Assignment

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Assignment

Mental illness is one of the most prevalent health issues in America. And the number of crimes that are committed by the mentally ill patients is increasing. After the mass high school shootings at Parkland Florida, President Donald Trump suggested that such incidents could have been avoided if America has more mental health care institutions. After his statement, many suggest that America needs to bring back the mental health Asylums from the past that were home of torture to the mentally ill patients(The Editorial Board).

I think we need not need to bring back those asylums or increase the inpatient mental health facilities but we need to increase the numbers of beds available for the mentally ill patients in the regular hospitals in each community(“Inpatient Mental Health Treatment Facilities: Who Needs One? | HealthyPlace”). The number of beds in America has been reduced to 95% since 1950, this has created a shortage of hospital facilities for mentally ill patients. For 100,000 population only 14 beds are available in one community. By increasing the number of wards for the mentally ill patients in hospitals can help them recover from their illness. Isolating the patients into separate care and health facilities is not the solution to the problem.

Deinstitutionalization and its aims were not fully implemented to help mentally sick patients. Also, according to Mental health parity and Addiction Equity parity Act, requires mental health insurers to provide benefits to mentally ill patients as they are provided to the other patients with medical and surgical issues, but this has not been implemented fully. Thus the number of mentally ill patients don’t receive treatment and when they usually get diagnosed with severe mental illness after committing certain degree of crime and end up in jails, with the minimum contact with the outside world, that further intensifies the issues. I personally think increasing the community base facilities and increasing the number of beds in the local hospitals for the mentally ill patients can solve these issues instead of creating the asylums for the mentally ill patients that need long time support

Also practically providing insurances to patients with metal sickness help them get the required support in seeking treatment. This can reduce the crime rate and the number of mentally ill patients that end up in Jails(“Opinion | How to Treat the Severely Mentally Ill”).

Work Cited

The Editorial Board. “Opinion | The Crazy Talk About Bringing Back Asylums.” The New York Times, 2 June 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/06/02/opinion/trump-asylum-mental-health-guns.html.

‌“Opinion | How to Treat the Severely Mentally Ill.” The New York Times, 8 June 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/06/08/opinion/asylums.html.

‌“Inpatient Mental Health Treatment Facilities: Who Needs One? | HealthyPlace.” Healthyplace.Com, 2018, www.healthyplace.com/other-info/mental-illness-overview/inpatient-mental-health-treatment-facilities-who-needs-one.

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