Health Promotion Proposal
Mental Health
According to Storrie et al. (2019), mental health illnesses or disorders define an array of psychological conditions that influence an individual’s thinking, emotions, and/or behavior. It covers clinical depression, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, depression, autism, Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), schizophrenia, Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder among others.
Significance and Justification for Planning and Intervention
According to recent World Health Organization data, roughly half of the world’s population suffers from mental diseases. This high incidence of mental illness is linked to significant impairment, with the pairing of anxiety and mood disorders being the most diagnostic of disability and service consumption. Furthermore, stigma, which is a leading factor of discrimination and exclusion, is a significant hardship for the sufferer. Symptoms of mental illness, as well as the associated stigma, have a detrimental impact on people’s self-esteem, damage interactions, and impede people’s ability to get housing, employment, and education. In this case, University students experience a sense of social isolation linked to the stigma of mental illness, and they are frequently hesitant to seek treatment due to the perceived stigma (Ochnik et al., 2021).
As a result, the proportion of students suffering from a serious mental illness has increased considerably, with the number of students diagnosed with depression doubling during 13 years and the incidence of suicidal learners tripling. This creates a sense of urgency to address the situation.
Target Population
Given the global incidence and cost of mental illness, it is anticipated that a considerable percentage of students with emotional disorders will join university, both with a definitive diagnosis and without but with detrimental symptoms. As a result, this program primarily targets school-age youths, including high school and university students, between the ages of fourteen and thirty-five, who are at a high risk of developing symptoms of mental disorders as a result of chronic stress from schoolwork, transitions, and life expectations.
Epidemiological Trends
One out of every four to five young individuals in the general population meets the criteria for a lifelong mental condition linked with significant role dysfunction and/or suffering. In 2019, about 970 million individuals across the world experienced a mental health issue with the number rising immensely in 2020 as a result of Covid-19 (National Institute of Mental Health, 2022). According to a national and worldwide literature study, an estimated 17% of young people have a behavioral, mental, or behavioral issue, with drug addiction or dependency is the most typically identified for young people. Furthermore, the risk of major mental illness in 18 to 25-year-olds is greater than in any other age group above 18. Furthermore, at least 6% of people between the ages of 12 and 25 have had at least one serious episode of depression. This is exacerbated by an individual’s ethnicity and degree of money. In this case, at least a quarter of students coming from low-income families experience depression with almost two-thirds of those coming from families living below the poverty line. Also, at least 80% of Latin Americans, 75% of African-Americans, and 70% of White Americans have unmet psychological needs.
In the United States, at least 21% of adults experienced a mental health disorder in 2020, with 17% of youths between the ages of 13-17 also experiencing mental health disorders within the same period (WHO, 2022). Besides, 1 in every 20 adults experiences a major mental health problem in the United States. Also, only 46% of adults in the United States received treatment in the United States in 2020, with only half of youths receiving treatment for mental health disorders. Females are also more likely to seek help when subdued with mental health issues compared to males.
Environmental and Behavioral Risk Factors
Many types of inequality are linked to mental health, with a particularly evident gradient for serious mental illness (Meyer-Lindenberg & Tost, 2021). The frequency of psychotic illnesses is 9 times greater in the lowest fifth of family income than in the richest, and the frequency of common mental illnesses is double in both categories. Individuals living in disadvantaged regions are also more likely to require mental healthcare but are less likely to receive it and to recover after treatment. This compounds and exacerbates mental health issues. Also, unequal access to services such as suitable housing, as well as exposure to negative stresses such as violence, crime, or a lack of public green space, are examples of deprivation. As a result, populations with huge income and resource disparities between people are connected with greater levels of ill health and mental health disorders for the community as a whole.
Education is a significant predictor of eventual health and well-being. It teaches people how to operate and make choices in order to maximize their chances of getting a job and avoiding poverty. Health literacy can also be improved via education. People with inadequate health literacy have a variety of inferior health outcomes and are more prone to participate in risky activities.
While the link between crime and mental health is complicated. It is clear, however, that people who come from high-crime regions have a detrimental mental impact. This also includes coming from areas with high drug and substance abuse. These environments increase the chances of developing a mental health condition with a poor prognosis due to low accessibility of treatment services.
Behavioral factors that increase the risk of developing a mental health problem include a history of drug abuse, sexual or gender violence, loss of a loved one, and family discord at an early age. Also, a lack of religious affiliation has been linked to an increased risk of experiencing depression (Meyer-Lindenberg & Tost, 2021).
Therefore, the gap in addressing mental health issues is huge and requires urgency lest more danger to the population is experienced.
References
Meyer-Lindenberg, A., & Tost, H. (2021). Neural mechanisms of social risk for psychiatric disorders. Nature Neuroscience, 15(5), 663–668. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3083
National Institute of Mental Health. (2022, January). Mental Illness. Www.nimh.nih.gov; National Institute of Mental Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/mental-illness
Ochnik, D., Rogowska, A. M., Kuśnierz, C., Jakubiak, M., Schütz, A., Held, M. J., Arzenšek, A., Benatov, J., Berger, R., Korchagina, E. V., Pavlova, I., Blažková, I., Aslan, I., Çınar, O., & Cuero-Acosta, Y. A. (2021). Mental health prevalence and predictors among university students in nine countries during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-national study. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 18644. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-97697-3
Storrie, K., Ahern, K., & Tuckett, A. (2019). A systematic review: Students with mental health problems-A growing problem. International Journal of Nursing Practice, 16(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-172x.2009.01813.x
WHO. (2022, June 8). Mental disorders. Www.who.int. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-disorders#:~:text=In%202019%2C%201%20in%20every
