Perceptions of Mental Illness

This article explores the different perceptions and perspectives of mental illness, including its causes, symptoms, and effects on individuals and society. It discusses the principles and perspectives in the provision of mental health care, the contribution of therapies in treating mental illness, and the changing nature of mental illness provision. The article also examines the theories practiced in mental health and their implications for treatment.

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Perceptions of Mental Illness
Introduction
Mental illness is a health condition that affects how a person thinks or how they do their
things. The mental disorders may develop due to several reasons including but not limited to
genes, intake of drugs, situations in life and brain damage in case one encounters an accident
(L, 2018). A person could be depressed, anxious, addicted to something or even end up
developing poor eating habits. The signs of illness lead to stress and abnormal functioning of
a person. It makes one’s life difficult since one is not comfortable while interacting with
people. The infected could have signs and symptoms such as insomnia, illusion, extreme
change of moods, stress and drug abuse. One can also develop poor health including frequent
headaches, a change in eating patterns, hurting oneself and other people, and the inability to
cope with people (Sepulveda, 2012).
There are different types of mental illness. One is an anxiety disorder which is a type of
disease where a person has uncontrolled fears and phobia which leads to sweating and having
fast heartbeats (Chikaodiri, 2010). There is also a mood disorder which is an illness where
one experiences extreme mood shifts; they could be too happy or angry at times. Another
type of mental illness is a psychotic disorder where an individual’s thinking is affected. The
decisions and reasoning of an individual are poor. The eating disorder leads to changes in the
habits of eating a person where one can eat less or overeat. All mental illnesses are brain-
related problems that are difficult to control (Vigo, Thornicroft, and Atun, 2016).
Principles and Perspectives in the provision of Mental Health
Some principles apply when taking care of patients of mental illness. The patients
should be assessed and treated voluntarily. They should be helped to decide whether to be
determined, treated and understand the recovery process. Their views and choices should be

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considered and taken care of (Sepulveda, 2012). The language used should be recognized by
the patient and the word used should be easy. Their rights should also be cared for and
respected. They should be provided with their basic, social and religious needs. These needs
should be provided based on their gender, age, type of mental illness and any other health
condition. The interests of children and the youth should be identified and promoted too. The
roles of those taking care of the patients should also be recognized and should get help when
the need arises (Vigo, Thornicroft, and Atun, 2016).
People have different points of view of mental health based where they come from,
their knowledge on mental illnesses and interaction with mentally ill persons. The
perspectives keep changing with time. Earlier, mental illness was related to evil spirits,
witchcraft, and supernatural forces (Vigo, Thornicroft, and Atun, 2016). Today people have
changed their understanding of
The cognitive-behavioral therapy developed which took care of anxiety disorder. People
did not consider some disorders as mental illnesses earlier. Those who are completely mad
were the only people found to have mental illnesses. Today, people have accepted mentally
ill people and are taking care of them (Alshowkan, 2017).. Also, different institutions have
been established to take care of people with mental illness, and medical centers have included
a department to take care of mentally ill persons. People have learned to accept their states
and are ready to seek help from medical personnel and psychologists (Sepulveda, 2012).
Different perspectives have had different effects on an individual. People fear
individuals with mental illness which makes them develop an attitude towards such people.
As a result, people living with mental illness develop a negative attitude towards people
(Alshowkan, 2017). They stop associating with people and want to be alone at all times. They
are also afraid of talking out their problems to other people. The self-esteem of the patient is
also lowered. They are no longer comfortable talking to people and hence lose their friends.

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On disclosing their health problem to their employers, they may lose their jobs. Overthinking
and stress further complicates one’s issue (Sepulveda, 2012).
The family members of the patient are also affected when one of them is mentally ill.
They are forced to tolerate the weird behavior of the person. They are hurt by the individual
and hence coping with such an individual becomes hard. Family members have a challenge
raising money to take care of a patient and interacting with them becomes wearisome; the
roles performed by the individuals are neglected (Giannakopoulos and Kolaitis, 2012). Those
taking care of the patients also face a challenge in their field. They are forced to put up with
the behavior of the mental illness patients and taking care of them is stressful, demanding and
takes much time(Barnes and Burlingame, 2016). They also suffer isolation since they rarely
take part in leisure activities and the belief related to mental illnesses keeps other people
away from them. Some people believe that those who take care of mentally ill persons also
suffer from mental illnesses.
The Contribution of Therapies in treating mental illness
Different institutions take care of mentally ill persons. This starts with the family a
mentally ill person (Sepulveda, 2012). At times family members are not able to solve the
problem, which could be through counseling or easing one’s burdens which include work
assigned to them and also changing the environment of the patient. If the problem persists,
the patient can seek help from social institutions, psychologists, visit social workers or seek
mental health help from an expert (Barnes and Burlingame, 2016). Rehabilitation centers
have been established to take care of patients of mental illnesses. Some of the people that
suffer mental illnesses are the productive members of society.
When mentally ill, they cannot work effectively, and some are forced to leave work.
Once they undergo treatment, they go back to their places of work and continue delivering
their services. An example is the transport services (Barnes and Burlingame, 2016).. Taking

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care of mentally ill persons helps to reduce crime rates in society. A mentally ill person
commits a crime without their consent. Taking care of mentally ill persons help to reduce the
number of crimes committed in society. Taking care of mentally ill persons also helps to
reduce the number of people that depend on others. When someone is mentally sick, they are
most likely going to depend on others since they cannot work when sick. Some lose their jobs
making them dependent on the working population who could be taking care of their children
(Shrestha, 2018) If a parent is mentally ill, the members of the society could be forced to take
care of his or her children during that period.
Taking care of mentally ill persons also help to reduce the number of suicide cases in
the society. Ordinary people prefer seeking help instead of killing themselves. The number of
murder cases also decrease since people in their right states of mind are never strong enough
to kill their fellow human beings. Most of the people that commit suicide are the youth, who
are the most productive members of society (Anusha and Usha, 2017). Being productive will
lead to the growth of the economy. Once a patient goes through treatment, some become
competent advisers, and this helps to reduce the number of people repeating the same mistake
the patient engaged in.
If the person suffered mental problems as a result of abusing drugs, they can well
advise someone else since they have suffered the consequences of abusing drugs. The
individuals can also quickly identify members in the society abusing drugs and help them
early before they suffer the consequences (Stotsky and Rhatts, 2016).
The Changing Nature of the provision for the mentally illness
An increase of the people with the issues of mental illness has triggered the health
cares, and the social services make appropriate changes that will curb the problem. The
charity providers and the institutions working to help the patients of mental illness have the
concern for all the people and their commitment is for the benefit of every individual. Among

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the changes and the plan that the above psychiatric care centers have made include the
establishment of the workforce plans projected to run for several years. (Stotsky and Rhatts,
2016). The strategies laid down to implement the plan have the aim to transform the manner
of providing the mental illness services comple3tely. The foundational strategies include
reinforcing the workforce, training of the present se3rvice providers and investing in the
education of the potential workforce. These approaches are kept intact and are intended to
serve on a long term base (Dieterich, Irving, Bergman, Khokhar, Park, and Marshall, 2017)
The improvement agenda need to be achieved through the steady accomplishment of
the set new ways of achieving the goal (Dieterich, Irving, Bergman, Khokhar, Park, and
Marshall, 2017).. Firstly, it is better to ensure that people get the tests for mental illness at an
early stage of their life. This will make it possible to detect the problem and start the
treatment before it advances . The treatment can be done by the use of the appropriate drugs
or by introducing one to the appropriate program for guidance and psychotherapy.
Secondly, the accessibility for the services should be continent for the people to get
them whenever they require them. They should be accessible at all the days of the week at
any hour whether during the day or the night. It will then ensure that there is no limit that one
requires to be attended to in case they need any form of help (Nestler, Peña, Kundakovic,
Mitchell, and Akbarian, 2016). By doing this, it will alleviate the number of persons suffering
as most of those who volunteer to seek advice and get attended to at their hour of need. This
new technique goes in hand with the expansion of the centers to find the mental health
facility. The facilities are expanded to even the remote areas making it safe for all the people
to reach them (Collins, 2013)
Thirdly, the change can also be derived from the efforts put while investing in
research. Whenever a thorough investigation is conducted, the results always lead to a
solution. Rese3arch will continually improve the ambition of a programme such as the better

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ways to provide support to the mentally ill. The concerned personnel should adequately store
the data taken throughout the year to help them plan and execute the treatment and the
counseling programmers (Grob, 2019).. The data can be then used at a later date to show the
changes that need to be made to record improvement.
The change can also be made possible through the partnership. This will bring the
efforts of several parties together thereby reinforcing the service provision. At times the work
may be very involved in that there is a need to increase the number of skilled personnel. The
partners who can be engaged include the commissioners, the service providers, the locally
formed governments, or even the policymakers. Their involvement is essential as they help
while making the decisions and contributing the resources when called (Kosyluk, Al-Khouja,
Bink, Buchholz, Ellefson, Fokuo, Goldberg, Kraus, Leon, Michaels, and Powell, 2016).
The change will eventually lead to the rise of several challenges. The open the door to
seek the services and the expansion of the centers to the remote regions increase the number
of clients rapidly (Collins, 2013)
The increase may lead to constraining when it comes to the delivery of the services.
This can be curbed by increasing the number of skilled workforces to serve in mental health.
A lot of investment needs to be done to educate more psychiatrists and engage them in
attachments for them to master the skills that they learn school. Most of the existing staffs
working in mental health remain as there is usually a shortage of qualified personnel in this
sector (Zaiko, Roach, Korgaonkar, and Grieve, 2015). Both the current and the potential staff
need an up-skill to prepare them in case there might be a demand for the health needs
afterward.
The challenges can always be overcome by improving the platforms for those in need
of mental health checkups. The transformation of the services is best done by executing
innovations. The research and the room to advance the innovations is open as the current

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Changes Are Not the Final Solutions for the Improvement (Zaiko, Roach, Korgaonkar, and
Grieve, 2015).
The Theories Practiced in Mental Health
Two theories were developed to explain mental illness; psychodynamic and
behaviorism theory. The psychodynamic theory explains that mental illness should be treated
by talking with the patient while behaviorism theory explains that mental illness should be
managed by helping the patient to change their behavior (Zaiko, Roach, Korgaonkar, and
Grieve, 2015).
The psychodynamic theory tends to explain the importance of first understanding the
person who has a mental illness before the intervention. This will open up the ability of a
person to know how to solve the problem that one may be in (Collins, 2013). One can look at
the symptoms that a person may be expressing and consciously deduce the actual conflict
affecting the mind. It is through understanding the other person and can interpret change that
a clinician can control the feeling that is expressed by the client. The application of this
theory ends up victorious because human beings develop an unconscious relationship after
they happen to relate to each other. The bond created makes it easy for one to talk and
convince the other on the best practice to follow to relieve stress or the pressure on the mind.
Conversely, the behaviorism theory explains how one can treat the mental illness by
helping a person affected adapt to new behavior. The action of an individual takes the shape
of the environment that they find themselves in. Once a person undergoes conditioning, they
can be able to adopt a specific behavior catch up with it , and start practicing it. One will
tend to absorb more what they see with their eye regardless of how they are internally
believed (Murphy, DuHadway, and Hanson, 2019).
Therefore by getting used to the actions of the neighboring stimuli, one changes to adapt to
them. Study shows that this theory can be used to change the mind of a mentally ill person, as

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it notes that a person can be conditioned to perform any task despite their traits and the
genetic background (Murphy, DuHadway, and Hanson, 2019).
Conclusion
There should be very skilled personnel working in any of the mental health centers
and the rehabilitation stations which can effectively engage the mentally ill persons into the
real form psychotherapy (Grob, 2019). Once a person is mentally sick, the impact first affects
the person him/herself they spreads to the people around as the family members and the
carers. With the increase of the cases of the persons developing mental problems, there arises
the problem of providing proper care. There are changes made to counter such challenges to
alleviate the number of people suffering from the mental disorders, among the changes made
include investing in research and the education of the psychiatrists, securing the services
accessible at any time, and setting the service stations at the grassroots. The healing of any
mental disease needs to be done by a professional who can administer proper treatment and
determining the most appropriate theories( Corner, and Gill, 2015)

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