Summarise_and_Discuss_the_Presentation_of_Mental_Health_in_the_Two_News_Paper_Articles.

Summarise and discuss the presentations of mental health in the two newspaper articles. Word limit: 1500 words Summary of cited news paper articles: 1 "Antidepressant use in England soars" by David Batty. This article suggests that there has been an increase in the number of people diagnosed with mental illness, and a corresponding increase of prescribed antidepressants from 2007 - 2011, the north - west of England, having the highest rate of antidepressants prescribed. This is costing, according to the House of Commons, the NHS over £520 million pounds a year and the economy nearly £11bn. This increase during the economic crisis is due to people worrying about money and employment with depression and anxiety being the biggest cause of loss of earnings. (Emer O'Neill). Therefore the government needs to promote awareness of mental illness and to work with employers to reduce stress in the work place. This article also suggested that depression and anxiety may be over diagnosed with diagnostics being the cause of this increase. 2 "Depression' It's just the new trendy illness!" By Janet Street Porter. Janet Street Porter claims that working class woman have no time for depression and just have to get on with life and although she accept post-traumatic depression, clinical depression and post natal depression as mental illnesses, she also states that depression is a new trendy illness for wealthy, successful celebrity women, the spoiled women, who just can't cope with life and see depression as a accessory to their wardrobe so to speak. Even men are "jumping on the band wagon." She also states that stress and depression didn't exists a few years ago but as stress is becoming more acceptable the government is spending millions of pounds on antidepressants and counselling. She feels that the way people are diagnosed should be reviewed. Mental illness, as suggested in both newspaper articles (Batty, 2011; Street -Porter, 2010) is on the increase and more and more people are relying on "professional advise". Winnicott (cited in Pilgrim, 2010, p 31) argues that depression and anxiety are part of our normal lives, whilst Psychiatrist David Healy (Healy, 2010) in the audio clip suggests that we have become frightened of normal emotions, and rely on expert professional diagnosis to medicate and cure us. The Guardian article (Batty, 2011) suggests depression is linked with poverty creating a greater need for better facilities, awareness and treatment as opposed to The Daily Mail article ( Street-Porter, 2010) who sees mental illness as a new female trend which is too easily diagnosed. The World Health Organisation (WHO) (cited in Pilgrim, 2010, p 33) and the Office of National Statistics 2001, validate what both the news paper article suggest, (cited in Barker, Vossler and Langdridge, 2010, p2) stating that depression is a major pandemic and that people are becoming more dependent on medical advice and pharmaceutical bodies. So what has caused this pandemic. There are many different opinions as to why this increase has occurred, changing attitudes towards mental illness and diagnostics have both played a major part. Engel, for example, supports the bio psychosocial model to explain why this increase has occurred. He states that to understand mental illness you need to understand a person's psychology, biology and social context, changing any one of these will impact on the other two. (cited in Fredrick Toates, p 45, p 51). So, as people left their communities during the industrial revolution, and science replace religion, anxiety and stress became medical rather than moral issues. (Michel Foucault, cited in Baker et el, 2010, p 10). Possibly one of the links to increase diagnosis of mental illness today, is the high level of unemployment. Brown, Harris and Hepworth (cited in Pilgrim, 2010, p 34) and Emer O'Neill (cited in the Guardian article, Batty, 2011) agree that sadness and depression has been linked with loss of some kind, loss of work, control, dignity or status and today, research suggests that areas of high unemployment have the highest rate of mental illness resulting in increased number of prescribed antidepressants. David Healy, (Excerpt 4) suggests another reason for the increase in mental illness is the changes in attitude. The Victorians saw mental illness as a separate, inherited, deteriorating fixed illness that only the poor working class suffered. (Kraepelin, cited in Pilgrim, 2010, p 24). These assumptions were challenge during the 1st world war when soldiers from all classes suffered shell shock (Stone, cited in Pilgrim, 2010 p 25). It was no longer an illness just for the poor and there became a need to distinguish between different types of mental illness. Emil Kraepelin,1883 (cited in Pilgrim p 24) used this as a starting point to established ways to categorise mental illness. Wakefield (cited in Pilgrim, p 30) argues that mental illness is difficult to define whilst others agree with the suggestion that mental illness is too easily diagnosed (Street-Porter, 2010). Today, The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) created by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Diagnostics and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) published by American Psychiatric Association (APA), have standardised the referral process of diagnostics to maintain consistency between them. It could be that this growth of categories is linked with the increase in reported cases of mental illness. The medical profession has the responsibility to provide the correct treatment that can range from drug therapy to psychoanalysis or a combination of several therapies depending on the client's needs. However, this categorising, labelling and the stigma associated with mental illness can cause even more stress and anxiety. Stephen Fry and Trisha Goddard, (Excerpt 2) two well known celebrities, have both been diagnosed with mental illness. Stephen Fry found this extremely helpful, he felt that he had an official illness that could be treated and he could let the professionals take responsibility for his well being. Trisha Goddard, on the other hand felt that being diagnosed with mental illness brought her stigma and victimisation. They both agree that society and the stigmas associated with mental illness are their biggest problems, but through the media, with celebrities talking about their experiences, and talking openly about the treatments available awareness of the issues of mental illness have been brought to the masses. (Excerpt 1 and 2 ). With more and more people excepting the diagnosis of depression there has been an increase in the use of antidepressants with pharmaceutical companies profiting from this. Figures from the Guardian article (Batty, 2011) suggest this with 43.4m antidepressants, 6.5m anti -anxiety drugs and 10.2m sleeping tablets were prescribed between 2007 and 2011 an increase of 28%, 8% and 3% respectively. David Healy, (Excerpt 4) states that 6 in 10 people are successfully treated due to the action of the drug alone, this is what people want, they trust the professionals and the pharmaceutical companies to cure them. (Paul Farmer cited in Batty, 2011). Considering the fact that that approximately 56% of the diagnostic panel are associated with pharmaceutical companies we should always question the validity of these figures. It is generally accepted that most people will suffer from mental illness of some sort during their life time but our economic crisis is just making things worse. I believe, with the growing number of people suffering from anxiety and depression, it is more important now to examine why and what can be done to tackle theses issues. There will always be debates on how mental illness should be diagnosed, categorised and treated and there will always be debates on how to treat mental illness. Diagnosis, drug therapy, talking therapies are a life line for people struggling with mental illness and interventions can empower or disempowering. The media and the openness of some celebrities has increased our awareness of mental illness and has encourage us to ask for help but with the readily acceptance of drug intervention it suggests to me that we would prefer the quick fix approach instead of dealing with the real problems. From the evidence we have, labelling and stigma are still the biggest hurdle to cross. Janet Street Porter (The Daily Mail) argues that there is no stigma attached to depression. Given that this is based purely on her sexist, dismissive opinions, even if that was true, articles like this do nothing to promote awareness and her attitude and awareness is no further advanced than the Victorians. I do agree that medication can be helpful but evidence suggests that a combination of drug therapy and holistic therapy, such as cognitive behaviour therapy or Psychoanalysis, looking at the whole person, can have a better outcome in the long term. The fact that "professionals" are now offering counselling at the same time as prescribing antidepressants is a sign to me that our attitudes and our needs are still changing. word count 1458 References: Excerpt 1: Experiences of fear and sadness. (2010)(video), D240, Counselling: exploring fear and sadness. Excerpt 2: Experiences with diagnosis and stigma. (2010)(video) D240, Counselling: exploring fear and sadness. Excerpt 3: Experiences with drug use. (2010)(video) D240, Counselling: exploring fear and sadness. Excerpt 4: Psychopharmacology. (2010)(video) D240, Counselling: exploring fear and sadness. The Daily mail, 5th August 2010, hhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1278510/Depression-its-just-new-trendy-illness.html (Accessed June 2013) The Guardian, 30th December 2011, hhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011.dec/30/antidepressant-use-england-soars. (Accessed June 2013) The Open University (2010) 'Chapter 1: Introduction', Milton Keynes, The Open University, p2, p10. The Open University (2010) 'Chapter 2: The diagnosis of mental health problems', Milton Keynes, The Open University, p21, p24, p25, p30,p33, p43. The Open University (2010) 'Chapter 3: Understanding drug treatment: a bio psychosocial approach', Milton Keynes, The open University, p45, p51 Self reflection I found it disturbing that some people still have Victorian attitudes towards mental illness. I was more interested in what people had to say about their diagnosis and treatment as opposed to the validity of statistics from pharmaceutical companies and I would have to question for whose benefit are the increasing categories of mental illness. It was a huge subject area and deciding what to include was almost impossible. I still have problems with referencing and plagiarism, did I read or hear that somewhere, are these my words etc. word count 91