This documentary had some memorable things in it. It followed the stories of several men with mental illnesses and their transition from prison life to society. For many of them, they get stuck in a cycle due to their mental illness. What was particularly memorable to me was how quickly their improvements were dropped when they didn’t take their medicine. Medicine can be a significant factor between success and recidivism. I also found it memorable that some genuinely wanted to get better and tried their best to take steps to do that. The documentary itself was meaningful because I realized just how severe this cycle can be and how society and the medical and legal community can take steps to try to stop it. Another reason why this whole
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The same program who made this documentary, Frontline, has many answers to this question. Approximately 50-80 communities in the United States have set up “crisis intervention teams (CIT)”. These are teams made up by law enforcement officers who have training to recognize mental illness to know how to lower the tension in a situation where law enforcement has been called in, such as a domestic disturbance call. These intervention teams have been proven effective. People also are trying to make mental health courts more common to place individuals into treatment after having committed a crime, instead of sentencing them to jail. One attractive side of this is that it saves the public money to keep mentally ill individuals healthier and out of prison. We, as a country, can also fund programs that will help at-risk mentally ill individuals get better and provide alternative options with their re-entry into society after being in prison. Another way that every individual can help is by writing to our congressional representatives, senators, and State & local governments encouraging them to provide for the resources for mentally ill individuals (“Some Frequently Asked Questions”, …show more content…
We get to see many connections and real life examples of the mental illnesses we are studying. In chapter one, we learned about how mental illness can make people dysfunctional and unable to care for themselves. This video provides a very real example of how this is true. Also, we can see the effects of deinstitutionalization. Additionally, we see examples of the treatments that are described in chapter two. All of the people we saw in the video were either taking or supposed to be taking medications such as anti-psychotics and mood stabilizers. This is a type of biological treatment for mental illness. Many of the people in the video were also participating in cognitive therapies. William Stokes, for example, was in group therapy which is a type of sociocultural treatment. We can see how useful these treatments can be in the video. Lastly, chapter three of our text discusses the assessments, diagnosis, and labeling of mental illness. The people in the documentary were assessed for mental illness while in prison. The first person in the video, Jerry, was averse to labeling himself as mentally ill, opting to call himself “spiritually ill” instead. (Comer
The same program who made this documentary, Frontline, has many answers to this question. Approximately 50-80 communities in the United States have set up “crisis intervention teams (CIT)”. These are teams made up by law enforcement officers who have training to recognize mental illness to know how to lower the tension in a situation where law enforcement has been called in, such as a domestic disturbance call. These intervention teams have been proven effective. People also are trying to make mental health courts more common to place individuals into treatment after having committed a crime, instead of sentencing them to jail. One attractive side of this is that it saves the public money to keep mentally ill individuals healthier and out of prison. We, as a country, can also fund programs that will help at-risk mentally ill individuals get better and provide alternative options with their re-entry into society after being in prison. Another way that every individual can help is by writing to our congressional representatives, senators, and State & local governments encouraging them to provide for the resources for mentally ill individuals (“Some Frequently Asked Questions”, …show more content…
We get to see many connections and real life examples of the mental illnesses we are studying. In chapter one, we learned about how mental illness can make people dysfunctional and unable to care for themselves. This video provides a very real example of how this is true. Also, we can see the effects of deinstitutionalization. Additionally, we see examples of the treatments that are described in chapter two. All of the people we saw in the video were either taking or supposed to be taking medications such as anti-psychotics and mood stabilizers. This is a type of biological treatment for mental illness. Many of the people in the video were also participating in cognitive therapies. William Stokes, for example, was in group therapy which is a type of sociocultural treatment. We can see how useful these treatments can be in the video. Lastly, chapter three of our text discusses the assessments, diagnosis, and labeling of mental illness. The people in the documentary were assessed for mental illness while in prison. The first person in the video, Jerry, was averse to labeling himself as mentally ill, opting to call himself “spiritually ill” instead. (Comer