Mental Health Programs - Essay Example

Mentally ill prison populations Over the last decade there have been numerous claims from proclaimed public whistle blowers with theintent of pointing out that the Deinstitutionalization and mentally ill in prisons has had some loopholes that is believed to have caused more harm than good to the mentally challenged putting them in a worse position than when they came in. National Alliance on Mental Illness- NAMI, has a say on the matter as well because a statistic from their database shows that a staggering 40% of mentally ill individuals have become involved in crimes and social injustices and charged in the court o law. However this concern has been brought to consideration and various steps have been taken to rectify the situation by the NAMI and other game players such as the federal and state governments as well as the judicial system to ensure the benefits are more rather than the damages to these mentally affected individuals. This has been done by introducing mental health service programs in prisons. Various articles; ‘Effective Prison Mental Health Services’ by Holly Hills, Christine Siegfried and Alan Ickowitz and ‘Mental Illness In America’s Jails And Prisons: Toward A Public Safety/Public Health Model’ by Dean Aufderheide have provided hope that it is possible to transform the whole scenario mostly in correctional facilities and offer long term solutions in transforming these mental health patients’ lives. Mental health courts have been a key factor in determining and ensuring that a mentally challenged individual facing the law must be given special consideration lest get the wrong judgment that has a detrimental effect to the character and reform capability of the individual. Mental health courts have been tasked with the mandate to establish the validity of the mental health condition that one is has and give the necessary advice and the necessary correctional service. The services that are offered by these mental health courts are based on a problem-solving approach. It is vital to note that these courts offer self-treatment plans after thoroughly assessing the mental condition and offer judicial progress that will cater for the mental health needs of the person of interest (Cuppit, 2009). The mental health courts are fully provided by the law and mostly offer community based treatment programs that are bombarded with numerous progress assessment hearings that continuously keep a tab on the development analysis of the individual with the mental health. Hills, Siegfried and Ickowitz (2004) have stressed on the importance of transitional services that offer positive outcomes be deployed by the mental health courts so as to be more influential in discharging their services and programs as well as their assessment criteria. According to Hills, Siegfried and Ickowitz(2006) mental health programs such as the mental health courts adopt a problem-solving approach rather than a correctional approach that is impermeable to the set of mentally challenged individuals. The service description offered by the mental health programs offer and effective long lasting solutions to the prisoners because mental health programs such as the mental health courts as opposed to the normal criminal justice systems offer individual continuous assessment over the required period of time and monitor the progress made by the individual under the program or service. The mental health services offer a transitional approach other than corrective approach through treatment needs assessment, community based programs, continuity evaluation/care, aftercare and positive outcome evaluation in relation to the condition of release. Dean Aufderheide (2014) in his article talks about the difficulties that mentally ill convicts face in the ordinary jails and prison facilities which is linked to other substance abuse as well as abuse from fellow inmates alleviating their illness further that might make them more violent and stigmatized. Prison facilities traditionally lack the properly trained staff and professionals to deal with mental illness individuals. They also lack the necessary facilities to meet the special needs of this group of individuals. Mental health programs make their life interactive based and solves their situations through social and medical platforms that is by far most productive than the correctional facility setting that is difficult to monitor such mentally ill individuals. Mental health service programs have been commissioned and instituted in all the states across the country in respective to the federal government and individual states over the last decade however research findings that assess the progress made by these mental health service programs lack the desired clout to show the effectiveness of the services according Dean Aufderheide (2014). National Alliance on Mental Illness has been on the fore front in ensuring the mental health services programs are well and properly adhered to but funding by the federal government has hindered the further development of the capacity of these mental health services programs. The states were influential land effective in doing away with Deinstitutionalization and introducing trans-institutionalization which proved a transitional task even with the provision of mental health courts by the law but the process has been stagnated due to lack of adequate funding by the federal government to further the course. Mentally ill individuals were released into community health programs that lacked adequate resource due to the poor funding by the federal governments deeming the viability of the whole process (Cupitt, 2009). The inadequacy results to the influx of mentally ill individuals to still end up in prisons which cause further stigmatization and substance abuse which has no correctional value and positive outcome. It is correct to say that since the introduction of mental health courts and mental health community workers there has been a drastic change in the way mental ill individuals are treated and associated with in the society. Mental health service programs have been influential in reducing the number of the mentally challenged individuals in prisons and further introducing the community based treatment that reshapes the individuals life as opposed to the correction facilities that instigates substance abuse and stigmatization that lives such mentally ill individuals bitter and more violent hence making it possible for (Nobert, Vollm & Weisstubb, 2013) them to repeat the crimes committed when released and still end up in the same correctional facility resulting to double tragedy. Mental health service programs adopt a problem-solving approach and should be properly funded by the government to fully enhance its potential. References Aufderheide, D. (2014, April 1). Mental Illness In America’s Jails And Prisons: Toward A Public Safety/Public Health Model. Retrieved May 30, 2014, from Health Affairs Blog: http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2014/04/01/mental-illness-in-americas-jails-and-prisons-toward-a-public-safetypublic-health-model/ Cupitt, C. (2009). Reaching Out: The Psychology of Assertive Outreach. new york: Routledge. Norbert Konrad, B. V. (2013). Ethical Issues in Prison Psychiatry. washington: Springer. Read More