1. Problems of Mental Illness and Treatment
Chapter 3
Problems of Mental Illness and Treatment

2. 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

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

4. 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

5. 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

6. Table 3-2: Categories of Psychological Disorders

7. Table 3-2: Categories of Psychological Disorders

8. Mental Disorders & Illnesses
Classification of Mental Disorders
Diagnosis or Label?
Mental Illness Among Combatants in Afghanistan and Iraq
Distinction between incidence and prevalence of mental disorders

9. Mental Disorders & Illnesses
Social Class and Mental Disorder
Mental Disorder and Urban Life
Other factors
Race
Sex
Age

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

11. 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

12. Figure 3-2: Needs of People with Mental Disorders

13. Figure 3-3: The Impact of Deinstitutionalization

14. 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

15. 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

16. Treatment Institutions
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

17. Treatment Institutions
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

18. Treatment Institutions
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

19. Deinstitutionalization and Homelessness
Mentally ill among the homeless
Thirty to sixty percent of the homeless are
Thought to suffer from severe mental disorders

20. 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