Mentally Ill Research Paper

A
A Better Life For The Mentally Ill

John Henry Ruffin II

Devry University

A Better Life for the Mentally Ill Mentally ill individuals in America are forced to endure numerous forms of abuse and do not receive the proper care they require and deserve. In the past, the “insane” members of society have been treated horribly by the people that live within their communities. Today, There are many different treatment options available to the mentally ill individuals that require help to live in today’s society. Although there are plenty of treatment options, the individuals still need to have the ability to make choices pertaining to the care that they receive and the type of medical/mental treatments they are given. The facilities
and group-homes that house these individuals are not always the safest place for them and should be monitored closer by the families and government. Many changes could be and need to be made to make the American system of mental health treatments better and safer for the individuals receiving services. The type of treatment, both the way the individual is cared for and the types of services he/she receive, needs to be re-evaluated due to the lack of quality caregivers, the ineffectiveness of treatment plans, and the way individuals are abused and neglected by staff members. A mental disorder is a mental illness or referring to a person with and incomplete/damaged mind, psychopathic disorder, or any other disability of the mind.
This can be anything from being bi-polar, having brain damage, or having a genetic defect that effects the natural growth and development of the mind. People in the past have used the term “retard” to describe a person with cognitive disabilities. This term has changed due to the use of it as a derogatory remark to a person not as smart as they are. Now they may say things like “he has a cognitive delay”, “she suffers from down syndrome”, or “he has special needs”. These terms are far less demeaning to the individuals and are much more accepted in the health
field. The mentally ill may have been accused of many things in the past and where unfairly tried. It is a good possibility that back during the Salem Witch Trials, a mentally unstable person could have been tried as a witch. This would mean that the individual, as innocent as anyone else, could have been drowned or hung just because their behaviors where different then the rest of the community. During the Middle Ages (about 476 A.D. to about 1500A.D.), The church was pretty much the law of the land and the mentally ill were seen as possessed, a punishment from the gods, or as a “spawn” of Satan. Around this time it was thought that if someone acted in accordance with the church, it was because of their soul was pure. If the individual in question did not however, it was due to something happening to their soul. It was thought that negative behavior was due to the Devil and positive from God. It seemed logical that any type of mental abnormality was a result of demonic possession. If this was the case, the individual would have to go through exorcisms (sometimes resulting in excruciating pain and suffering or even death) or different torturous acts with the hope that the demon would leave the body of the possessed. After the Middle Age, the world began to realize this behavior stemmed from a problem with the cognitive functioning of an individual which led to different treatments. People began placing individuals with the cognitive disabilities in facilities that where meant to treat their illness and rehabilitate them in order to rejoin society. These places were referred to as a Mental Asylum. The first Mental Asylum was called Eastern State Hospital located in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1768, making Virginia the first state to open a facility specifically for the mentally ill. It was originally named “Public Hospital for Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds” and took in the first patients in 1773. After some time, The mentally ill were kept more as prisoners than as patients kept in chains, behind bars and punished by use of Electric shock therapy (known as Electroconvulsive Therapy). The types of abuse alleged at these facilities ranged from sexual abuse, seclusion, physical abuse, and neglect. In one case form Ashworth Mental Hospital, An individual named Geoffrey Steele was found in the shower with multiple cuts and bruises made by two staff members. This individual suffered from vivid hallucinations regularly and was beaten and bullied due to dropping something in the ward’s kitchen. A facility like this was meant as a place where people realizing their children and family members had cognitive problems could go to drop them off and not have to burden with them. The people placing them in the care and trust of these facilities were promised that their loved ones would be looked after, cared for and treated of their ailments. This was hardly the case. These individuals were abused both physically and mentally by the staff members providing care. In many cases they were left to fend for themselves and to die. The way people have treated the mentally ill has improved recently compared to how it had been done in the past.
There were many institutions that were created with good intentions and just not properly regulated. Willowbrook was a Ney York State School that was built for children with intellectual disabilities. The facility housed well over 6000 individuals; over 2000 more than for which they were licensed. For the years they were open from 1947-1987, few people besides employees ever came to observe what was actually happening. Senator Robert Kennedy had visited the institution and stated that there was a massive overcrowding and further mentioned that the children were “living in filth and dirt, their clothing in rags, in rooms less comfortable and cheerful than the cages in which we put animals in a zoo”. He recommended quite a few improvements. These children that were trusted to be in this facility, when not abandoned, had been covered in their own feces and urine for days or weeks at a time and developed more problems than they had when they began their stay. The facility was finally shut down after the public found out what was happening and were not happy about the situation. In September of 1987, the last child was released from Willowbrook’s care. There are numerous types of treatments currently set to treat the mentally ill in America today. One form of care would be a group home. A group home is a newer location still used to day to treat these individuals. It is by far more regulated and looked after then the older forms of treatment facilities. A group home is basically a house where individuals of similar need are given shelter and care so the families do not have the burden of raising them. This is not a perfect system due to the low pay of staff members, how anyone can get a job with no training or drug screening, and the lack of supervision that is given to the care takers. Group homes still have some of the same problems that asylums have had in the past like abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse. Through personal experience working in a group home for several years, it has been notice that staff members will abuse an individual physically and to other staff members, it is seen as a way to teach them right from wrong as they do with their children at home. This is not fair to the individuals receiving services in these locations. Stories have been passed around the group home from employees that have worked there for over 20 years. One of those stories would go that back when male staff where able to work with female individuals helping them shower and get dressed, a staff member developed a relationship with a high-functioning individual, taking advantage of her, and she became pregnant. The individual carried the pregnancy to completion when the family took the baby and raised it. The staff member has since been arrested and charged with sexual abuse of a vulnerable adult and was sentenced to a long prison term. Something that has been noticed with the people running the company was that, an individual in one of the homes was going “down-hill” and was slowly dying. The company started to move all of her belongings out of the house while she was still in it and told the staff to stop feeding her and just give her a higher dose of morphine. When this happened, the staff could only allow her to eat ice cream ( a food in which she loved) even when she would ask for other food or drinks. She was unable to drink water because they did not want to dilute the medication so she was given a small sponge to bite down on for 3 minutes every hour. The individual died after 2 and a half weeks of this cruel punishment. The family was happy because they did not want to see her suffer and was unaware of how she was treated her last few weeks of life. A group home is not perfect, but is still a step above the mental asylums of the past. All people in this world have choices on events that happen in their life.
The mentally ill should not be excluded from this basic human right. If an individual does not want to take a shower for example; the person (mentally ill or not) should not be punished or forced to do so. If a patient has been told by her “care team” that they need a specific surgery due to the weight of the patient or because they could possibly do something they are not able to do now unless the surgery has been completed, then the individual should not have to complete it. The declaration states that any patient has “the right to discharge oneself at any time and to be discharged without restriction, having committed no offense. This is basically saying that if a person refuses to have a type of treatment done, then they should not be forced to just because someone else is their legal guardian and wants the treatment completed. Just as should the person be free to chose medically whether they want something or not, they should be able to chose whether or not they obtain
employment.
It should be a choice on if the individual wants to get a job in the community or decide if they would rather work in the treatment facility doing remedial tasks such as folding boxes or stuffing envelopes. Community integration is a major part in mental illness treatment. If an individual has any chance of being release back into the community from a facility, that individual needs other contact besides the same people that they see every day. The individuals need to be out in the community (supervised if needed), so they do not become institutionalized. A person should (mentally ill or not) should be able to work for any employer they are qualified for which is a part of the Americans With Disability Act (ADA). Section 12112 under the ADA states, “no covered entity shall discriminate against a qualified individual on the basis of disability in regard to job application process, the hiring, advancement …”. A job is a great way for individuals to learn how to communicate with other people in the community. It can teach a person social skills that are not taught when they are in a facility everyday and can not be learned from a psychologist. This is important for the well being of an individual that does not plan on being in a facility and wants to integrate back into the community. People in-charge of a facility think they know the best thing for the individual but when the individuals wants are pushed aside, this causes unhappiness within the individual. Unhappiness can lead to depression and possibly suicidal thought and actions. By forcing people to do what the caregivers think is best, is ultimately hurting the person that is seeking help for their disability. This system must be changed for the sake of the citizens being served. When the facility only allows the individuals to work in remedial task such as folding boxes or filling boxes, this does not have the same positive effect on the people when they could work cleaning an office or doing another form of work. These are the rights that all Americas are given as a citizen and should not exclude a person just because of his cognitive thinking level with the exception of the dangerous, violent individuals. America needs to revise the way treatment is done for the mentally ill because they are subject to abuse and neglect the way the system works now. The major problem the system has now is that the staff members taking care of the individuals do not have the “want” to care for them. One way to fix this issue would be to make sure the staff are fully trained to work with the individuals. Most companies will give a new-higher staff a one week or less training class consisting of first-aid and CPR, blood-born pathogens class, a 4 hour class on the rights of the individuals, and a 8 hour class on prevention and support (a class developed to teach staff when and how to properly restrain and individual with the least amount of force necessary). Majority of the staff in the mental health care field are underpaid and do not have the motivation to stay in the field or properly want to care for the individuals. With making around minimum wage, staff members are forced to work a second job and do not focus on the job of watching the individuals because most of the time an individual can be placed alone or with a TV and be occupied for hours. This is not beneficial to the individuals. If the companies would begin to require a degree of any kind in order to obtain employment, They would more than likely get a higher quality of staff that want to stay at the job longer than 6 months or until something better comes along. If this where the case, the pay of the employees would need to be raised to a competitive pay with the health care field. The higher pay will also make employees happier with their job, less likely to leave the job, and happier to take care of the individuals they are responsible for. If these businesses would do more than just require a simple background check, the quality of the staff will increase as well. No drug screening is required to work with individuals suffering from mental illness. This leaves the individuals with staff that could come to work impaired by some substance or alcohol and place the safety of the clients in danger. Through personal experience and a conversation with an upper-management figure, it was noticed that if a drug test was mandatory and regularly done, the company would probably lose about 70 percent of the work force. When these drug and alcohol abusers are employed, it leaves less room for sober and people thinking in there “right mind” to obtain employment and better the lives of the individuals. Employees working with these individuals should be required by law to pass a drug-screen and thorough background check monthly to ensure the safety of the individuals. All individuals should have the right to be safe from physical, mental, and sexual abuse and to be free from neglect and mistreatment. America needs to divert more funds through the mental health system instead of making budget cuts to a much needed community service. With all of the budget cuts, individuals are at risk of abuse, neglect, and not treated with the respect they deserve as human beings. “60 percent of people with mental health conditions and nearly 90 percent of people with substance use disorders don’t receive the care they need.” Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services. The people suffering from mental illness, whether forgotten by their family or not, are people none the less and deserve to be treated equally. Individuals suffering from any form of mental illness have the same needs and those needs deserve to be met.

References:

Citizens Commission on Human rights. (n.d.). Mental Health declaration of Human Rights. Retrieved from http://www.cchr.org/about-us/mental-health-declaration-of-human-rights.html
Hartocollis, A. (2009, February 05). Abuse is found at psychiatric unit run by city. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/nyregion/06kings.html?_r=0
Plone, P. (n.d.). The Rights of Persons with Mental Illness. Retrieved from http://www.drckansas.org/publications/the-rights-of-persons-with-mental-illness-1
Sebelius, Kathleen. (, April). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/04/10/increasing-access-mental-health-services

Senator Tom Harkin. (n.d.). The Americans with Disabilities Act. Retrieved from http://www.ada.gov/pubs/adastatute08.htm
The Editorial Board, NY Times. (2013, July 24). Justice for the Mentally Disabled. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/nyregion/06kings.html?_r=0