The study focuses on mental health stigma and treatment-seeking among Jamaican Adolescents. The effect of the stigmatization that the mentally ill adolescents in Jamaica receive from society and the impact it has on their mental health treatment seeking is explored in this study. It is essential to understand where those who are stigmatized as a result of having mental illness seek help. This will help the healthcare professionals to understand the patients better and improve knowledge where the help is sought in order to help the patients get the best advice and treatment. The information will also contribute to the existing knowledge on the impact of stigmatization on mentally ill people. Gabra et al. (2020) observed that there is a growing need to sensitize the public to mental illness stigmatization in order to change their attitudes.
Mental health is one of the major concerns worldwide. According to the 2020 mental health statistics 2020 report, 13 percent of the world’s population suffers from a mental disorder. The study predicts an increase in the number of those suffering from illnesses following the COVID 19 pandemic. The pandemic, according to the research, has increased mental health illness in the USA by 59 percent (Rajkumar, 2020). It is time to dismantle the stigma that people undergo as a result of being mentally ill.
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Mental illnesses affect people as much as physical illnesses do. According to Corrigan et al. (2014), serious mental illnesses lead to distress and disability, which leads to a low quality of life. Researchers and healthcare givers have understood this and conducted research on the topic area. Unfortunately, people with mental illnesses still find it difficult to seek treatment.
Jamaica is one of the countries where the numbers of those suffering from mental illnesses have risen from one year to another. Even though there is an increase in the number of mental illnesses in Jamaica, there is a small number of people seeking medical help in medical institutions. According to Maloney et al. (2020), Jamaica is one of the countries whose number of those suffering from mental illnesses has been underrepresented. This is as a result of many people living with mental illnesses without seeking any help or disclosing it to the mental health therapists.
The biggest question is and has been, for those who are suffering from mental health, where do they get help from if they get any? According to the research conducted on how well the youths are utilizing digital platforms to get medical help by Maloney et al. (2020), the source of help has not been a problem as social media and the internet is available to them. The real barriers are issues of stigmatization and lack of adequate information about mental illnesses.
I believe that my study on the impact of stigmatization on the treatment-seeking among adolescents in Jamaica will shed more light on mental illnesses. This will contribute to the knowledge of the importance of accepting mental illnesses as any other illness without judging the personality and behaviors of those suffering from mental illnesses. It will also provide information to the healthcare professionals on the places the stigmatized adolescents seek help from. This way, they will understand how well they can equip such sites to help fight mental illnesses. The state of mental health determines a person’s well-being and functioning. Mental health should be emphasized just like physical health.
References
Corrigan, P., Druss, B., & Perlick, D. (2014). The Impact of Mental Illness Stigma on Seeking and Participating in Mental Health Care. Journal of psychological science in the public interest, 15 (2): 37-70. Doi: 10.1177/1529100614531398
Gabra, R., Ebrahim, O., Osman, D., & Al-Attar, G. (2020). Knowledge, attitude and health-seeking behavior among family caregivers of mentally ill patients at Assiut University Hospitals: a cross-sectional study. Journal of Middle East Psychiatry, 27 (10):1-8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43045-020-0015-6
Maloney, C., Abel, W.,& McLead, H. (2020). Jamaican adolescent’s receptiveness to digital mental health services: A cross-sectional survey from rural and urban communities. Internet interventions, 21 (2020): 100325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2020.100325
Rajkumar, R. P. (2020). COVID-19 and mental health: A review of existing literature. Asian journal of psychiatry, 52,102066. https://doi.org.10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102066
