Social Work And Mental Health Essay 2022

Running Head: SOCIAL WORK AND MENTAL HEALTH
SOCIAL WORK AND MENTAL HEALTH
Essay
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SOCIAL WORK AND MENTAL HEALTH 1
Health is considered as well-being of a person in terms of emotional and physical fitness.
It is a state in which person remains free from any kind of illness it may be physically or
mentally. Health is also known as physical and mental strength of a person to tackle any kind of
obstacle in their life. While mental health is a state which includes emotional, social and
psychological fitness of an individual. In addition, mental health also determines strength to
handle stress and awareness of making choices. Mental health is one of the most important
aspect of every individual right from their childhood to their adulthood. Mental health has direct
impact on personal as well as professional life. In developed countries like Australia, Mental
illness is linked with various human right issues because it has been reported that people
suffering from mental illness often face discrimination from society as well as health care
system.
Mental health service in Australia offers a clear image of country response towards health
and welfare system linked with mental health of Australian citizen. This system is upgraded
every year in order to offer innovative health care services. Mental health service in Australia is
basically an online application that focuses on the activities which support health as well as
social care for people which are suffering from mental illness. This program is being funded by
both state and territory government in order to provide specialized health care for various mental
illnesses. In addition, this program offers their support in both public as well as hospital setting
along with community services. Both State and territories are offering their health service in the
community in the form of accommodation and social housing schemes. Currently, Australian
government is funding various mental health services in the form of Medicare benefit schedule
along with Pharmaceutical benefit scheme. This scheme covers income, social and community
support to the people suffering from mental illness.

SOCIAL WORK AND MENTAL HEALTH 2
People from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander are specially challenged people and
therefore must be considered in broader context in terms of emotional and social wellbeing.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are significant need of health concern for Australia.
In this setting, cultural mental health care is not enough to provide proper health care in terms of
jurisdictions and human right. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander includes people with diverse
group which lives in urban, rural and remote areas. People living in these areas have one of the
major disadvantages related to socio-economic condition (Parker & Milroy, 2014). People from
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander which are living with mental illness are in urgent need of
culturally response from mental health provider. Health provider working with these people are
not confident enough related to their mental illness. In this situation, Aboriginal Australian has
developed cultural aspects which include incompetence, proficiency and blindness. These people
are really in need of special care because dealing with them often leads to frustration among
health providers with limited knowledge. A huge turn over can be seen in health provider which
are dealing with Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people (Parker, 2010). The Queensland
department of community provides psycho-educational program as a part of their skill
development along with innovative clinical treatment to adults which are suffering from misuse
disorder. Even this department has focused their interest on human right aspect which is creating
restriction between health provider and people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander which are
suffering from mental illness (AASW, 2014). Cultural intervention is very essential for treating
personality dysfunction from human right view point. These people are in significant need of
emotional and spiritual wellbeing in order to adjust their life style in a custody setting. Culture
intervention is important because it helps in reducing the gap between health provider and patient
in terms of knowledge, learning, emotional and behaviour pattern.

SOCIAL WORK AND MENTAL HEALTH 3
In Australia, people suffering from mental disorder have to face violations of their basic
fundamental rights and are in need of effective response in the form of legal actions. In Australia,
these sections of people are being protected under provision of disability discrimination Act
1992. This act was developed to reduce the chances of discrimination against people with mental
illness by offering them protection under human right act (Sabbioni et al. 2018). Expect South
Australia, it has been seen that all stat and territories are legal bound to cover law related to
mental illness along with equal opportunity under common wealth Act. According to NMHS a
significant progress has been found in legislation related to discrimination against people
suffering from mental illness. This law is also supported by UN mental health principles in order
to evaluate Australian jurisdiction. Current policy of National mental health service standard
believes in human rights of the people suffering from mental illness (Thornicroft et al., 2016). In
addition, this policy offered people which are suffering from mental disorder a voice by which
they can share their own experience related to community and culture in which they are living.
People with mental illness often face social disadvantage in various aspects because these
people are not able to express their human right and therefore in most of the cases, there can be
seen breach of human right laws. In most of the cases, people suffering from acute mental illness
are being treated against their will which can be seen as threat to their fundamental rights. Rights
of people with mental illness are being considered in the Australian legislative in 1991.
According to this law, people suffering from mental illness and their health provider are given
some right in order to secure their basic human rights (Clement et al., 2010). Mental health
statements of right and responsibilities are mainly focused on social right of these sections of
people. The main goal behind this law was to provide social justice, equality and sympathetic for
these section of people. In addition, National inquiry was set up to examine human rights of