Many patients and their families just simply can’t afford to pay this cost. In 1969 my family who was living in Jamaica experienced a similar case of not being able to pay for the mental health treatment of my uncle. He was in Miami, Florida when during an armed robbery he witnessed his brother (my other uncle) being murdered. In almost an instance he developed mental health issues. He couldn’t afford to pay for the treatment and had to return to Jamaica where the rest of his family lived, as he also became indigent. However my family couldn’t afford to care for his mental health treatment either and he was placed in an overcrowded government operated mental health institution. He remained in that institution and never received the proper care to be able to return an independent state of mind. It is my opinion that he had a minor mental health condition which should have been effectively …show more content…
I approach the head of the agency and express my desire to volunteer my counseling services working with mental health patients. She asked for my credentials and I provided her with the requested documents. It was then that she that she was assured that I am a human service professional. According to Woodside & McClam (2012) a human service professional is a person who is educated and trained in areas that provides services to individual, families, groups and communities in need. To become a professional in this field one has to earn a degree at the bachelor’s, masters or doctoral level (NASW, 2014). She then asked me to put a proposal together and present it to her as soon as possible. However she did warn that she encourages her staff to have group sessions as a cost saving