In my first blog post I wrote about the Declaration of Human Rights and the passing of the Affordable Health Care Act in the United States under President Barack Obama. Health Care is a form of social change with the underlying premises that health care is a human right, not a privilege. The act acknowledges that we are “free and equal in dignity and rights.” In my last blog post I will continue to talk about health care reform and the relationship between mental health, human rights and the law. Roslyn Solomon’s article “Global goes local: Integrating human rights principles into a county health care reform project” influenced me to do some research on current mental health campaigns aimed at the relationship between the individual and the community. A number of approaches have been used to address this relationship such as increasing mental health awareness, efforts to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness, and encouraging those who suffer from a psychological issue to seek help and share their story. While, promising, none of these campaigns have proven to be relatively effective. I almost lost hope in my search for an approach that is integrative enough to produce real change. I came across a group called The International Council of Nurses.
The ICN is a group of nurses from 130 different countries who, amongst other health issues, acknowledges that mental health is a crucial aspect of well being that remains sorely neglected, under-resourced and plagued by stigma in most societies. The International Council of Nurses deplores the fact that stigma, discrimination, treatment gaps, and lack of access to services and to continuity of care continue to exist globally. Through their own code of ethics, they call on government to set policy, including legislation, to protect and improve mental health and supply effective, integrated, community-based mental health services. Together they call on health professionals to combat the stigma and discrimination associated with mental health problems.
I think that the ICN is a great example of how the United States can best help vulnerable individuals with mental illness and prevent them from being incarcerated. Society, as well as government and the corrections system play important roles in the outcome of individuals with mental illness. There has to be more efforts to make sure these outcomes do not result in a jail or prison sentence.
As a result of this course, I have been extremely interested in studying public health policy and mental health. In particular, I am interested in changing the U.S. corrections system’s role in mental health. Everyone has a passion, and this is one of mine. There is a need for social change and it starts and ends with me.
Hoping For Humanity 