Chapter 3 Problems of Mental Illness and Treatment.

Chapter 3

Problems of Mental Illness and Treatment

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Mental Illness as a Social Problem

• Many people with physical problems were classified as mentally ill until mid 20th C.

• Social institutions are under strain in dealing with the enormity of the problem

• The severely mentally ill who cannot take care of themselves

• The social impact of deinstitutionalization


Table 3-1: Ten Leading Causes of Role Impairment Days


Suicide and Mental Illness

• Suicide ranks – Third as the cause of death for young people– Second highest cause of death among

college students– Young males are three times more likely to

commit suicide than women– Mental illness is a major contributor of suicide


The Social Construction of Mental Illness

• Defining Mental Illness

• The Medical Model

• Mental Illness as Deviance

• Mental illness as problems with living

• Biological basis of mental illness

• Mentally ill are often treated as deviants

• Labeling someone mentally ill


Table 3-2: Categories of Psychological Disorders


Mental Disorders & Illnesses

• Classification of Mental Disorders

• Diagnosis or Label?

• Mental Illness Among Combatantsin Afghanistan and Iraq

• Distinction between incidence and prevalence of mental disorders


Mental Disorders & Illnesses

• Social Class and Mental Disorder

• Mental Disorder and Urban Life

• Other factors– Race– Sex– Age


Figure 3-1: The Vicious Cycle of Poverty and Mental Disorders


Institutional Problems of Treatment and Care

• Methods of Treatment

• Nonmedical Forms of Treatment– Primary form of nonmedical treatment is talk

therapy– Psychotherapy– Client-centered therapy– Hypnosis


Figure 3-2: Needs of Peoplewith Mental Disorders


Figure 3-3: The Impact of Deinstitutionalization


Changes in Mental-Health Treatment and Care

• Lack of treatment

• Most patients with a mental disorder do not receive treatment

• A variety of institutions and approaches, all working together, are necessary


Treatment Institutions

• Mental Hospitals– 19th & early 20th century mental care meant

being committed to a mental hospital– Erving Goffman– Rosenhan study – placement of

pseudopatients in mental hospitals– The sane patients could not be distinguished

from the insane patients by the hospital staff



• Community Psychology– Community Mental Health Centers

Construction Act of 1963 (halfway houses)– Community psychology movement

• Social conditions & institutions need to be taken into account in treating the mentally ill

• Psychologist and psychiatrists should play a role



• Community Psychology– Halfway houses are the mainstay of

community based treatment

• Cost shifting and the subsidizing of mental health treatment– Public vs. private forms of treatment



• Deinstitutionalization is a function of:– The discovery and use psychotropic drugs in

treating mental illness– Expansion of federal health and welfare

programs– Community based mental health approach


Deinstitutionalization and Homelessness

• Mentally ill among the homeless

• Thirty to sixty percent of the homeless are – Thought to suffer from severe mental

disorders


Social Policy

• A central theme of the politics of mental illness is parity– Eliminating the discrimination inherent in

insurance policies- physical & mental illnesses

• Policies of coordinating the efforts of treating the mentally ill

• Politics and patient rights

Chapter 3 Problems of Mental Illness and Treatment.

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Transcript of Chapter 3 Problems of Mental Illness and Treatment.