At present time there are a lot of mentally ill people, who are physically and verbally abused by other members of our society. This fact is confirmed by numerous workers involved in the sphere of mental health. Surveys show that one of the most widespread ways of mistreating mentally ill people in our country is discrimination. Such negative attitude to mentally ill people is especially well seen, when it goes about finding job, etc. In addition, for mentally ill people it is rather difficult to find a place of living or get qualified health services.
Unfortunately, today there are a lot of examples, which prove that “mentally ill people suffer from being prejudged and stigmatized within society” (“The prejudice and discrimination suffered by mentally ill people”). The UK Mental Health Foundation suggests that mentally ill people are regularly abused by the following sources: family, friends, workplace, personal relationship, finding employment, health professionals (“The prejudice and discrimination suffered by mentally ill people”).
It is crucial to remember that abuse to mentally ill always leaves a mark on psychology of mentally ill people. Verbal and physical abuse, hostility and discrimination are the factors, which can easily worsen the situation and provoke other serious problems of mentally ill people. For example, such acts can easily provoke frequent depressions, attacks of anxiety and lowering of self-esteem. Apart from this, mentally ill people may start feeling that they are isolated from society or excluded from it. It is obvious that such problems can lead to more serious consequences and worsen the situation with treatment. That is why it is necessary to introduce special techniques, which will help to fight against abuse to mentally ill people. At present time some trends and techniques are already introduced and successfully help to hinder mentally ill people.
In the majority of cases, human services is a sphere, which initiates changes and proposes special programs that can help mentally ill people. All actions of human services workers are aimed at crisis prevention and intervention. The main goal of such group of people is to urge responsible citizens of our society to think about their acts and consequences.
Nowadays human services workers try to introduce changes in a variety of ways. The most popular trends in their fight against abuse of mentally ill people are politics and social programs. Thus, for instance, a lot of efforts are made in order to make our legislation stricter. New laws are designed, which fight against discrimination of mentally ill people.
A lot of work is done in the sphere of the mass media, because it is necessary to portray mentally ill people in a proper way and eradicate negative stereotypes.
Special commissions, which fight for the rights of mentally ill people, launch special campaigns. Their main task is to urge responsible members of society to communicate more with mentally ill people and understand their true problems and needs. Moreover, educational programs are organized. It is worth saying that these methods are the most effective, because they guarantee eye contact with mentally ill people.
New methods and programs, which can help to improve quality of life of mentally ill people and eradicate such phenomena as abuse and discrimination of mentally ill layers of our society, are constantly invented as well.
Works Cited
“The Prejudice and Discrimination Suffered by Mentally Ill People.” Everything2. 5 Dec.,
2002. Web. 10 Oct. 2011.
