Human Service Policy
The policy that can address this problem is School-based health centers. These centers are used to offer quality services to children suffering from mental illnesses. Children can be screened for anxiety, social skills, depression, and ADHD through this program. These are some of the signs that are related to mental health. Once screening is done, these signs can be detected at early stages, caution is taken, and severe effects are prevented. Through this school-based health center, children with health issues are also treated. Some of these special mental health issues include autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and others. This policy also plays a significant role in monitoring medication, reviewing the children’s medical records, and providing education. The centers can accommodate educational plans for the children and their parents. Through education, parents can learn how to prevent severe mental health issues for their children (Reardon et al., 2017). For instance, parents can be educated on avoiding the involvement of the children in domestic violence as it affects mental health. Psychologists, parents, and society have defined this to be a problem. As mentioned in the introduction, children with mental health issues portray abnormal behaviors that affect society (Arenson et al., 2019). Many children have become mentally ill compared to the past, and hence it has become an issue. There has been increased consumption of substances and increased access to the internet, which has affected the lives of children. Society is different from the past due to the increased use of drugs and technology that has changed the academic levels. As mentioned earlier, one causative agent of mental illness is pressure to attain a certain level of education. In the past, education was not the key to success, so children were not forced to attain certain levels. Children would not suffer from distress or anxiety for academic failure, and hence mental illness was not as serious as it is in the current society. Also, in the past, drug abuse among parents was not prevalent as it is today, hence why mental illness is an issue today.
Mental health is a serious problem to society, and the parents have power regarding the issue. Parents are the individuals who bring up the children, and the environment they provide is essential to their emotional development. Most of the causes of mental health issues are related to the child’s environment. For instance, in the case of domestic violence, abusive parents, poverty, and others, it is based on the child’s growth process. In this perspective, parents are the ones who have the power to control the environment and ensure that it is healthy for the emotional development of children (Whitney et al., 2019). However, human service professionals have a role to play to promote children’s mental health. These human service professionals include the therapists whose role is to offer treatment services to the children who have been affected mentally. Other human service professionals include trainers whose role is to provide education. These human services professionals should be accommodated into the policy to help in offering treatment and education. Trainers will educate the parents and the community and create awareness on the issue of mental health in the community. Education to the parents is important to provide an understanding of how to handle children suffering from mental illnesses. For instance, through training, parents understand their children who portray aggressive behaviors and can learn how to address the mental issues. Since the problem has been identified to cause serious effects on children and society, policies have played a significant role in addressing mental health. However, the problem is not adequately addressed, and more needs to be done. The government, the policymakers, and the human service professionals have a lot to do to address this issue adequately (Hodgkinson et al., 2017). For instance, the government can make sure to invest adequate resources towards the policy to ensure quality education is given. Investing in education will play a significant role in addressing the problem of mental health among children. The suggestion to address the problem is that more policies should be accommodated. Collaboration between the government and the policymakers would be needed to help address this issue and reduce the prevalence of mental illnesses among children.
Political Viewpoint
The liberal perspective is based on the fact that a person has his rights and freedom that should be respected. For instance, if a child shows some aggressive behaviors due to mental illness, the child has the right to do that. In a class where a teacher observes these behaviors, the teacher is denied the chance to get help for the children. The liberal perspective is also based on the economic growth that has influenced the children’s diets and the family structures. Based on family structures, the prevalence has increased due to an increase in divorce, increased working hours for the parents that reduce the time for children to spend time with the parents. Based on children’s diet, consumption of sugary foods consumption and saturated fats has resulted in increased rates of mental illnesses (O’Reilly et al., 2018). Resolving will involve offering education on the importance of prioritizing the children’s mental health. Prioritizing will give every individual in society a responsibility to address any mental health issue detected to avoid drastic effects. The conservative perspective of mental health is that those suffering are dangerous and can harm others in the community. As mentioned earlier, some of these children show aggressive behaviors harmful to others in society. Based on this perspective, these children suffer from discrimination and stigmatization for their illnesses. Resolving this issue will accommodate training that will create awareness about the problem. Training is offered to make sure that mental health disciplines are understood and taken to address them. Deepening an understanding of the issue will help resolve the issue and promote a healthy community.
Discussion
One of the strengths of this policy is that it will reach a large number of personnel involved in handling mental health issues. As mentioned, the school-based health center will reach the children, parents, and the community; hence quality results are acquired. The other strength is that the policy addresses special mental health issues, ensuring that the children stay healthy. The program brings in the healthcare personnel who offer the community therapeutic and training services. The other advantage is that the programs acquire governmental support hence enough resources for effective training and therapeutic services. One of the weaknesses is that a large number of people in attendance may not access the services as per the expectations. Also, based on the healthcare services offered, the school environment may not be favorable. Due to the stigmatization of mentally ill individuals, some of the students suffering from mental illness fail to come forward for healthcare services. Lack of enough resources for training is a limitation to the effectiveness of this policy. The future of this policy is based on improved research on the causes and solutions to address mental healthcare for children. The research will provide information on what needs to be done to improve the results (Arenson et al., 2019). The health-related concerns of mental illness for vulnerable communities can be addressed through research. The future of the School-Based Health Centers will also depend on education to the policymakers on how to ensure the effectiveness of the policy. From the paper, I have learned that children are vulnerable to mental illness since they cannot dictate the development environment. They are subjected to environments based on their parents, affecting their mental health. Also, I have learned that mental health in children is a global issue and should be addressed. The involved personnel include the parents, the government, and the human services personnel like therapists. The topic has provided an understanding of the importance of a policy that can address the problem. The information and knowledge gained will be applied in my future career as a therapist. I will help children suffering from mental illnesses to overcome the stigmatization they suffer. I have gained knowledge on the causes of mental illness among children based on the environments they are brought up. In this perspective, I will apply the knowledge to address the parents on caring for these environments.
References
Arenson, M., Hudson, P. J., Lee, N., & Lai, B. (2019). The evidence on school-based health centers: a review. Global pediatric health, 6, 2333794X19828745.
Hodgkinson, S., Godoy, L., Beers, L. S., & Lewin, A. (2017). Improving mental health access for low-income children and families in the primary care setting. Pediatrics, 139(1)
O’Reilly, M., Dogra, N., Whiteman, N., Hughes, J., Eruyar, S., & Reilly, P. (2018). Is social media bad for mental health and wellbeing? Exploring the perspectives of adolescents. Clinical child psychology and psychiatry, 23(4), 601-613
Reardon, T., Harvey, K., Baranowska, M., O’Brien, D., Smith, L., & Creswell, C. (2017). What do parents perceive are the barriers and facilitators to accessing psychological treatment for mental health problems in children and adolescents? A systematic review of qualitative and quantitative studies. European child & adolescent psychiatry, 26(6), 623-647
Whitney, D. G., Peterson, M. D., & Warschausky, S. A. (2019). Mental health disorders, participation, and bullying in children with cerebral palsy. Developmental medicine & child Neurology, 61(8), 937-942)
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