Social Work Practice and Mental Health: Understanding Schizophrenia

Social work practice and mental health.
Introduction
Mental health according to WHO is a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her
own abilities and can cope with various changes of life. (lajevardi, 2011)
Mental health problems occur commonly to people and are less severe than the mental illnesses. If
mental illness is not dealt with accordingly, it can lead to illness that might affect a person as an
individual or a family at large. It is expanding in Australia and according to WHO, this mental health
problem is on the rise. (Samra, 2000)
Examples of these many mental health problems in Australia are-:
 depression
 disorder in eating
 schizophrenia
 mood disorder
 fear
 sadness
 anxiety among other many ones.
Schizophrenia
This is a mental problem that is characterised with an individual to have an abnormal social
interaction and failure to know what is present/real. It is mostly characterised by hallucinations,
interactions are reduced, false beliefs, impaired thinking, lack of emotional expressions and reduced
activities. It is a gradual disease and the individuals affected tend to stay longer before realizing they
are affected with the problem. This can even take more years to diagnose. (Campel, 2010)
Contributory factors are many but majorly affected by
 Hereditary; if most of your ancestors were schizophrenic.
 Environment; psychosis always happens mostly e.g. those bullied, separated from parents
and those abused.
 Psychological issues; situations that are not clear e.g. when under stress may affect the
neurocognitive part of the persons brain.
 Social processes e.g. unemployment, poverty and lawlessness
 Recreational drugs e.g. excessive use of alcohol, nicotine and cannabis especially early
exposure to growing brains.