One of the objectives of Healthy People 2030 is the prevention, screening, and treatment of people with mental health illnesses and behavioral disorders. Healthy people 2030 also aims to improve the health and life value of people affected by these illnesses. Mental illnesses and behavioral conditions affect everyone regardless of age, gender, socioeconomic status, or education level. However, some groups of the population are more likely to suffer mental illnesses. These groups include people with lower education, people of color, and people with lower socioeconomic status. If the mental health and mental disorders objectives are to be met, then healthcare providers and other stakeholders should develop programs and techniques that meet the needs of these groups more vulnerable to mental illnesses.
Medical reports indicate that at least 9.8 million adults in the United States have a severe mental illness (Reinert, Nguyen 2021). 25 % of this number are people of lower socioeconomic status. Although the United States is a developed country, a significant number of people of lower socioeconomic status still exist. Medical researchers have examined the relationship between mental health problems and socioeconomic status for years. Reports from these researchers show that people of lower socioeconomic are about two times more likely to suffer mental health problems and behavioral conditions than the rest of the population (Hao et al., 2022). Although those with higher socioeconomic status are not impermeable to mental illness, they are less likely to suffer the effects of these conditions (Hao et al., 2022).
Without a doubt, lower-income people are less likely to meet mental health and mental disorders objectives. This statement can be proven by analyzing the aspects of mental illness, drug and substance addiction, and co-occurring conditions among people of low socioeconomic status in Avon Park. An analysis that examined small, lower socioeconomic status communities where the families earn relatively lower than the nation’s average annual household income categorized Avon Park among the poorest towns in Florida. Here, a significant percentage of the population is living in poverty. According to statistics from the United States Census Bureau, at least 33.6% of Avon Park’s total population lives below the national poverty line.
Medical records on mental illnesses and addiction have shown that about 660,000 adults and 181,000 children in Florida live with serious mental disorders such as severe depression and bipolar disorder (Reinert, Nguyen 2021). In addition, nearly half of the total population in Florida struggle with less devastating mental problems at some point in their lives (Reinert, Nguyen 2021). Avon Park contributes to this large number of people suffering the effects of mental illness. Even with the large number of people living with mental illness in this Florida, only a tiny percentage, less than the national average percentage of 55.8%, access mental health care. More than sixty-seven percent of people with a mental disorder in Florida do not receive any treatment. In Avon Park, the ratio of people with mental health problems to mental health providers exceeds 1,000:1, making it even harder to provide the appropriate mental disorder treatment to these people (Reinert, Nguyen 2021).
Poverty is a common experience for many adults and children living in Avon Park. Many children below eighteen years in this town are unduly affected by poverty and make up a significant percentage of the people living in poverty in the United States. Living in low-income homes has increased the mental health problems for both these children and adults (Hao et al., 2022). Children’s mental health problems are distressing as they easily persist across their lifespan and even worsen in adulthood. Such unhealthy effects call for an urgent need to implement a health promotion program that targets this community.
Despite their high need for mental health care, the lower socioeconomic status community in Avon Park has not sufficiently received quality mental health services. Only a trivial percentage of this community access high-quality mental health care. Although individual, systematic, and cultural barriers make it hard for this community to access quality mental health services, poverty is the leading barrier (HAo et al., 2022). Most of the people in this community are educated; therefore, a low education level is not a barrier for this group when accessing mental health care. Lower socioeconomic status has made this community more vulnerable to mental health issues. It has increased the difference between the quality of mental health care for the rich and the poor.
There have been several reported cases of suicide and homicide among people living in Avon Park. Some of these incidences are connected to mental health problems and behavioral conditions. Suicide is one of the expected consequences of major mental disorders such as severe depression. Although all people with mental illnesses do not die by suicide, having severe depression increases the chance of a person committing suicide compared to those without depression (Reinert, Nguyen 2021). Avon Park is one of the regions in Florida experiencing high suicide rates, especially among the youths. According to studies on this increased suicide rate, remoteness, low-income levels among residents, and lack of access to mental health resources have resulted in suicide. The number of youths committing suicide and suffering from drug addiction has almost doubled compared to the past twenty years (Reinert, Nguyen 2021). This statistic does not consider the number of failed suicide attempts among the people in this area. Therefore, this means more youths and adults live with mental disorders than records hold.
Mental health care facilities are also scarcely distributed in Avon Park. There are only a few mental health care amenities in this town compared to other towns in Florida, making it hard for all people to acquire appropriate mental health services. Mental health experts have found that many people do not pay significant attention to their mental health. People are always reluctant to seek mental help, especially if the mental illness is less devastating (Reinert, Nguyen 2021). The scarcity of mental health amenities in Avon Park has accelerated this laxity in the community, and people only seek mental health care when their condition gets severe. Paying attention to mental problems only when they have worsened has made early diagnosis impossible. As a result, many people have not received the appropriate treatment.
Not only adults and youths in this community suffer from mental illnesses but also children under the age of eighteen years. The mental health and mental disorder objective aim at improving mental health for people of all ages, not excluding children. Therefore, to help everyone in Avon Park meet this objective, it is essential to consider the mental health needs of children under eighteen and include them in the intervention program. Researchers have associated long exposures to a poor childhood with mental disorders. Early chronic exposure to a stressful and challenging life causes mental vulnerability and increased chances of substance abuse among children (Reinert, Nguyen 2021). If not diagnosed in advance, these mental problems progress in adulthood. There is a significant number of children being raised in low-income families in Avon Park. Some of these children are already experiencing adverse mental health effects, and it is only through an intervention program that they can get help.
Due to the mental health issues this community faces, it would be important to implement an intervention program that aims at helping these people meet mental health objectives. Implementing a mental health screening program that will involve screening people of low-level income for mental illness and educating them on mental disorder preventive measures will help many people in this community achieve mental well-being. This program aims to reach at least half of the low-level income individuals in Avon Park, roughly seventeen percent of the total population. The program is set to begin on the second day of October and end on the last day of the month to ensure enough time to deal with a large number of people. The Avon Park community center will be the most appropriate venue to implement this program to reach a large percentage of the population. The community center is large enough to accommodate roughly two hundred and fifty people, which is a relevant factor for this activity.
Mental health screening allows for early diagnosis of mental illnesses and early intervention (Arango et al., 2018). Early treatment of mental problems guarantees better treatment outcomes and lessens years of suffering and struggling with the sickness. Medical studies have shown that about fifty percent of the total cases of mental problems begin at the age of fourteen, while seventy-five percent begin at the age of twenty-four (Reinert, Nguyen 2021). There is a large gap of about eleven years between the first time symptoms of mental illness appear and intervention. Mental health screening will help reduce this gap. This process will mainly involve examining the target sample’s behavior patterns, moods, feelings, and other indicators of mental disorders and carrying out physical examinations. Implementing a vast-scale screening program in this region will help identify low-income people with mental disorders who have limited access to mental health care and recommend the best intervention to meet their medical needs.
This health promotion program will be complemented by specific health promotion program educational activities and components that will be administered in the course of implementation of the program. Health education strategies are designed to educate a target community on specific health issues, their health threats, and the preventive measures to promote their health (Arango et al., 2018). In this case, these educational activities will provide essential information on specific mental health topics to this community vulnerable to mental illnesses.
Many people in this target community face mental illnesses and struggle in silence. They do not know where to turn to or who to ask for help. Some are afraid of the stigma that comes with mental problems and other potential consequences. Even the part of this population that knows where to seek help might hesitate to seek assistance due to the economic and social challenges they face. These reasons call for the need to educate the target group on seeking mental health care and how to prevent and deal with mental illness.
Although screening and treating mental conditions are the most crucial ways of dealing with mental health issues, the necessity of proper mental health education cannot be disregarded. Mental health education makes people and their families aware of essential mental health details and promotes mental well-being in a community (Arango et al., 2018). Therefore this program will consider creating awareness in the target group on all types of mental disorders, their symptoms, causes, ways of preventing them, treatment plans, and the need for early diagnosis and treatments of mental diseases.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), prevention is the best way to maintain good mental health. All medical researchers and experts have concluded that prevention is one of the best methods. However, the question here is what measures people should take to prevent mental illnesses. To prevent mental illnesses, individuals first need to be aware of them and their causes (Arango et al., 2018. While implementing this program, the stakeholders will highlight how to identify signs of mental illness. The program will inform every individual in the target group about the symptoms of all types of mental disorders, which will put them in a position to notice when they or their loved ones are likely to suffer mental problems. The slightest of behavioral changes for an extended period sometimes indicates signs, so identifying these symptoms is easy.
Finally, the health promotion program will involve guiding the target group on matters concerning mental health issues. This guidance will be available for all people who participate in the practice regardless of whether or not they are diagnosed with mental problems. Lack of proper guidance has resulted in many mentally sick people not seeking the proper treatment. A considerable percentage of the population with mental issues is living in denial and would rather believe that they are only facing some temporary hysterical moods or just having bad days. Their mental health deteriorates, and treating them becomes challenging. However, this program will reduce such cases by guiding the target group on the importance of accepting their mental state and seeking help instead of living in denial. Through this, cases of mental illnesses stigmatization will reduce, and more people in this community will come out to seek mental health care without fear of judgment and discrimination.
References
Arango, C., Díaz-Caneja, C. M., McGorry, P. D., Rapoport, J., Sommer, I. E., Vorstman, J. A., … & Carpenter, W. (2018). Preventive strategies for mental health. The Lancet Psychiatry, 5(7), 591-604.
Hao, Y., De France, K., & Evans, G. W. (2022). Persistence in challenging tasks mediates the relationship between childhood poverty and mental health problems. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 01650254221116870.
Reinert, M., Fritze, D., & Nguyen, T. (2021). The state of mental health in America 2022.
write