A Failing Mental Health System in the United States
Unraveling Factors Contributing to a Failing Mental Health System in the United States
There is no shortage of
documentation that points to stigma as a primary factor negatively impacting the
mental health system in the United States.
The plethora of documentation pointing to stigma as the main cause for
failure to seek treatment is convincing until you dig a bit deeper. More in-depth research begins to reveal a
mental health system that is misguided and in shambles. Stigma is no doubt the scapegoat used to
ignore the real issues within the mental health sector.
According to Jaffe
(n.d.), the stigma of mental illness is a myth. “There is no stigma to having a
neurobiological disorder (serious mental illness), the same way there is no
stigma to being African-American or HIV positive or tall, short, inny, or outy. There is however discrimination. Stop talking about stigma and start talking
about discrimination. When you see
discrimination, complain to the discriminator (not about stigma)” (para 1).
To answer advocates combating the stigma of
mental illness and the claim that people with SMI are no more violent than others,
Jaffe (n.d.) points to the reality asserting, “People with SMI as a group, are
not more violent than others unless they have a history of violence. Studies that prove people with
neurobiological disorders (NBD) are not more violent do so through statistical slights
of hand: 1.) they combine a study of the worried well with the seriously
ill to create an artificially low violence statistic. 2.) They limit the study to seriously ill
people coming out of hospitals thereby eliminating people who are jailed,
killed, suicidal, in shelters, or homeless to create artificially low violence
statistics. Instead, we should support “pharmacological
research and community programs aimed at cutting down on the violence. Change involuntary inpatient and outpatient
laws so people can get help before they become a danger to self and others rather
than forcing them to wait until after. Improve
the quality of programs so consumers want to get into them, rather than escape
from them” (para 7).
Zdanowicz (2006) agrees, stating “A small
group of people with mental illnesses are more violent than the general public;
those are the ones not taking their medications. Failing to acknowledge this – because
of a misguided sense of political correctness or fear of stigmatizing everyone
with a mental illness – keeps everyone from acting to help that small group”
(para 4). Research helps to clarify who
is at the greatest risk of being violent.
Patients diagnosed with schizophrenia who demonstrate positive
symptoms such as paranoid delusions, hearing voices and imagined
superhuman powers are three times more likely to be violent than other
schizophrenia patients. Meaningful scientific
data clarifies who most needs treatment interventions, removes the stigma of
other mental illnesses, and saves lives.
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