May 27, 2014
April 15, 2014
Capstone Project - Pt. 9 (Annotations)
As per request because putting the annotations with their appropriate posts isn't enough, here they are complied for the ease of finding them. Enjoy.
News Article
Ball, Andrea . "Future is uncertain for mental health care." The Austin American-Statesman 2 July 2006: 1. Gale Student resources in context. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
This news article from Austin, TX talks about the growing uncertainty of mental health services in Travis County. More people are having to go into treatment, but expecting a 10% cut in funds, it’s extremely hard for people to get care. Ranked 47th in the category of funding for such services it’s extremely hard for people to get care. In one clinic, there’s over an eight month waiting list, and it keeps going downhill. No bias is present in the article, it is very clear and concise, giving statistics to back up the information it’s providing. It is helpful because it shows that not just one state is having issues, all states are having issues. This fits into my research by backing up the idea of our mental health institutions being unfunded and overwhelmed, which is one of the things I wish to show.
Scholarly Article
Bathje, Geoff J., and John B. Pryor. "The relationships of public and self-stigma to seeking mental health services." Journal of Mental Health Counseling 1 (2011): 1.Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
This article speaks about the stigma associated with having any kind of mental illness and how it prevents people from seeking proper help, the most prevalent being self stigma despite the increased awareness of mental health services. It goes on to say that people do not want to be labelled as mentally ill, and that by seeking treatment, they accept the label which hurts their self esteem. There is no bias within this article, it is obviously a study to see the factors associated with why people are not seeking the help they need. This fits well into my research by showing certain factors of why people do not get proper help besides the fact that certain facilities are not capable of helping.
Scholarly Article
Boardman, Judith B.. "Health access and integration for adults with serious and persistent mental illness." Families, Systems & Health 1 (2006): 1. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
Because of mental illness, very few people suffering such a fate, face many barriers that make it hard for them to integrate into the general population. Since the closing of many institutions in the 1950s and well into the 1980s, people who are unable to function without round the clock care are left in despair, and most likely end up in the emergency room. With health care costs shooting through the roof, this is close to becoming another failed solution that can no longer be continued.There are no bias, it is clear and concise what the article is speaking about: the welfare of todays mentally ill and how they are unable to get the proper care they need. This fits well into my research by showing a bit of history whilst showing that the system today is still not well.
TV Show
"Nowhere to go: Mentally ill youth in crisis." Zill de Granados, Oriana, and Michael Rey. 60 Minutes. CBS News. CBS, Eau Claire. 26 Jan. 2014. Television.
All parents want is to help their children, this is especially true for parents of children with mental illness. With less and less sources of help however, this is extremely difficult. Scott Pelley visits one of the top hospitals in the country to speak with the doctors and patients to get to the bottom of this terrible trend of helplessness. He also lays out the facts about the downward slope mental health services are taking. The episode of 60 minutes tends to favor the side that there is little hope for those with mental illness. This is typically standard with what I’ve read before considering where our mental health services are heading.This episode of 60 minutes fits well with my research because once again it’s a modern look at what we have become in terms of our mental health services.
News Article
Lansberg, Gerald . "Shootings show need for mental health care." CNN Wire[Atlanta] 18 Sept. 2013: 1. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
After many school and other shootings carried out by people with mental illness, awareness is being brought to the attention of the public. The most recent event as stated in the article, the Washington Navy Yard shootings, shows that the perpetrator was written off as alright, which of course ended badly. This was a continuing trend and still is, which is troubling.This article shows no bias, it states the facts of the prolific shootings of last year and is helpful in showing that there is many issues regarding how mental illness is diagnosed and what is done to treat it.I feel this fits well into my research because it shows that diagnoses of mental illness is not always straight forward, and that most do not seek proper help.
Documentary
Bedlam: The History of Bethlem Hospital. Dir. Joe Matthews. Perf. Timothy Watson, Jonathan Andrews. The History Channel, 2009. Film.
Bethlem Royal Hospital in the UK has a sordid history which eventually led to the colloquially accurate nickname of Bedlam, which means chaos. Along with backgrounds of the more prolific residents at the hospital, including Margaret Nicholson who attempted to assassinate King George III, as well as the doctors and apothecaries who became famous for their now torturous treatment of patients under their care.The documentary is strictly very factual and history based. Because of this, there is no obvious bias and is helpful in showing how mental health facilities functioned in the very early days of treatment for those who wouldn’t have gotten help otherwise.This definitely fits well with my captsone because I’m focusing on history for this part of my research and was looking for something that spoke of the earlier days.
Scholarly Article
National Conference of State Legislatures. "As they see it." State Legislatures 1.1 (2014): 1. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
Basically, the article is just a list of what certain want to do with their states and how much money they are asking for. One senator in particular, Darrell Steinberg (D) of California, asked for $50 million dollars to restore services once offered to the mentally ill who break the law. No word yet on what happened with that, since it happened last month. There’s no bias, it’s stating the fact that a public official wants to improve the welfare of the mentally ill. It is extremely helpful, because it shows there might be hope out there for those with mental illness and break the law. This fits into my research by showing that not everything is going poorly. There is a silver lining basically thanks to what this California senator wants to do.
Fiction Book
Roux, Madeleine. Asylum. New York City, New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2013. Print.
Staying in a crumbling mental hospital that is currently being renovated probably isn't anyone's idea of a good time, but for Daniel Crawford, a high school student involved in a college prep program, he's forced to stay in the archaic Brookline Asylum on the campus of the participating university because those are the only dorms available. With his two friends, Abby and Jordan, Dan has to confront the dark past hidden within the former psychiatric hospital that refuses to be buried in order to understand his own.As with any fiction book, it has an artistic license with a few things, but all in all it is unbias in how it presents the info within.The fiction book fits well with my topic, and I surprised that I learned so much that I didn’t know before.
Nonfiction Book
Schreiber, Flora Rheta. Sybil. Chicago: Regnery, 1973. Print.
After numerous occurrences of "missing time", Sybil Isabel Dorsett (The real woman this narrative being based off of is named Shirley Ardell Mason), a graduate student at Columbia University seeks help. Though the incident itself was nothing new, it's how much time that has passed which worries Sybil. After not recovering in the care of her parents, she eventually goes to a Psychologist by the name of Cornelia Wilbur. Nothing appears out of the ordinary at first. Sybil Isabel Dorsett is nothing more than a closed off, depressed individual. This is, however, until Sybil changes into someone else after a moment of extreme stress. Dr. Wilbur notices this, and is surprised. Sybil, as it turns out, is a split personality. This, however, is only the surface. Sybil, ends up having 16 separate personalities, 14 women and 2 men.The book is an excellent blend of storytelling and actual facts. It is a bit on the psychodynamic side of treatment but still offered a good amount of info.This fits well with my research by showing one specific case of how a person was treated for mental illness during this time.
Movie
Shutter Island. Dir. Martin Scorsese. Perf. Leonardo Dicaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley. Paramount Pictures, 2010. DVD.
For the second half of this final creation piece, I watched the movie Shutter Island, which was directed by Martin Scorsese and stars Leonardo DiCaprio. In the film, Leo plays a US Marshal named Teddy Daniels who is asked to investigate the disappearance of a patient at an asylum for the criminally insane titled Boston's Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital. Soon, he begins to doubt everything and speculates that the hospital has brought him there for a sinister reason, and this is only made worse by a hurricane leaving him stranded and the doctor's being less than cooperative. Confusion gives way to improbable clarity as everything from Teddy's true past starts to reveal itself.
There is no bias represented in the movie and it is helpful to show how treatment changed from past years. It is obviously a movie, so some things are dramatized, but the core of the facts presented are the same.This movie fits well with my topic by showing how people felt about mental health during these years.
April 7, 2014
Capstone Project - Pt. 8 (Articles) - (Memes)
Finally, I'm nearly done! It's been one crazy ride doing all this research, but it's also been incredibly fun and informative. I've learned quite a lot and have an even deeper interest in Psychology than I did before. For this last, final piece, I've decided to gather a collection of memes from the internet regarding my topic. Thankfully, they're in good taste and generally reflect what people against the stigma view.
All of these memes come from a sight that deals exclusively with trying to rid the world of stigma, it's easy to see that they feel very strongly about what's going on in the world of mental health. If you wish to view more, just go to their website: http://blog.not-crazy.org/
Citation:
Capstone Project - Pt. 7 (Articles) - (Collection of Quotes)
As of right now, this is one of the final pieces of this project. For it, I've decided to collect some quotes that I feel fit well with my topic and fit with what I learned from my articles:
This quote, by Margaret Larson, a therapist in the UK, speaks quite directly about the stigma faced by people who have to deal with mental illness, but it also speaks about how everyone can be affected by it, like family and friends. It's really quite profound to really think about how many people we know suffer from some type of mental illness. I can guarantee that many would know quite a few. It's even more powerful to think that people are not getting the help they need, either because of stigma or inadequate services being offered.
This quote, by Kevin Alan Lee, is exactly what my topic is about: the failure of our mental health services in treating people when they can be helped in someway. This is a disturbing trend I have witnessed through my research with this project. When most speak of this topic, it is mostly about the stigma preventing people from seeking proper treatment, but that is simply only part of the issue. We have reached a point where we are stagnating in such a field.
This quote speaks to another part of why our mental health system isn't what it should be. This woman's words say to me that we are not educating people enough on what mental illness looks like--what it feels like. We expect to feel a sudden change, like the flip a switch, but that is simply not the case in most instances. That is why we must better not only the care but the education.
Finally, we have a quote from former president Bill Clinton. No truer words have been spoken about the current situation in America regarding our mental health services.
For more Quotes on mental health and everything you could possibly imagine, just go here:
http://thepeopleproject.com/quotes
Citation:
Capstone Project - Pt. 6 (Mid Research Review)
The
research I have done so far has been reading a nonfiction book, watching the
episode of a television show, reading a few articles, and watching a
documentary. My issue has just the right amount of broadness by having a large
timeline to work with, but it is narrow enough so I know what I want to focus
on, which is if we are making strives forward in this field. Luckily, the
research I’ve found is very focused, and though there is a cornucopia of
knowledge, it is all focused on the idea that we are stagnating as whole
regarding modern day mental health services.
The
common thread that connects my research is the idea of progress and eventual
stagnation. In “Sybil”, Dr. Wilbur uses tools new to psychologists and
psychiatrists at the time like hypnosis and sodium pentothal (Truth Serum). The
same could be said for doctors working in Bethlem Royal Hospital in the
16-1700s, who used a variety of techniques, though more torturous and now discontinued,
to treat patients. As for the articles and television show, we see their modern
counterparts. The articles, as well as their paired activity of a discussion
show that there are many issues preventing people from getting proper care,
such as stigma, and the inability to get proper care because the facilities of
today just aren’t up to par with what people need. This is elaborated on by the
television show episode where I watched “60 Minutes” by showing that the only
place for people to really go is the emergency room, and even then, they cannot
stay there long enough to get proper treatment.
In the future, I
hope to find information on the treatment of mental health patients during the
early 19th century, and since the only blue boxes left are a
PowerPoint and a fiction book/movie, it will have to be done through the
fiction book/movie box. This information will bring everything together and
make the answers I have already found very concrete, but I am aware that there
may be some counter arguments. If I can flesh these out as well, I feel it will
also help my research in the future.
Overall, with my
recent findings, how they fit together, and the direction I think my capstone
is going, I believe that I have successfully answered my question of whether or
not we are making strides in the field of mental health services. Though this
is only the mid research review, I know that my answers will be made concrete
by the time the final research review rolls around. April 3, 2014
Capstone Project - Pt.5 (Fiction Book/Movie) (2 of 2)
 |
| Word Cloud |
 |
| Promotional Poster |
As for questions I answered in my prezi for the fiction book, the story reveals much of the same things presented in my novel, it shows how an actual, normal person would feel if in the situation of dealing with a mentally ill people, or mental health services in general. For the time, it may have been normal, but now it is quite a problem, because now these people are not getting the help they deserve.
Once again, the fictional portrayal lends itself well to my research, further backing up what I've read regarding treatments (Lobotomies are a big plot point, as well as the introduction of psychotropic drugs) and the overall creepy feel that most get when talking about mental illness and asylums. This is a suspenseful movie and meant to be in a creepy location in order to pull that off properly so it is understandable for entertainment purposes.
 |
| One of the better known psychotropic drugs |
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Annotation:
Shutter Island. Dir. Martin Scorsese. Perf. Leonardo Dicaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley. Paramount Pictures, 2010. DVD.
For the second half of this creation piece, I watched the movie Shutter Island, which was directed by Martin Scorsese and stars Leonardo DiCaprio. In the film, Leo plays a US Marshal named Teddy Daniels who is asked to investigate the disappearance of a patient at an asylum for the criminally insane titled Boston's Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital. Soon, he begins to doubt everything and speculates that the hospital has brought him there for a sinister reason, and this is only made worse by a hurricane leaving him stranded and the doctor's being less than cooperative. Confusion gives way to improbable clarity as everything from Teddy's true past starts to reveal itself. There is no bias represented in the movie and it is helpful to show how treatment changed from past years. It is obviously a movie, so some things are dramatized, but the core of the facts presented are the same.This movie fits well with my topic by showing how people felt about mental health during these years.
Capstone Project - Pt. 5 (Fiction Book/Movie) (1 of 2)
This part of the Capstone was definitely one of my favorites, unfortunately, it's one of the last pieces to this astounding puzzle. For it, we got to choose between reading a contemporary fiction novel, or viewing a fictional movie of our choice. I've decided to do both. However, each part will be done through a different medium. For my book, I made a prezi to show how it connected to my research. Thanks to the awesomeness of the internet and technology, I can embed it here with no problem so that everyone can view it...
Annotation:
Roux, Madeleine. Asylum. New York City, New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2013. Print.
Staying in a crumbling mental hospital that is currently being renovated probably isn't anyone's idea of a good time, but for Daniel Crawford, a high school student involved in a college prep program, he's forced to stay in the archaic Brookline Asylum on the campus of the participating university because those are the only dorms available. With his two friends, Abby and Jordan, Dan has to confront the dark past hidden within the former psychiatric hospital that refuses to be buried in order to understand his own.As with any fiction book, it has an artistic license with a few things, but all in all it is unbias in how it presents the info within.The fiction book fits well with my topic, and I surprised that I learned so much that I didn’t know before.
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