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Mental health welfare has come a long way since the colonial period to today in this paper I will trace that advancement and changes that has been bought to the sector. Overall individual’s health depends on mental health and it is prudent that stringent measures are put in place in terms of policies that will ensure that there is an effective mental health program in place to benefit everybody. Mental health is basically ensuring that there is prober individuals mental well being. The mind is the part of a human being that does a lot and responsible for almost every other function in the body so its well being should be a priority. It determines the way someone behaves and thinks.  It determines how individual balance between activities in life and psychological well being. Inn developed world United States have highest number of people being diagnosed on mental health matters in the developed countries.

Today the way mental health is being defined is different from the days back, a lot have changed overtime. It is currently being defined in the way it have effects on the poor and the unemployed. Several policies have been set up overtime to address this mental health problem. It will be going through these policies and how it has addressed the mental health welfare and how the same policies have changed overtime. To be addressed in this paper is also the current state of mental health welfare in the United States and what factors led to it.

Mental Health Definition:

As per the current definition it is the level of psychological well being of an individual. Another definition could be a state of mental order. Mental health is also an individual’s ability to enjoy life and cope with daily challenges stresses; it is an individual’s ability to be productive in its undertakings and make positive contribution to the society, and be able to balance between life activities and paying attention to psychological health. It is also defined as expression of emotions and ability to cope with pressing demands in the daily living. Anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, depression and schizophrenia are examples of health disorders that are being addressed by policies that have been developed overtime. Mental health can further be defined as an act to shield the mind from influences and incidents, that can prevent individuals energy, development or quality to perform.

Before the American Revolution there were no facilities to address mental health problems in place. In 1676 Massachusetts became the first state to enact laws that will guide provision of care to the mentally ill in the state, what prompt this move by Massachusetts was the fact that there were a lot of individuals that were facing mental related health problems and they kept increasing in number. The statute was enacted to ensure that the mentally challenged are specially treated. In 18th century there was a mass campaign to identify individuals with the same mental challenges and tougher measures were put in place including fines for those who try to hide individuals with the problem. From then is where the high level treatments were started and keep on being updated to date. Dorothea Dix is very popular in the role she played in 19th century to bring the healthcare for the mentally ill to the current state; she carried out an effective campaign to ensure that the mentally challenged were well taken care of. Before the 19th century Dorothea Dix campaign individuals who had metal problems were left on their own yet they could not afford things such as clothing, food, shelter and money. Her campaign led to more facilities to gather for these individuals and quite a number of the patients were admitted but with this other problems emerged. With patients being admitted rising rapidly in number the number staffs he were present couldn’t manage and there was need for more hiring of staffs. William Sweetzer defined clearly the term mental hygiene to mean promotion of positive mental health. New York in the same 19th century started caring for the poor and insane people following the passage of New York state care act. In the year 1901 national committee for mental hygiene were funded by Clifford beers and at the time the first outpatient mental health clinic was passed in United States. This changes and developments were picking pace because other stats were following suit and with growth of people facing this problem every other state saw the need to care and mass statutes enactments were passed in different states.

New situations have kept on emerging and have to be dealt with accordingly. Each period have seen emergence of this people with mental health and at every situation and period different ways through enactments of different laws have been devised. The motivation behind policy developments and statute enactments are the need to sort the issue of these members of the society not being productive. What has also been changing is the definition of the problem and different development and changes have led to definition that is associated with stress, disability and abnormal individual’s culture.

To also address mental health welfare of individual poverty was seen as a contributor to the rise of the problem. Poverty causes a lot of problems across the globe. Poverty depends on the income ones earn and an individual is said to be poor if she is earning what is considered below the poverty line. Poor mental health leads to poverty and at the same time poverty can be a determinant of poor mental health status. Money or its absence however does not cause mental illness. There were measures in US in the early 20 centuries to uplift people out of poverty because it was seen that poverty was synonymous with psychiatric disorders. Some could argue that those who were in upper class sought for treatment earlier and the problem couldn’t manifest. Majority of people also committing suicide are either unemployed or seriously ill. Also quit worrying was the fact that children in the poorest households are three times more likely to have a mental illness than children in the best-off households.

Pennsylvania hospital opened first mental section in 1756 and 7 years later another mental section was opened in Virginia, a state hospital. Moral treatment principal also led to development of the first asylum in America in the state of Philadelphia, this event took place in 1817. And in 1843 Dorothea Dix famously known for revolutionizing the mental health welfare sector in united state carried out a massive campaign to ensure that the mentally ill were well gathered for and administered to special treatments. Many state mental hospitals were opened due to her extensive lobbying to the legislators of different states to enact laws to better this mental health sector in their various states.

Eliza Packard, who was a lawyer and women right activist, was accused of insanity and was committed against her will by the husband. The argument the led to this was used as evidence that she was mad. The cause of the argument was property dispute with her husband, later Packard law was passed in Illinois named after her. New York started caring for the mad people who were poor following the passage of New York state act of 1890; it was a total and complete care. Mental health movement begun in 1908 after a book titled a mind that found itself was published by Witthingham Beers Clifford, the book described the ordeal she passed describing that the condition in the mental hospital was unacceptable. Sterilization of defective involving mentally was constitutional zed in United States following the Supreme Court ruling in 1927 a case beating buck against bell. Action for mental health was deinstitutionalized in 1961. Congress have also been passing several other mental health acts including the one that was passed in 1963, this law of 1963 prompted to shutting down of several psychiatric hospitals across unite states. In 1975 community program were created to support the mentally ill this project was initiated by national institute of mental health, it basically provide financial support to communities to enable them establish good mental healthcare service centers, the funds the organization also provide were used to help patients adopt and cope well with the society. There used to be common house discriminations against the insane in United States but that was before the passage of fair housing amendment act in 1988 that brought an end to such discrimination against both mentally and physically disabled. American with disabilities act was passed in 1990 which also brought to an end discrimination against the mentally and physically challenged.

There have been various policies developed touching on the mental health welfare but little reforms have been witnessed overtime. The first reform that took the mental health care service by storm was the Dorothea Dix movement that brought into light the issue of mental health care for patients, this movement led to major reforms that saw the expansion of the facilities that cared for the mentally ill and increase the care for mentally sick and suffering from related sicknesses. The welfare for the mentally ill was further improved with the New York legislator’s recommendation that mentally ill should be separated in different section in the hospital, this was greatest reform to the sector and it radically improved the welfare of the patients, before this there were huge problem with chronic patients sharing the same rooms. The other major reform was the passage of the new York state act that ensured all the insane poor are well gathered for. The third major reform was the one inspired by Clifford beers. After Clifford movement, prevention started to begin from childhood. Chronic illness was not however prevented due to this move to start prevention from childhood.

But with this congestion was witnessed in hospitals especially with regard to chronically ill patients. Another reform followed Clifford inspired reform which led to large scale funding to this sector of mental illness, the funding mostly targeted community organizations that gathered for the well being of the mentally challenged. After this was the next movement that led to reforms whereby community health centers act was enacted, an act that saw effective disbursement of funds for building several mental health care centers all across the country. This series of mental healthcare centers provide treatment to the patients as well as preventive cares, many specialized staffs were also hired in the hospitals. This act was a blessing to the mental healthcare canters because it managed to remove mentally ill out of oppression in some health centers and it also led to more funding that facilitated the activities in mental health centers. Some patients however couldn’t get better because their conditions keep worsening while others saw their condition improved drastically. Another policy change makes it possible for patients to be under medication for a shorter period, even if the condition didn’t improve. There was also an inflation that greatly affected the mental healthcare sector because little money goes towards hiring of nurses, treatment and caring for the patients. Inflation also caused cuts towards this sector and the problem worsened and many patients find themselves in the streets helpless. Many nursing homes were closed and few that remain operational offered very poor services and the qualified nurses also left the mental health care sector. Several years later after this problems with the mental healthcare sector, there was a society mobilization, with social works that led to the development of mental health programs. This program was meant to replace custodial institutions called “civic medicine”, which was a variety of individualized community –based programs, such as “aftercare” a word that is widely used today.

Conclusion

There are plenty of things that need and have to be done to improve the mental health welfare of the patients in the United States. There have been different policy changes but the problem remains yet to be fixed. More community based programs should be supported and funded to support the mentally ill and help integrate to the society. More preventive measures should also be put in place in order to avert future worse crisis that could affect the sector.