National Institute of Mental Health Website: Objectivity, Accuracy, and Currency

Introduction

The National Institute of Mental Health is currently the leading federal agency that researches on mental disorders. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most prevalent mental disorders under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM V). According to nimh.nih.gov (2018), ADHD is a brain disorders characterized by an ongoing pattern of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that can interfere with the functioning and development. Treatments for ADHD include either medical, educational, behavioral and psychological intervention or a combination of all those interventions. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Its research priorities include, but are not limited to, topics such as anxiety disorder, autism spectrum disorder, borderline personality disorders, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). When reviewing the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) website for credibility, it is important to consider criteria such as objectivity, accuracy, and currency as the determining factors during evaluation. Objectivity of the website refers to lack of bias or whether the information is presented in a fair and balanced way. Accuracy refers to the reliability, truthfulness and correctness of the content. Currency refers to the suitability of the information for use. The information on the website should be up to date.

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Objectivity in a website represents that the data is presented by an unbiased source that does not seek to gain from disseminating the information. The information on the website should not be biased towards some private objectives such as swaying the audience towards buying specific drugs or subscribing to specific mental health organization. The purpose of the website is to present the criteria that determine if the website achieved its objectives for which it was developed. The website is fit for its purposes (Charbonneau, 2015) and should not endorse specific treatment or procedures. The purpose of the website is to inform the audiences, which include everyone interested in mental health information. It has adequate information on a wide range of mental health topics with ADHD accounting for 90% of the information on the website. The content presented on the website particularly supports the purpose of the websites by sticking to mental health disorders only. There are no advertisements or irrelevant and distracting information apart from mental health-related information only. Additionally, all of the external links are specifically related to mental health disorders. The domain of the site indicated that the website is part of a larger organization but the URL does not indicate the purpose. The site is objective in its approach and shows no biased information or advertisement that can affect the reader's objectivity apart from the news and events that do not solicit for funding or seek to influence the audiences to purchase specific drugs to visits particular mental health insinuation. The audience's autonomy is respected and the right to choose specific drugs or mental health hospitals rests with the audience.

Accuracy deals with the authenticity and veracity of the claims being made and also refers to the verifiability of the information presented on the website. The website's accuracy cannot be easily determined but because the information is provided by authorities on the topic, the accuracy of the information can be assumed at face value. For example, the authors are affiliated with the federal agency which is a respectable intuition and there are also statistics that are comparable with the CDC data. Some of the statistics are provided by the federal government (Ioannidis, 2015) which has tools and resources to collect comprehensive data using rigorous means. The statistics and the factual information also have adequate references to their sources. From various studies done by other researchers and reviewed by peers, the information on the website is comparable. Finally, there are no grammar, spelling or composition mistakes that can lead to a wrong interpretation of the information presented therein.

Currency, in the context of National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) website is good as the website presents up-to-date data that has been peer reviewed recently. At the time, there were plenty of articles promulgating the benefits of the procedure and the prevailing medical consensus was that it was Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS). Additionally, a current website should have all of its links working. The NIMH's website can be considered current as it was last updated on Augusts 23rd 2018 and all of the links are working at the time of writing. While the author has not indicated when the website was first published, they have indicated the dates for the latest review. Most of the links provided are reliable and the information provided is not trend related except under the news and events tabs

The National Institute of Mental Health website scores high on the criteria of reliability, accuracy, currency, and objectivity. There is no content sponsorship associated with corporate sponsors and this means that bias is quite limited if any. Most of the links to internal and external pages are for educational purposes only and the websites have not endorsed any treatment or procedures as it seeks to remain objective. The website has not clearly stated any health disclaimers. Therefore the content is clearly for both general and practical use in managing mental health. Refers to the reputation, qualification as well as the knowledge of the institution or the individual responsible for managing and updating the content. The website can be considered an authority because it was developed and funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The National Institute of Health is also a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and while being a federal agency, the website can be considered an authority on issues related to mental health because the government can fund extensive studies.

References

Charbonneau, D. H. (2015). Health Disclaimers and Website Credibility Markers. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 54(3), 30-36. Retrieved from https://lopes.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=101822177&site=eds-live&scope=site

National Institute of Mental Health (2018). NIMH >> Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. [online] Nimh.nih.gov. Available at: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-adhd/index.shtml [Accessed 27 Sep. 2018].

Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2015). Research and theories on the etiology of mental diseases: Doomed to failure? Psychological Inquiry, 26(3), 239-243. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/1047840X.2015.1021188