Mental Health Services - Providing The Necessary Assessment And Treatment
According to wikipedia, 'mental health' is a term used to describe either a level of cognitive or emotional wellbeing or an absence of a mental disorder. The mind is an extremely versatile entity of the human body. It is extremely strong and at the same time, it is extremely sensitive. It can withstand torture to a great degree, yet succumb to a sharp word by a close person. In this regard, the mind should be treated with care. Those who are subjected to extreme mental abuse lose their peace of mind. Their mind is in a state of constant turmoil. In such a case, the person is said to have a mental disorder. People with mental disorders can become entirely different persons from their original self. They may turn out to become aggressive vagabonds, destroying anything in sight, yelling at people, throwing stuff at other people and finally killing themselves, or they may turn out to be a solitary recluse, seeking the company of none, sitting all by themselves in a dark corner looking at an imaginary being, mumbling to themselves. This class of people eventually dies too, of loneliness. The well being of the mind, especially during the prime youth of an individual is extremely important to his survival in this world as is learning to cope well with the main causes of stress. Mental health services are required for such people, and in this direction, there are certain mental health service organizations which do these people a world of good by providing the necessary treatment and care to them. Mental health services are rehabilitation centers for the mentally affected individuals giving them a chance in life to get back to normality. These centers do invaluable service to mankind by counseling the affected patients. Experts in psychology spend hours with the patients talking to them, reassuring them, calming down the agitated mind, relaxing the nerves and creating a calm atmosphere around them. Psychological Treatment is given to the individuals in the form of lectures, counseling classes or in the form of video tape presentations. The patients are made to feel that they are cared for, thus slowly driving out the fear of being uncared for. Periodic assessments are conducted on the mental state of the patients to check their progress. One such organization is SAMHSA - Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. This is a United States Government certified organization which treats thousands of mentally abused individuals each year. This organization undertakes mental health service programs to promote the importance of mental health among the illiterate and adopts mentally abused people to help them get back to normal. Some of the recent programs include a $1.2 million sanction for prevention of community based drug coalitions, prevention of HIV/AIDS for Ethnic Minority communities, etc. One of the programs conducted by SAMHSA is SBIRT - Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral and Treatment, which is a comprehensive and integrated public health approach for prevention or early treatment to persons who are under the risk of substance use disorders. Another informative program is the 15+ Make Time to Listen, Take Time to Talk program which strengthens the relation between parents and children by giving proper guidance to parents asking them to spend a minimum of 15 minutes continuously with their children. Such programs have drastically reduced the number of mentally affected people in the United States. Even though the rise of mental health services has mitigated the danger of mental abuse, the permanent solution lies in rooting out the problem once and for all. This can be done not by treating the mentally abused, but by preventing mental abuse to people. The Government has to take strict measures to bring in legislatures to this end. |
