Reference no: EM131934161
With seven million people in the world diagnosed with schizophrenia this should be taken more seriously and we should be doing everything we can to make sure these people receive the help they need, the fact that there are no enough psychiatric facilities is absurd ("Untreated Mental Illness as Imminent Danger," 2013). Americans are making it seem like they do not want to believe that we have this mental health problem in our world, they are doing everything they can to make it unknown. I had no idea that there were that many people in our nation with this disease let alone not know that most of them can not receive help. Even though some are not a danger to society, I believe we should be helping all of them because they should not have to go through this.
These videos only discuss the weaknesses of the mental health system in America. One man tried to get his son an appointment with a physiatrist but could not get one for 3 months, there is a national shortage of physiatrist. However, the video states that one emergency room only has 52 beds and they are full every day, so it is very hard for patients to get treatment ("Nowhere to go," 2014). Another weakness is that insurance companies pay for emergency care only until the patient is not in harm's way, about 3-4 days, and this which only lasts for a short time, leading for the parents to make the decision to pay an expensive bill or to put their children and others at risk.
Since the beginning of mental health there were many facilities open, it was not until after the 1960s when most large mental health institutions started to close as a plan to have local institutions built but that never happened. ("Nowhere to go," 2014). Number of bed available in America for psychiatric patients decreased from approximately half a million to less than 100,000, leaving patients to only have the option of going to the emergency room ("Nowhere to go," 2014).
In order to improve the current mental health system, I believe we need to open facilities that will be able to admit these patients and provide them with proper treatment. Funding would be needed and a budget should be set to be able to make this work. Do you agree or disagree?