Mental Health: Essential From Childhood to Adulthood - Essay Sample

Introduction

Mental health includes emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing. If one is not mentally healthy, then it means that their feelings, actions, and thinking is affected. The affected persons are also unable to handle stress, have healthy relationships and make critical decisions. Mental wellbeing is essential from childhood to adulthood. Biological factors, family history or life experience, contribute to mental health problems. Mental health can be managed through various interventions. Mental health law and policy have been developed to deal with this significant issue. Social and medical perspectives influence the improvement of someone with mental health problems. The social workers face several challenges when dealing with patients who have mental health problems. There is a relationship between substance abuse and mental distress.

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People who have mental health problems are vulnerable to abuse, and in some instances, their fundamental rights are violated. They experience both physical and emotional attacks (Borg, & Kristiansen, 2008). Those around them isolate them because they act weird. The abuse may arise from friends, caregivers, family members, members of the community, health professionals as well as law enforcement agencies. This is why there should be laws and provisions that help in protecting the rights of this vulnerable group. Recent law and policies have been developed to ensure that mental health patients are effectively taken care of.

Safety is very critical in the provision of quality of mental health. However, this is sometimes impaired as a result of either patient's actions or those of the health professionals (Johnston, Liddle, 2007). No matter the source of threat to quality services the management should always ensure that patients are protected. In recent years development has been made to ensure that there is a more effective approach to risk both in the planning stage as well as delivery of services.

Mental Capacity Act

This act is designed to help protect and empower patients who do not have a mental capacity to make sound decisions related to their health. The Act applies to patients who are 16 years and above and entails basic actions that include what the patient should buy or wear. Those who are to be assisted by this Act include those suffering from stroke, brain injury, learning disability, and mental illness. It should however not be assumed that those who have these conditions cannot make basic decisions.

The Mental Capacity Act stipulates that the patient should be left to make decisions unless it is proved that they cannot do so (Brown, Barber, & Martin, 2015). If health workers establish that a patient can't make sound decisions, they should assist him or her. In the case of Ruth, she should be assisted by the health workers because she is not in the capacity to decide whether she wants to be treated or not. This, however, can sometimes cause an ethical dilemma so the health professionals can alternatively appoint a person who the patient trusts to make decisions on his or her behalf. Ruth trusts her daughter so the accident and emergency mental health crisis team should request her to make decisions that are for the interests of her mother. The treatment option chosen should be one that is less restrictive because even a person with mental health problems should have the basic rights and freedom. Ruth feels that the only social worker who can cope with her is Sue who is currently sick. The rest uses restrictive measures by telling Ruth what she should do as well as what they can or cannot do for her.

The Care Act 2014

The Act was introduced in 2014 and was the most critical development in social care law for 60 years (Blumenthal, & Collins, 2014). The main development is that the Act emphasizes on the wellbeing of patients. It also gives the local authority the responsibility to ensure that the facility places the welfare of the patients above all other activities. The main aim of this Act is to protect vulnerable adults from being mistreated and improve the quality of life. The Act provides a guideline which caregivers are supposed to follow, and it lays emphasis that every patient is a human being with needs and wants. The patient should be involved in different processes of assessing and safeguarding their needs. The act encourages personalization of services by incorporating a person-centered approach when taking care of vulnerable adults such as those with mental health problems (Groves, 2016). The approach acknowledges that the interests of the patients come first so the vulnerable person and any nominated people should be involved in making decisions that help safeguard patient's concerns and care plans.

In some cases, the vulnerable patients suffer during the safeguarding concerns because the caregivers make the decisions without considering what they would prefer (Burton, 2017). The patient is rarely involved in the process which makes him, or her feel that their rights to freedom are violated. Ruth, for example, felt that only Sue had her interest and she went out of her way to help her. She felt that the rest of the caregivers do not consider her interests but instead tell her to do and what they can either do or not do for her.

The Act emphasizes the empowerment of vulnerable patients so that they can make informed decisions regarding their health (Burton, 2017). Before starting the treatment process, the service user should indicate what they expect at the end of the treatment. Additionally, the Act encourages the caregivers to protect the patient by giving them basic information on what signs they should look for and when they should come to the facility for assistance.

The other principle provided in this Act is prevention which means that the caregiver should be able to notice any signs of harm and respond accordingly without further risking the life of the patient (Burton, 2017). Caregivers should also respond proportionately by involving the patient so that he/she can decide on the approach that has less impact on the quality of life. The partnership is also important in caregiving because the caregivers can work together with other stakeholders in the community to detect abuse in the early stages and report them to the necessary authorities. Accountability is also key to the caregiver has the responsibility of updating the vulnerable patient and the individuals entrusted to make decisions on their behalf of any development such as changes that are required to be made for the sake of safeguarding the patient.

Impact of Social and Medical Perspectives on Assessment, Working Relationships and Interventions When Working With People Who Experience Mental Distress

Both social and medical perspectives influence the assessment, working relationships and interventions when working with people who experience mental distress. Social factors in mental health problems include abuse, power, ethnicity, gender as well as sexual orientation (Rogers, & Pilgrim, 2014). As per the social perspective, mental health problems develop when symptoms are caused by societal reaction into an organized social role. People who behave in a certain manner are labeled by society as mentally distressed (Marsella, & White, 2012). On the other hand, medical perceives mental distress as a disease, and they apply the psychiatric concept to control the symptoms of the disease (Creek, & Lougher, 2011).

The sociologists, on the other hand, believe that mental health distress can be managed through a social reaction approach (Smith, 1982). The sociologists believe that there is nothing like mental illness and that adverse life problems cause the condition. Sociologists' perception, therefore, is that when individuals visit the psychiatrists, it does not mean that they consider themselves as mentally ill (Golightley, & Goemans, 2017). They visit psychiatrists because they acknowledge they have life problems which can be solved through psychiatric counseling. Ruth's problems, for example, are as a result of unpleasant life situations since she was a child. Ruth's mother was cold towards her as she saw her as a cause of her problems. Her problems never seized as at the age of 17 she was raped and conceived her daughter Megan. This can be used to support the concept used by sociologists because the condition that Ruth is it seems to have emanated from a series of unpleasant experiences.

The Labeling Concept

The sick role concept and the labeling concept assumes that no individuals are mentally ill, but the condition is as a result of real-life unpleasant occurrences (Rose, Thornicroft, Pinfold, & Kassam, 2007). According to these concepts, those who are labeled as mentally ill are those who portray behavior that is different from that of the entire population. Labeling is detrimental because it is sometimes fulfilled when someone considered as sick mentally is diagnosed with the condition.

The relationship between service beneficiaries and caregivers who adopt a social perspective differ from that of a medical perspective (Smith, 1982). The caregivers who assume that the condition that the patient has is as a result of social problems is likely to intervene by counseling the patient. The relationship between the two is friendlier because the caregivers believe that the condition is temporary. On the other hand, the caregivers who assume a medical perspective to mental health distress are likely to retreat to medications which the patient may react negatively especially if they feel that their condition is a temporary one. Caregivers who assume the social perspective will intervene by talking to the patient and offering guidance and counseling. They will also engage the patient in coming up with treatment methods that take care of their interests.

On the other hand, those who adopt a medical perspective will result in medical interventions. In the case of Ruth, the psychiatrists have diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia as well as a borderline personality disorder. She was consequently prescribed different types of medication. Different models of mental disorder are reflected in mental health policy. The biomedical model, for example, assumes that mental disorders such as schizophrenia as well as substance use disorder are brain diseases which are biologically constituted (Deacon, 2013). According to this model mental distress is caused by abnormalities of the biology. The model also presents an assumption that mental diseases and physical diseases are similar and the condition can be treated biologically.

Opportunities and Challenges of Working as a Social Worker in Interdisciplinary Mental Health Service Settings

Interprofessional working is an important aspect of mental health as it ensures that the professionals come together to provide quality healthcare to the patients (Reeves, Pelone, Harrison, Goldman, & Zwarenstein, 2017). This type of working refers to a process whereby the members of distinct professions work together to ensure that the service users benefit from the services offered. Interprofessional training helps in creating a conducive working environment that facilitates teamwork and effective communication (Harris, Advocate, Crabtree, Levesque, Miller, W, Gunn, & Russell, 2016). Although the approach has some challenges, it remains to be the best solution for ensuring that mentally distressed patients are treated suitably because different professionals work as a team - interprofessional working cam about due to the need of providing quality services to the patients. Without interprofessional working, vulnerable may be discharged by one department without being treated instead of bei...