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Mental Health
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Introduction
Mental illness inherently affects one person in every four adults in American society. As research studies on mental health have shown, limited mental disorders awareness opportunities coupled with stigmatization have prevented community members from seeking support of mental health providers. This paper seeks to explore on mental health principles, programs operation, and networks in Lexington Area and how they can be redesigned to promote mental health in a multicultural society. National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month is among the events in Lexington Area, which are hosted by state, partners, and affiliate organizations to bring mental health aware in this multicultural society (Becker & Kleinman, 2013). Important activities for the awareness of mental health include; donations, resource development as intervention measures, education, and concerted efforts in media campaigns for advocacy. Also, Multicultural Action Center is another partners actively involved in the campaigns to promote better mental health in Lexingtons diverse communities.
The principle of mental health prevention
According to Morrison (2006), supporting parenting and affordable mental healthcare access in early childhood years is the paramount principle in the prevention of mental illness. Failure in providing mental health care to pregnant mothers and young children, particularly those from impoverished families or who have previous mental disorders, significantly increases the risk across generations. Studies have indicated that because of limited educational opportunities on mental disorders as well as stigmatization of the patients, prevention of mental illness remains harbored in multicultural society.
Lack of education, income, and social segregation in the multicultural society like in Lexington Area are the major risk causes contributing to most of the mental disorders. The disadvantaged groups are most at risk of mental illness because they are marginalized in the multicultural society. Becker and Kleinman (2013) state National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month in Lexington played pivotal role in bringing in major stakeholders and supportive partners in helping make resources and knowledge available so that information on mental health reaches the community. Information plays integral role in ensuring prevention of mental illness in Lexington.
Rogers (2006) highlights that mental health disorder prevention as many stakeholders in Lexington have shown it contributes to social, economic, and health gain. In aIDition, prevention of mental disorders leads to economic productivity, social inclusion, reduced cases of behavioral and mental illness, and costs in treating those affected. The Lexington networks have significantly endeavored to achieve the implementation of activities and policies whose main goal has been prevention of mental disorders. The partnership initiative has played a great impetus where interactive presentations have aimed at reducing stigmatization of the mentally ill and subsequently prevent more people from becoming sick from mental disorders.
The program of Sharing Hope in Lexington designed materials, which, unlike other programs designed for multicultural society; the community has been able to read-through achieving successful implementation in prevention of mental disorders (Vostanis, 2007). Using the Internet, networking, and coordination by pilot group has been easy where information on ways of preventing the disorders of the brain do not affect many people and condemn them in suffering silently.
The principle of mental health intervention
The intervention principle in mental health argues that early treatment and diagnosis of psychosis can improve recovery and bring the chances of impairment nearly to zero. For successful intervention in prevention and dealing with the cases of mental health; assessment and detection, immediate treatment and management, late recovery, and continuing care are key phases (Becker & Kleinman, 2013). Intervention with a view of strengthening these areas will make sensitization of mental health to the Lexington people more viable and inherently reduce the cases of mental disorders.
Intervention aims at equipping families and individuals with coping skills so that can withstand difficulties of mental illnesses. In most cases difficulties occur but the best thing to do in such cases as explained by medical practitioners is to identify the problem, give required support to family and individual, treat stress and depression by offering psychological education, offer long-term and short-term solutions, and avoid resultant stigmatization, which aggravates the conditions. In such as case, intervention help the affected people to regaining back their ordinary lives (Morrison, 2006).
Intervention measures focus on activities and goals, which must be realized for service delivery so that on the onset of the mental illness mitigation efforts are put in place to annihilate the disorder. Intervention programs in Lexington take in the multicultural context with the goal of expanding mental health awareness in the area. The major platform in ensuring early intervention strategies are laid out by the National Majority Mental Health Awareness Month events. The intervention measures in this case are very important in that they involve; health strategies that promote peoples mental health, low incidences of mental disorders, and improved literacy level on mental health (Becker & Kleinman, 2013).
Early intervention as observed in Lexington has been instrumental to the empowerment of the community. The Multicultural Action Center in Lexington has been influential in offering support to groups giving early medical tests so that individuals identified with mental disorders are treated early before their illnesses reach advanced stages beyond reversal through cure (Morrison, 2006). Communication among those practitioners carrying out mental health tests is necessary with the program administrators so as to use available resources efficiently for greater good of the community. Lexington is a multicultural society with people of different economic backgrounds. Communication significantly has helped deployment of teams in the community with special consideration in which people have been marginalized.
The principle of mental health consultation
Consultancy in mental health refers to methods through which a specialist on mental disorders offers advice to professional workers, nurses, other practitioners, and teachers for better rehabilitation, prevention, and management of mental health in community. The importance of consultation to community is that it solves problems encountered in program execution and further knowledge for better implementation. Mental health is a sensitive topic and a biased view contrary to the norms and expectations of the community can lead the program starting from the wrong footing and causing conflicts with the cultural milieu (Vostanis, 2007).
In Lexington, consultancy in mental health plays pivotal role to the eventual implementation of the prevention and intervention programs of mental health. Consultancy agencies and partners in Lexington have endeavored to fulfill the expectations of the community by conducting prior baseline surveys and gauging what the community needs and which areas need more emphasis in the intervention and promotion of health. Although the department faces staffing challenges emanating from funding inadequacies, consultation is equally important in mental health just like the intervention strategies put in place to mitigate mental illness escalation in the community. Formative evaluation of the programs in this case through consultation gives an in-depth analysis, which vehemently helps in choosing programs worthy to continue receiving funds and those, which can be abandoned (World Health Organization, 2003).
Program consultation follows guidelines tentatively included in evaluation of a program: first, providing information useful in a program, which is still operating (formative evaluation). Second, providing information of the objectives and goals of a particular program and how it has achieved the intended purpose (outcome evaluation). Third, providing information on the costs in relation to the gains of the program. Last, providing information on program activities and how they are implemented (process evaluation). According to Rogers (2006), consultation plays significant role in efficiency assessment showing the weaknesses and strengths and how program resources have been utilized. This will be quite importance in assessing the progress made by stakeholders and partners in Lexington where mental health faces daunting challenges in this multicultural society. In aIDition, the consultation report helps gauge whether agencies should continue receiving fund and aIDress the challenges of staffing for successful implementation of the programs or not.
The principle of mental health education
In concerted efforts to improve the peoples mental health in a community, education plays integral role as the people have the basic knowledge of the illness. It also creates the rapport in accessing help and sense of belonging in a community that cares, which avoids stigmatization in community. If community is literate on mental health, the mental disorder casualties feel accepted in the community, and thus have a strong spirit on overcoming the disorder once they can seek help. This explains the reason mental health education is as important as the strategies of intervention. According to Vostanis (2007), increasing someones knowledge of influences and causes of mental disorders, it inherently helps him or her in arriving at changes and choices in his or her life so that handling the mental health become simple. If someone understands the symptoms and signs, he or she can seek help before damage can occur and thus prevent mental illness becoming severe.
In aIDition, lack of information and education on mental health is to blame for widespread stigmatization of the individuals and families with mental disorder cases. Proper education is important in any society as it enables people to seek avenues of treatment in early stages of the illness and thus prevent the disorder from developing impact on their lives. Fundamentally, organizations have been keen in Lexington Area where concerted efforts have been made ensuring mental health education as a pilot program is realized in the networking and coordination. Publications and other media of communication have been utilized in Lexington and education on mental health has made significant steps to making the community literate on the disorders (World Health Organization, 2003).
Depression and anxiety are common mental disorders many people face. Proper education on these disorders not only enable individuals to change their social lives but also to adapt ways, which enable them cope with changes happening to them (Vostanis, 2007). Therefore, education is essential as many of the mental disorders are treatable and eventually people in the community can live productive and healthy lives after seeking medication. Many of the events in Lexington have endeavored to bring out education on mental health, thus enabling the community to live normal lives.
The principle of mental health advocacy
Mental health advocacy is quite essential in ensuring the community know facts about mental health and avoid stigmatization and discrimination in the community for lack of knowledge. Advocacy empowers the people to express themselves fearlessly and stand against discrimination, segregation, and resultant stigmatization. Advocacy has significant role to play in that it helps the community know where it can access services and information on mental disorders and avoid suffering, social exclusion, and explore available options and choices in life (World Health Organization, 2003).
In the views of Morrison (2006), even in places where services assisting people with mental disorders are easily available, advocacy is significant as it makes sizable group of the community, which did not know such services existed know of their availability and seek them. Organizations like Multicultural Action Center have been in the forefront advocating for the available mental health care. Also, given the area is multicultural society, the organization has put a spirited fight for the community to embrace social diversity to appreciate and help one another, especially those with mental illnesses.
Operation of Programs and Networks In Lexington Ky Area and How they can be Constructed to Promote Mental Health in a Multicultural Society
Operation of programs and networks in Lexington Ky Area is important factor in the provision of mental health services. Networking of the implementing partners in Lexington is seen as plus because of sharing the limited resources each partner or stakeholder has for common good of the multicultural society. Networking plays integral role given the four functions, namely; mutual support, advocacy, providing mental health services as well as community building.
Operation of the program of mental health and networking of the implementing partners has overtime come together in Lexington area through major events like the National Majority Mental Health Awareness Month where mutual support has helped in contributing to the common goal of prevention, intervention, and education campaigns on sensitizing the society on mental disorders. Most of the operations are aimed at community building in which people in Lexington develop interpersonal and new social networks. The community building in the program implementation and operations is essential as people learn to handle mental disorders in better way (Morrison, 2006). Implementing partners and stakeholders in their operations reflected Lexington community needs in dealing with mental disorders. Cohesion in providing mental health services can be constructed so as to come up with counseling centers, drop-in centers, crisis response sites, and linkage of resources for better service delivery.
Inter-implementing partners meeting will be important in constructing the networks so that mental health is promoted through division of labor and pooling of resources to ensure better service delivery. The delivery of mental health services calls for linkage partners from technical assistance, mental health education, training, evaluation as well as in research. Ensuring an umbrella body to oversee the implementation of mental health in Lexington would play significant role if successful mental health advocacy is to be achieved. Advocacy promotes social action and inherently will promote change, especially downgrading stigmatization so as to induce increased access to mental health services in Lexington Ky Area.
Conclusion
Mental disorders are affecting a great number in the American population where one person in every four adults suffers from it. Supporting parenting and affordable mental healthcare access in early childhood years is among the preventive measures of mental illness. Lack of education, income, and social segregation in the multicultural societies like in Lexington Area are the major risk causes contributing to most of the mental disorders. Therefore, it is for these reasons that intervention measures, education, consultation, and advocacy on mental health should undertaken as it deserves lest the mental disorder patients are condemned in social exclusion and stigmatization.
References
Becker, A & Kleinman, A (2013). Mental health and the global agenda. The New England Journal of Medicine. 369: p. 66-73.
Morrison, J (2006). Diagnosis Made Easier: Principles and Techniques for Mental Health. Guildford Press.
Rogers, C (2006). Principles of early intervention in the treatment of psychosis. Nursing Times.Net. 102 (5): p. 28-29.
Vostanis, P. (2007). Mental health interventions and services for vulnerable children and young people. London: Jessica Kingsley Publication.
World Health Organization. (2003). Advocacy for Mental Health: Mental Health Policy and Service Guidance Package. Geneva: World Health Organization.
