Week 12 : mental disorders lecture

Question 1

Mental disorders

Answer 1

• alterations in thinking, mood or behaviout associated with significant distress and impaired functioning
• we need to recognize that almost any behaviour can be a mental disorder… it is ultimarely about how much it is impacting your life & making it difficult to function normally
• key thing is that it has a significant impact on our lives

Question 2

Rates of mental disorder

Answer 2

• it is more prevalent and we also talk about it more
• lower socioeconomic status (chronic poverty)
• social causation hypothesis… being in a lower social class is a contributor to the development of a mental illness
• social selection hypothesis… illness causes one to have a downward shift in social class (aka drift hypothesis)
• social facts… gender, race, ethnicity, age, class, education, marital status, etc. (Durkheim)

Question 3

Why youth?

Answer 3

• biology… hormones, neuro-development
• development… emerging adults, Erikson’s stage theory, 12-19 identity vs role confusion, 20-40 intimacy vs isolation
• life stages… stress (paradox of choice)

Question 4

Lack of treatment

Answer 4

• 2/3 of ppl with mental disorders remain untreated, due to…
• 1. lack of services
• 2. perceptions of treatment as inadequate
• 3. discomfort with self-disclosure in treatment
• 4. neglect within families or communities
• 5. fear of stigmatization
• 6. or just lack awareness of what is out there

Question 5

costs of mental illness

Answer 5

1. individuals & families… education, employment, income, family instability, physical illness
2. societal costs (14 billion a year)… health care expenses, absemce from work, lost tax revenues & criminalization

Question 6

Medicalization of mental disorders history…

Answer 6

1. religious & spiritual rituals
2. then prisons and spiritual rituals
3. then asylums
4. then psychiatric institutions
5. now community treatment

Question 7

Deinstitutionalization

Answer 7

• began in 60s w community treatments instead of institutions
• many ppl have been helped but others have fell through the cracks
• effective deinstitutionalization requires… supportive family, accepting community, adequate community resources & a place to live

Question 8

Ways mental illness is criminalized

Answer 8

• types of crimes… causing a distrubance, mischief, minor theft & failure to appear in court
• ppl with mental illness more likely to be arrested for minor criminal offence than non-ill person

Question 9

ppl with mental illnesses have a disproportionate incarceration rate cuz

Answer 9

1. lack of sufficient community support
2. high rate of substance abuse
3. ‘forensic label’
4. treatment is sometimes refused to persons who have committed an offence or have been previously incarcerated
5. problems with treatment
6. lack of specialized cross-training for both criminal justice & mental health
7. lack of timely access fo mental health assessment & treatment

Question 10

what can we all do?

Answer 10

• open dialogue
• actively listen
• practice empathy (vs sympathy)
• avoid toxic positivity (validation is key)
• language (pay attention to your words
• avoid patologizing ourselves

Question 11

concerns about the DSM as a tool

Answer 11

• debates over categories of ‘mental disorders’ (homosexuality, addiction/frigidity, ADHD, grieving as a form of depression)
• there is a role of power in the creation & revisions of the DSM
• cultural differences in the approach to mental health

Question 12

the deviance dance

Answer 12

• resisting stigmatization
• resisting inadequate and insufficient care
• resisting medicalization