Forty seven million people in the United States did not have any form of health care in 2006. That number has been expected to do nothing but grow as our economy declines and both big and small business cut cost to stay alive long enough to see the other side of this economic downturn. So where does that leave mental health care?
Unfortunately, mental health care has never been what you would refer to as high priority for this nation or others. Stigmas surrounding having a mental health issue are still alive and well in the twenty-first century. For a large portion of the twentieth century, those with any kind of mental health issue were lumped into two categories. Those whom had to be put away, out of sight, out of mind, out of family embarrassment and those who were able to cope with society well enough to be in society, however they often were shunned by their own families and sent out into the world to deal with these issues alone. Often the second group was socialized enough to make their way in life, somewhat. They made friends, had marriages and children but life was still different for them, harder for their families and friends to deal with them and harder for the individual to deal with life as a whole. Not much has changed in this century. We still as families and as a society are embarrassed by our family members that need professional psych services. We would rather if we were to be honest they were put away somewhere, just until they could come out and act like the rest of us. When they are socialized enough to maintain family and social relationships to a certain extent we still as a society want to shun them, pretend their problems are something else, pretend they are not there. As a society this has been the evolution of mental illness within our society.
Throughout the centuries there have always been a select number of people who have been fascinated by this phenomenon and tried to understand more about it. Necessity is the mother of all invention and when you have a family member that is depressed there will be some that will begin to try to alter the body, the mind, and the spirit to have an effect on the affliction.
The Egyptians, being very self aware believed that those who were mentally afflicted were magical, or receiving messages from the gods. It is here that we find the first mental health institution in the form of a temple and the first mental health doctors and treatments. Opium and sleep treatment were often first choices for treatment as the Egyptians were fixated on death and the afterlife and believed the mentally ill were somehow tapped into that spiritual aspect.
As the concept of a single God came with Judaism mental illness left the realm of magical and became more of a religious problem. That the afflicted were dealing with guilt issues over how they were living their lives and not pleasing God. It is widely believed that it was during this time in history that organized religion weaved into doctrine that those who were mentally ill were out of favor with God. Hence some of the shame and secrecy that still surrounds this issue.
With Islam came a view of the mentally ill that they must be taken care of as their affliction was that of a neuroscience and psychology issue. It was these Islamic doctors who discovered that mental health issues were neither demonic nor godly; they were dysfunction within the brain. It was during this time in history that many therapies such as Music Therapy were designed and are still practiced today.
In Medieval Europe mental illness was deemed witchcraft and those found to be suffering from this were tortured and put to death. With the Renaissance witchcraft was replaced with insane asylums and people were considered to be second class to prison inmates. The public could pay a small fee and watch the inhabitants as a form of entertainment. It was during the Moral Reform of Europe at the turn of the nineteenth century that these practices changed and those with mental illness were looked upon as needing services in a more supportive environment. These changes and the doctors who brought them about are credited for the beginning of clinical psychology.
By the turn of the twentieth century asylums were used less often and medications were being developed for uses to combat certain mental illnesses allowing those with disorders to live and function within society to a certain extent. But socially it was still a taboo and instead of putting our family members with mental illness in asylums we hid them away within our homes and families.
With all this history you would think that by the time the twenty-first century rolled around we would have adequate solutions to this problem. But it seems we are in much the same state we have been in throughout history where this issue is concerned. While doctors and healers have made great strides throughout history as a society we have not for the most part come any further than believing it is a demonic possession, out of favor with God and witchcraft. There is still a huge sector of our society as well as our government that believes those with mental illness are and should remain invisible. The problem with this is that as technology advances and the pressures of life move at a faster and faster pace we all are showing signs of mental illness to one degree or another.
So this brings us to a new place here in the twenty first century, a place where we can no longer avoid the mental health issues we are all experiencing at one point or another in our lives. We have to stand up, take notice and then take action. However, when we are in a position to be proactive where our own care is concerned often is the case that we run into problems with insurance or the lack thereof, coverage, or the lack thereof and availability of services, or the lack thereof. Where do you go when you don't have insurance or if you do mental health services are not covered? How do you pay for medicine if you are in this situation? What do you do if you don't want your employer to know you are utilizing mental health services? The answers to these questions are sometimes convoluted and difficult to understand or even find. We will take an in depth look at what services are available and how to access them in part II of this article.
