Mental illness in our community - Essay Example

This essay will discuss how the community can deal with such patients, and to what extent the patient himself can be a part of his recovery. In most nations, mental health care implies confinement to mental hospitals or care by community mental health teams. Such teams are expected to meet the health and social needs. Physical health is not given importance and hospital visits are short and infrequent. The mental health practitioners have no training in physical care. The state hospitals in fact are unable to meet the wants and needs of patients with mental illness, which has caused community based settings to come up (Anthony, 1993).

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) devised the concept of Community Support System (CSS) to assist people with long-term psychiatric disorders. The community needs support to provide support to patients with mental disorders. The consequence of community based treatment led to the understanding that it is important to treat the cause of the illness rather than the illness. Mental illness does not merely cause mental impairments but it leads to functional limitations, disabilities, and handicaps.

Studies and treatment led to the understanding that recovery is important in mental illness just as in physical illness. Recovery does not mean cure or freedom from the disease but it means acceptance of the disease. A person is able to change his attitude, values, goals, feelings, behavior, and role in life. He is in better control of his life, can lead a satisfying life, and contribute despite limitations. Recovery means to find a new meaning in life as one learns to grow beyond the illness.

People with mental illness normally have a stigma attached to them. The community is responsible to help them recover from this stigma. They already suffer from lack of oppurtunities and negative effects of unemployment. Recovery is a difficult