been seen as unacceptable deviant behaviour. Theories of Deviance include Parsons Functionalist Theory where by recognizing mental illness, society upholds values about conforming behaviour (Andersen & Taylor, 2008). A prime theory of Deviance used in the context of mental illness includes Becker and Lemert’s Labelling Theory (1963). This theory was developed by sociologists during the 1960’s and was first applied to ‘mentally ill’ by Thomas J. Scheff in a book he published in 1966. This theory created the label that people with a mental illness were more likely to people with few resources. In society today it can be seen that there are so many resources available for people experiencing this illness and it is due to the awareness campaigns that these facilities are being developed and reformed.

Emile Durkheim had argued that deviance is functional to society because it produces solidarity.

There are so many services available to aid people who experience a mental illness and some of these include: Prevention and Recovery Care (PARC), state-wide support to families and carers, non-profit organization initiatives such as Beyondblue and even more government initiatives (Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2011). It can be seen from the above data that because mental illness is such a prevalent issue within the society it can also be seen as a very important issue which needs to be addressed.

Society and culture are crucial to consider when understanding mental illnesses and the programs developed in aiding this disorder because it is a very stigmatic topic. The sociological approach to mental illness consists of three major theories. These include the Labeling Theory, Stress Theory and Structural Strain Theory. It can be seen that although some of these theories can be applied to
 * Cultural and Social Analysis:**

The different faces aiding mental illness and the image by Freys can be connected through the many different struggles which persons whom experience a mental illness face and the parts of society, such as the government initiatives, which will continue to show their different ‘faces’ of support for the mentally ill. The image depicts different faces which a person with a mental illness chooses to display to the world because of the stigma attached to them if they let anyone know. It is evident however that the different resources available for the mentally ill will help in letting these people display to the world what they want.The dark colours of the image and the plain white eyes symbolize the stigma attached to persons with mental illness. The hands reaching out demonstrate hands which are asking for help and as a result of this forum, it can be seen that there is a lot of help available for those people who have access to resources. This assessment piece has allowed me to think of concepts in a dynamic way which has taught me to further question things I read and try to look for a different perspective on specific issues. This assignment will definitely have an affect on my future learning and thinking process because it requires an in-depth knowledge of your topic which re-iterates to me that I need to know a topic to the best of my ability in order to make judgements on it.
 * Analysis of the Artefact **
 * Learning Experience: **