Research Paper on the Difference in Social Groups

Introduction

The difference in social groups has been an important cause for variance in Psychiatry phenomena for many years. How the society views, mental illnesses patients has contributed to the procurement of mental health services. The concern could be worse when children and young adults are involved. Parents will hesitate to seek professional help for fear of being stigmatized and talked about. Dogra, et al. (2007) has tried to analyze this concept within an ethnic minority group in the United Kingdom (UK). While seeking mental health care is difficult, the challenge is multiplied for ethnic minorities in any region, they are not only a minority, but they are seeking assistance for an issue not considered as a general health need.

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Statistics place the ratio of children and young adults in the UK who will suffer distress and disorganization behavior enough to be called disorder at some point in their lives at 1 in every five children (Asam, Samara and Terry 2019). The patients will be attended to through various means some including seeing mental health givers, general practitioners, and informally through family interventions. A ration like the one presented indicates a great need for a structured approach into mental health provision (Dogra, et al. 2007). The study done in a section with a population of 400,000 people with 15 respondents may have been insufficient to present an accurate picture of children and young adults with mental illness needs.

The Disparity in Access to Health Care

Health care is a necessity for every human being. This needs cut across all matters health, mental illnesses being one of them. Mental health is defined as a robust mental functionality that leads to productive activities and relationships and indeed able to cope with adversity (Bicheno 2000). First, every surgeon's diary states that mental health is critical to the overall human health and that mental disorders are common. The report also explains that mental disorders are disabling, in fact, second to cardiovascular illnesses (Barnes 2008).

However, studies have shown that consumption of the service is affected by factors both controllable and not. Ethnicity and cultural differences are factors affecting health care access and mental illness care in particular (Rivera-Riquelmea, Piquerasa and Cuijpers 2019). It is commendable the research in question ventured into an ethnic minority area on a highly stigmatized health care need. However, the population of the target group may have lacked representation of other minority groups as such may not be a full representation of their views.

Referring to the study, the issue of the ethnic background of caregivers was mentioned a couple of times, presenting a need for mental health clients connecting with the health givers based on ethnic and cultural background (Jones 2013). The individuals identified from the study as potential sources of help for young people with mental illnesses included doctors and other health professionals. Professionalism and competence was one main expectation from specialized services that was put across by both groups of people interviewed in the study. There were few concerns raised about the ethical relation between caregivers and patients which is probable that the same is a concern among other ethical minority groups (Raphel 2019). Cultural competence for mental health caregivers is, therefore, an important aspect worth consideration.

Cultural Competence for Mental Health Care Professionals

Access for mental health care for children and adolescents who are immigrants especially in Europe has received attention in the last couple of decades (Slack 2013). This has been guided by attention to the vulnerabilities of migrant children and young adults. Living conditions, legal migration status, the social situation is some of the reasons the children could be very vulnerable. While mental illness is hard to identify and this is accelerated by the diversity in cultures among the immigrants, it is essential that mental health givers are culturally competent (Lunuau 2013). It is worth noting the study has not factored in the migration populace that may need mental health services.

Policies, attitudes, and behaviors within a profession that help them work in a cross-cultural situation are critical skills for mental health professionals should possess (Jones 2013). Over and above the immigrants, generally cultural and linguistic differences between mental health givers and the user can cause much miscommunication as such leading to inefficient and inadequate or even lack service provision at all (Asam, Samara and Terry 2019). Training mental health givers on basic skills of identifying the impact of culture in the lives of mental health users reduce racial and ethnic health disparities as those groups will feel free to seek the services.

Cultural competence will also address the issue of improving the services that the study highlighted. The respondents were keen to mention that the mental health givers and their specialized services need to be more visible in the communities (Bicheno 2000). There should come up with ways of advertising to attract more users of their services. Without an understanding of the cultures the ethnic minorities exist in, that would be a challenge.

Provision of Mental Health Services to Children and Young Adults

The study highlighted a lack of understanding of mental illness and learning disability. Further, personal qualities of mental health givers were highlighted and a conclusion drawn that an assumption about the level of mental health knowledge and beliefs of prospective clients (Dogra, et al. 2007). These arguments touch on the standardization of processes and procedures of assessment and diagnosis of mental health cases especially in children and young adults. The attitudes of mental health givers have been cited as a facilitating factor when implementing new methods of offering much-needed care.

There are an increased need and demand to obtain valid information in a structured manner to aid in diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses among children and young adults driven by the need to plan and prioritize treatment of those illnesses (Rivera-Riquelmea, Piquerasa and Cuijpers 2019). The collection of this data from patients for diagnosis and treatment purposes is structured in ways the mental health givers have to follow thereby making it easier to identify the ways and means of interacting with mental health users (Barnes 2008). The skill set needed for that interaction further adds on to the standardization albeit maintaining that personal attributes contribute significantly to that process. This addresses the competence and professionalism concerns raised by the respondents.

Finally, it is indeed essential to hold to a high regard for mental health especially among children and young adults. There is a need to ensure that right to children who sometimes cannot be able to speak up for themselves is achieved. It has been indicated that National Health Service's goal, especially in the 21st century, is to ensure children have equal access to high-quality health care with a close focus to children in ethnic minorities. Their work has detailed information about ethnicity and its effect on mental health provision for children which provides a guide into that issue should be approached.

Overall, the World Psychiatry Association has a programme dedicated to mental health for children and young adults. The program has a mission to ensure the rights of children and adolescents with mental illnesses are protected together with those of their families. Their objective is to promote awareness, promote primary prevention mechanisms and offer support for the development of support services for the ailing children. Such programs, coupled with more research about the affected groups will aid in creating policies that ensure the rights of those affected children are well protected, the stigma around mental health is minimized and possibly eradicated completely. While it is not those children's choice to be in that condition, they should not suffer the brunt of the challenges so discussed above.

References

Asam, Aiman El, Muthanna Samara, and Philip Terry. "Problematic internet use and mental health among British children and adolescents." Addictive Behaviors 90, no. 1 (2019): 428-436. doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2018.09.007

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Dogra, N., P., Vostanis, H., Abuateya, and N. Jewson. "Children's mental health services and ethnic diversity: Gujarati families' perspectives of service provision for mental health problems." Transcultural Psychology 44, no. 2 (2007): 275-291. doi: 10.1177/1363461507077727

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Lunuau, S. Six Sigma and Lean Toolset Mindset for successful Implementation of Improvement Projects. 2nd ed. London: Springer, 2013.

Raphel, Sally. "U.S. policy for children's mental health." Archives of Psychiatric Nursing 1, no. 2 (2019): 121-132. doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2019.01.013

Rivera-Riquelmea, Maria, Jose Piquerasa, and Pim Cuijpers. "The Revised Mental Health Inventory-5 (MHI-5) as an ultra-brief screening measure of bidimensional mental health in children and adolescents." Psychiatry Research 274, no. 1 (2019): 247-253. doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2019.02.045

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