To go to a public school it’s required to have a physical every couple of years, and I wonder how many of the people detained in jail have not been to a doctor in years, and may be getting sicker and possibly spreading it to others. In another article I read called “Chronic Medical Conditions among Jail Detainees in Residential Psychiatric Treatment: A Latent Analysis” published in the Journal of Urban Health August, 2011 there are studies that show that detainees with mental illnesses have significantly higher rates of chronic medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes, and infectious diseases. There is also evidence to suggest that long-term detainees are at higher risk of having mental illness, and therefore, according to this study, are at higher risk of having infectious diseases. If this is certainly the case than the importance of screening long-term detainees is crucial. (Swartz,
Incarceration of the Mentally Ill and Mentally Retarded Offender is a Growing Problem for Prisons. The population of mentally ill and mentally retarded offenders is growing dramatically. Prisons are dealing with more mentally ill and retarded inmates because of deinstitutionalization of mental health facilities and increased incarceration at prison units. There are three options available for handling prison health services: (1) mental health agencies accepting responsibility for providing services; (2) correctional agencies accepting responsibility for providing treatment; or (3) contracting mental health services to independent providers. Federal funds are available to mentally ill offenders paroled to community residential facilities.
Mental Illness Too many people today don’t know what mental illness is and how it affects people. The rising cases of mental illness have brought attention to the public. The public needs to help find a way to properly treat and cure mental illness, and help people going through its struggles. When people think of mental illness, many people have different thoughts of its definition. Mental illness has no simple down right explanation.
3. How have societal viewpoints concerning mental illness or health influenced human services over the past three centuries? In early history mental illness was once viewed as an evil spirit in someone, as time went on those with mental illness were put into an insane asylum where the women were chained to walls and the men were chained by the neck to one another. “by the 19th centuries, states began to separate people with mental illness and those with developmental disabilities” ( Woodside & McClam, 2011) now with the correct exams and diagnoses those with mental disability are put on the correct medication and offered assistance with their living needs. 4.
In the movie “The Snake Pit” the main character Virginia Cunningham apparently suffers from some mental breakdown and is involuntarily committed to a mental health facility where she is treated with electroconvulsive shock treatments, physical restraints and sedation. In the movie “The Soloist”, the main character, Nathaniel Ayers is a middle age man apparently suffering from Schizophrenia. The unrelenting voices in his head torment him. He has been chronically homeless, estranged from his family and vulnerable for decades. One could argue that Mrs. Cunningham was in a safe environment albeit dank, dreary and prison-like, but she was “protected” from harm during this most difficult time in her life.
The crucial role of case management, social services, case workers, counselors and medical healthcare workers all play a crucial role in helping an individual with a psychiatric disability. In the YouTube video provided, (http://youtu.be/DFIDmuevXQQ), it explains how the Mental Health Court was originally constructed in 1999 and the purpose in providing services for the mentally ill clients. By conducting a separate court system for people suffering with mental illnesses, the judicial system is able to help mentally ill people seek the mental health treatment they need. These therapeutic methods include creating a treatment plan, providing resources to help these clients, as well as providing medication and therapy so that they are better able to be combined back into normal society and provide a safer community. In helping these clients in the mental health court system we are able to conserve government funding by reducing the process of unnecessary incarceration.
Mental Illness in Correctional Facilities: In 2012, there were an estimate 356,268 inmates with severe mental illness in prisons and jails across the United States. There are 2.4 million people in 1,719 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 2,259 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,283 local jails, and 79 Indian Country jails as well as in military prisons, immigration detention facilities, civil commitment centers, and prisons in the U.S. territories. The mental health inmates take up a pretty big statistic out of the 2.4 million incarcerated prisoners. Researching this issue has led all the way back to colonial America and the history from then until present day, also has led to the legal background for treating mentally ill inmates, and
The physical and psychological impact of prison is far more likely to have a serious and negative impact than a similar sentence would have on an adult prisoner. Juveniles should never be in prison with adults because not only they are more likely to be corrupted by the prison environment, but there is also the persistent danger of abuse including sexual abuse and health risks. ‘The greatest danger is physical and sexual assault by adults housed in the same facility, including inmate trustees who may have access to juveniles in ‘separate’ quarters in jail.’ (Clement 395). Juvenile delinquents need help and a direction in life should be given to them. Placing them in adult prison subjects them to violence and exploitation, and deprives them of the chance to start their new lives.
Sinead Regan: Occupational Stress and Coping among Prison Officers Occupational Stress and Coping among Irish Prison Officers: An Exploratory Examination Sinead Regan MSc 2009 Greenhouse Press 1 Sinead Regan: Occupational Stress and Coping among Prison Officers ABSTRACT Occupational Stress and Coping among Prison Officers: An Exploratory Examination Prison officers as a professional group are exposed to unique and powerful stressors. Few other employees are given the responsibility of taken charge of an unwilling and potentially violent population. This present study grew out of a perceived paucity of systematic research examining the relationships between stressors and stress related problems among prison officers in Ireland. The research was conducted to extend knowledge about prison officer perceptions of stress, consequences in terms of physical and emotional status, perceived causes of stress, and coping techniques. From self-reported data of sixty-eight prison officers drawn from a medium security committal prison for male offenders, findings of the present study indicate that according to several objective indicators, prison officers experience considerable stress on the job.
Mental Health experts have contributed and are sometimes needed, and at times there are problems related with them. Since a mental health expert has to deal with many different cases, each speaker has different backgrounds with different cases. For example a forensic psychologist, can deal with police investigations, work in prisons, write risk assessments, counsel inmates and more. All mental health experts are different. For example a psychologist who works in jails would be studying forensic facts and dealing with psychopathy on a daily basis, unlike a psychologist who could be studying psychotherapy and dealing with children’s behaviours.