Literature Review
This is scholarly review of the topic mental health; the paper critically analyses current knowledge and contributions of various authors within the context of the topic under review. It also identifies the knowledge which will form the basis of the next research.
Literature Review Scope
The paper will have a wide look in various dimensions of the topic under review with the use of five articles of at most 7 years old and below, carefully chosen as best the representative of the existing literature on the topic.
Literature review comparative analysis
According to Royal Collage of Psychiatrist position statement paper number PS4 of 2010, mental ill-health is the single largest source of diseases burden in the United Kingdom. The paper associates mental illness with increase in health-risk behavior, poor education, unemployment and low income among other predisposing factors. The paper further postulates that, most of the mental illness problems in adulthood begin way back in childhood of the patient. That the best way to handle the problem of mental ill-health issue is to pay attentions to symptom early in life of the patient, and that improving public mental health has huge benefits to nations accrued through better economic productivity and increased life expectancy among other benefits that the nation will draw from good public mental health. (No health without public mental health - the case for action, 2010)
Mind, an organizations that is concerned with better mental health opines in its article titled understanding mental health problems, opines that there is known clear and precise cause of a particular mental health problem rather most of these conditions are caused by a combinations of factors which have different effect on different people. The article further lists the factors that lead to mental ill-health as Childhood abuse. Loneliness, stigmatization, loosing someone close to you, unemployment and drug and alcohol abuse among other factors. That, different cultures have different opinions towards mental health condition; in Western culture for example many people agree that mental illness required clinical diagnosis, however this may change depending on spiritual values or a person but this opinion is largely personal depending on the background of the opinion maker. The paper notes that there is still widespread stigma and discrimination associated with people who have mental health problems. However, people who suffer from mental health problems can recovery after accessing support although the condition may relapse from time to time but with continued assistance the condition will improve and stabilize. (Understanding mental health problems, 2016)
According to mental health America, an organization within an objective of promoting mental as part of the general human wellness, ranked states in United States of American according to mental prevalence and access to medical care. The research found out that the states that ranked top ten are found in the Midwest and Northeast of the United States of America. On the hand most states that ranked bottom ten on the list are found in West and South of the country. A high ranking state according to the research had lower prevalence of mental illness and have higher rate of access to medical care. On the contrary, a state ranking low on this scale has high prevalence of mental illness and low access to medical care. Effectively, this report is linking high prevalence rate of mental health problems to inadequate access to medical care. The article further points out that in the year 2015, there was a slight increase of American adults reported who suffered from one form of mental illness to another at 18.53% compared to 2014 at 18.19%. Although the percentage look marginal but the actual figure is in millions at 1.2 million adults for the 0.4% increase as a result of high American population. The paper finds a link between alcohol abuse and mental health problems with 7% of the youths in America representing 1.7 million youths experiencing severe depression and have other social problems like difficulties in maintaining relationships among other difficulties. (State of Mental Health Report - Mental Health America, 2016)
In the view of the article titled “Key concepts: mental health and mental ill-health” the relationship between mental health and mental ill-health is not polar. That is to say the absence of one of them doesn’t necessarily mean the presence of the other. In other words both mental –ill health and mental health are influenced by one another. To put this into perspective, the article holds that a person can still have good metal health while at the same time having a diagnosed mental illness. To be declared mentally ill the document opines that there is a certain threshold of mental illness that will make one to have mental ill-health. Promoting mental health and wellbeing means enhancing emotional, social and quality of life to the people or a person. This, according to the article can be done through, having proper public policy on mental health, developing personal skills like parenting skills, creating supportive environments to the patients for quick recovery among other measures. (Key concepts: mental health and mental ill?health, 2012)
According to an article by National Alliance on mental illness, a US organization, there are certain warning signs that people need to look out for when taking precaution against mental ill-health. It list this signs as someone feeling sad or withdrawn for more than two weeks, uses of alcohol or drugs repeatedly, some risky behaviors that are out of control, a lot of worries or fear in usually a routine activity like going to classes, significant weight loss or gain, extreme difficulty in staying calm and still and or having suicidal thoughts among other signs. The document further states that parents or people close to the patient should always seek medical attention, work with the school and pay more attention to the victim. (Mental Health Facts CHILDREN & TEENS, 2016)
Knowledge gap
Having reviewed the aforementioned literature on mental health, there is still need for research to be done on the environmental effects on mental health. Does the environment have any effect on the sate of mental health?
References:
Key concepts: mental health and mental ill?health. (2012). Hunter Institute of mental health, [online] 1, pp.1-6. Available at: https://www.himh.org.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/2396/General-Key-concepts1.pdf [Accessed 14 May 2017].
Mental Health Facts CHILDREN & TEENS. (2016). [online] 1(1), p.1. Available at: https://www.nami.org/NAMI/media/NAMI-Media/Infographics/GeneralMHFacts.pdf [Accessed 15 May 2017].
No health without public mental health - the case for action. (2010). [online] (4), pp.1-48. Available at: https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/pdf/Position%20Statement%204%20website.pdf [Accessed 14 May 2017].
State of Mental Health Report - Mental Health America. (2016). Mental Health America, [online] 1(1), pp.1-59. Available at: https://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/sites/default/files/2016%20MH%20in%20America%20FINAL.pdf [Accessed 14 May 2017].
Understanding mental health problems. (2016). mind, [online] 1(1), pp.1-36. Available at: https://www.mind.org.uk/media/3244655/understanding-mental-health-problems-2016.pdf [Accessed 14 May 2017].
