Essay Example on Mental Illness Across the World: The Hidden Picture Insight

Insights: From the Hidden Picture film, this film has given me a good insight into how mental illness across the world is mirrored. One significant insight I spotted in this film regarding the mental illness globally is that one is forbidden to speak about it in most countries such as India. Here in the United States, each and everyone is at liberty to talk about it freely. There are structures in place here in America and other countries such as France for people suffering from it to seek medical attention. In most countries such as China, South Africa, and even Kenya, there is strong evidence linked to widespread stigma for individuals with mental illness. In these countries, mental illness stigma is so severe that persons without this disease regard those with psychiatric disorders as non-human. According to Patel (2017), mental illness or disability demands recognition. From the instances, we gather from the travels and interviews Ruston conducts across the globe, it is evident that most people would not come out openly to share on their mental health status. For instance, In India, a mother denies the opportunity for her daughter to have face to face interviews. Most people hide their family members suffering from this disorder. Hence, disguise and hidings speak volumes about how most people across the globe perceive the topic of mental illness. Start from Carey (2015) on her chains of mental illness in the West Africa article to Patel (2017) on his Treating depression, where there is no mental health professionals article. For sure, for any effective change to be realized, a lot of prioritization in our moral transformations has to be enhanced. We all should stand and reform our global mental health awareness across the world.

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Resource: An additional resource that supports this topic, I found is one written by Brian K. Ahmedani. The title of the article is Mental Health Stigma: Society, Individuals, and the Profession. Ahmedani's article tackles the issue of stigmatization in society, more so on the healthcare professionals. This article attributes that healthcare professionals are the ones who are internalizing stigmatization. As per Ahmedani (2011), health workers are now seen as a barrier to persons engaging or seeking treatment in our mental health facilities. It is a fact from the research conducted by Ahmedani (2011) that epistemology, theory, and dimensions of mental health stigma comprise of some inferences for our social work ethic laden profession. Relating this article to the film, all of them articulates the aspect of stigma vividly. It is true from the film and the article that mental health stigmatization cuts across borders and professions. This film did not mention about stigmatization on parts of the healthcare professionals; it is now evident that mental health stigmatization has internalized in our health care professionals who offer counseling and treatment to mentally ill patients.

Critique: This is an exciting short film since it acts as an eye-opener film that brings to the limelight the disturbing but ultimately optimistic accolade experiences of mental ill-health individuals of their resilience in times of stigmatization. From my perspective, I didn't find it great for Ruston in her interview to speak more than the mental health victims. At least she would have given them a chance for them to express their concerns vividly and issues they are facing. Instead, Ruston acting as their voice, she could have allowed them to lay their case to over the million viewers. All in all, this film is great for the majority of the audience; you do not have to be a lover of mental health to have a look at this video since it serves the audience have humanity sympathy to people who are prejudiced because of a disorder they have no control over.

Question: By dissecting Ruston film, it is hard not to ask ourselves several questions. Of importance is the question of how can we uplift people with mental health conditions seek acclaimed health care?

References

Ahmedani, B. K. (2011). Mental health stigma: Society, individuals, and the profession. Journal of social work values and ethics, 8(2), 4-1.

Carey, B. (2015). The chains of mental illness in West Africa. New York Times, 12, A1.

Kleinman, A. (2009). Global mental health: a failure of humanity. The Lancet, 374(9690), 603-604.

Patel, V. (2017). Treating depression where there are no mental health professionals. Bull World Health Organ, 95, 172-173.