Today, the amount of coverage and treatment that mentally ill individuals are provided with may depend on what type of insurance they have. However, as shown above, there is a variation in the amount of coverage for mental health services as opposed to physical health services (McLaughlin, 2004). There are many reasons why private and public health care programs have claimed for providing inadequate insurance coverage for mental versus physical health, including claiming that "… that mental health care is costlier and less efficacious than physical health care," (Tovino, 2012). This, however, completely ignores the differences between mental and physical health care and needs. Mental health care is certainly viewed in a more positive light today than in previous years, however, poor insurance coverages show that many do not take it as seriously as they must. Often, those who are most in need of mental health care tend to be the ones that receive the least amount of benefits from insurance companies and the federal government. Although mental health care is much more accessible today than it was in the past, there remain problems for those who suffer from mental illness and do not have the money, or insurance, to afford the care they need. This is a social welfare problem because many people who …show more content…
However, there is still a long way to go before all individuals within the country will have equal access to mental health care. Looking at the research referenced above, it is clear that there are major discrepancies in access to mental health for individuals with low income, certain illnesses and conditions, minorities, and the unemployed. As mental health access and insurance continues to expand and progress, advocacy measures should be taken to ensure that the individuals mentioned above gain access to the care that they
There is increasing evidence on mental health disparities. Studies show that minorities are more likely to delay or not seek mental health care, receive less adequate care, and/or terminate care sooner (McGuire et al., 2008). These disparities in receiving care arise due to
Throughout recent years, mental illness has become a belittled and “taboo” topic in a multitude of different societies. As a result, a majority of the world’s population isn’t exactly clear as to how one should approach those suffering from mental instability. Unlike physical illness, where an entire system of doctors and hospitals and medical research developed in order to cater to those who were physically ill, mental illnesses do not get nearly as much attention. Some would argue that a physical illness proves to be significantly more detrimental to one’s day to day life. However, observation of mentally ill individuals proves that mental illness can be as equally debilitating (you probably know someone in your life who has died from the
Health Care in the US is arguably available to all who seek it but not everybody has had the same experience and treatment when walking through the doors of a healthcare facility. In many cases, people are discriminated against due to their gender, race/ethnicity, age, and income and are often provided with minimal service. Differences between groups in health coverage, access to care, and quality of care is majorly affected through these disparities. Income is a major factor and can cause groups of people to experience higher burden of illness, injury, disability, or mortality relative to another group.
Studies shows that black people are more than 7 times as likely to live in high-poverty neighborhoods with limited or no access to mental health services compared to a privilege white person (McLean, 2023). I believe that as a black person that lived in a high-poverty neighborhood I must say that it was hard finding any help that dealt with mental health illnesses. I also found that most resources that I did come across was exorbitant. In my research it has been reported that most black people are on welfare or in debt (Peck, 2019). I will have to agree with this statement because the black people that I encountered that suffers from some form of mental health illness is indeed on welfare.
Many veterans are coming home with a psychological disorder. “Between 2000 and 2011 nearly one million veterans were diagnosed with at least one psychological disorder and almost half had multiple disorders, according to a 2014 report of the Institute for Medicine” (Quigley). With almost one million veterans diagnosed with at least one psychological disorder, more veteran’s hospitals need to be built to help treat the ill. In addition, there has been an increase in veterans in need of mental health services. “There has been a surge in demand by veterans for mental health services since returning home from Afghanistan and Iraq, with some local providers in California reporting increases of 40 to 60 percent in the numbers of veterans seeking mental health services” (Quigley).
Untreated mental illness is dangerous and over time we have learned that locking people with a mental illness is not the solution but makes it worse. People with untreated mental illness face many consequences. “People with untreated psychiatric illnesses comprise 250,000 people, of the total homeless population” (mentalillnesspolicy.org). The quality of life for these individuals is extremely heart breaking, and many are victimized regularly.
In order to categorize the priority of a patient’s necessities, the VA has implemented a series of tiers that rank veterans into groups in order to classify their severity of need (“Removing Barriers to Mental Health Services for Veterans”). Typically, those that are experiencing mental health concerns will be ranked in the bottom two tiers, leaving them stranded without care for months at a time. Within the VA in the last year, there was currently upwards of 500,000 appointments that were waitlisted with delays totaling longer than 30 days (Griffin, Drew, Nelli Black, Scott Bronstein, and Curt Devine). Although there is currently an influx of patients seeking treatment at VA health clinics, the number of patients being waitlisted throughout the past year has augmented up to fifty percent, meaning those that are pursuing mental health care through military benefactors can end up waiting up to six months without treatment. Statistically proven, the rates of mental and emotional suffering experienced by American veterans is excessively high, meaning that the obstructions to care for them after reentering the civilian world puts them in a further
The problem is that not enough is being done to deal with the growing population of untreated individuals who are left on the streets to fend for themselves. These patients are a problem to themselves and their respective communities. Their unpredictable behaviors threaten their well-being and the safety of fellow citizens. Those with mental illness are unable to function on a basis that allows them to take care of themselves, as a result their chances of survival are unpredictable. Those who are mentally ill are at an unstable position of survival because they lack the ability to be independent, such as providing for their everyday needs.
In Of Mice And Men there are so many human rights problems that it makes me wonder how did some people go from dirt poor to wealthy. The main human right problem in Of Mice And Men is that Lennie can’t get the healthcare that he needs because he is poor. After reading the novel and doing some research I have found a solution to this human rights problem that can help lots of people and could help Lennie. The solution I have found is that the government could tax people a little bit more than they are normally taxed and in return the government can use that money to inform people about people with mental illnesses and the government can also about up healthcare buildings so people can go get the health care that they need and deserve.
Introduction Prior to the mid-1960 virtually all mental health treatment was provided on an inpatient basis in hospitals and institutions. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 was established with its primary focus on deinstitutionalizing mentally ill patients, and shutting down asylums in favor of community mental health centers. It was a major policy shift in mental health treatment that allowed patients to go home and live independently while receiving treatment, (Pollack & Feldman, 2003). As a result of the Act, there was a shift of mentally ill persons in custodial care in state institutions to an increase of the mentally ill receiving prosecutions in criminal courts.
John Goodman, in his article, “How Government Regulations Is Undermining Mental Health Care”, discusses how the business of medical care is twisted and how the government, in imposing regulations on mental health care, is creating a situation where the medical care providers lose interest in actually addressing the needs of the mentally ill. Goodman mentions a previous publishing of his which touches on the issue in medical care of how health plans are manufactured to draw in the healthy and turn away the ill; the ones who are actually suffering and actually need medical treatment. He provides statistics from medical journals that detail the twenty million Americans suffering with substance abuse and the forty two point five million adults living with a mental illness who are all not getting the proper care they require. Another point Goodman makes is that while treatment options are provided in brochures and such, many people seeking legitimate treatment will find that those options are inaccessible to them for a variety of reasons with the main source of those reasons being the government regulations placed on medical care. Government regulations on medicines and other medical care can be beneficial in some situations, but in others, it can prove disadvantageous to
These problems could be avoided if we learned how to take action in this type of situation. Thesis Statement: My three arguments on why mental health should be talked about more often are how mental illnesses affect Canada, how the government can solve this issue, and how you can help. body-paragraph one: Mental illnesses affect Canada deeply through lost of job days, money, and
One in four people is a pretty large ratio. These people could be your family or friends, and the fact that many of them are not able to receive the proper treatment that they require should be alarming. Mental illness affects more lives than one would expect and this epidemic could be easily solved if mental healthcare were to be more accessible. Currently, The United States spends as little $113 billion on mental health treatment. That works out to about 5.6 percent of the national health-care spending, according to a 2011
Mental health plays a huge role in the everyday lives of people and their physical health. While some think that mental health services are not important, should not be provided to many, and should not be available in schools, mental health care should be available to all who need it for free and be available in schools. Free mental health can help those struggling and the public be aware of the issues, help those get the help they need, protect the individual and
Mental illnesses do not just affect a minority; they affect the people who have them and their friends. Likewise, the