Almost every field in the community is faced by various controversial conversations that directly affect how the operations within the field go on. Some of these controversies are so widespread and hot that they are major topics of public conversations, and they necessitate further research. One of the fields that is faced with such controversies has to be the mental health counselor field. A mental health counselor gets to hear intimate and deep details of their client’s lives, and this could spark a lot of controversial conversations. There are times when you will feel burned out from the career, yet the many client secrets that you hold prevent you from quitting. Mental health counselors are also faced with major challenges due to lack of funding for mental health services. Another major controversial issue is the question of the effectiveness of electroconvulsive therapy treatment. How do these issues affect mental health counselors, and what is the best way to deal with them? Let us find out.
Being burned out from the career
Neidle, E. A. (2012). Faculty approaches to combating professional burnout. Journal of Dental Education
, 48 (2), 86-90.
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(Neidle, 2012) views therapist burnout as a professional conundrum considering the fact that therapists are considered as people who have endless patience and empathy. How is it then that these individuals who are the masters of self-actualized career fulfillment, healthy relationships, and exquisite self-care so prone to burnout? This article begins by defining burnout as ‘a lack of balance between the psychological resources available to an individual and the demand for these resources.’ The moment you give more than you receive, then burnout is inevitable. The fact that therapists specialize in offering services based on their thoughts, energy, and feelings to a challenging clientele is what results in them burning out eventually.
(Neidle, 2012) discusses the intensity of burnout, which could vary from just some temporary ennui, where the therapist could have some empathetic lapses to a full-blown meltdown, where the therapist could end up snapping at their clients. If care is not taken, the therapist could eventually completely disregard their professional ethics and boundaries. The problem is that many therapists strive to remain ‘professional,’ and they fail to admit it when they are burning out. The failure of graduate schools to teach on healthy career longevity is one thing that there is to blame in this case. This article admits to the desire of therapists to help their clients to the extent that they work overtime and invest their emotions beyond what could be considered as healthy. This case is so severe to the extent that the therapists base their self-esteem on the progress of their clients. With this much pressure that faces therapists, Neidle gives tips on how a therapist can maintain a passion for their work and avoid burnout:
Be clear on the boundaries that exist in therapy, self, and client.
Seek therapy yourself!
Work for reasonable hours and charge a fair price.
Avoid taking work home as much as possible.
Get a life so that therapy is not all you do.
Institute, Z. (2018). Therapist Burnout: Facts, Causes, and Prevention . [Online] Zurinstitute.com. Available at: https://www.zurinstitute.com/burnout_clinicalupdate.html [Accessed 19 Sep. 2018].
This article by Zuri Institute further pushes the nature of therapists as being kind and compassionate individuals. It is so noble and wonderful for an individual to get into a field with the goal of helping others. However, what most people fail to understand is the fact that caring can be overdone, and in such cases, burnout and fatigue are the end results. This research by Zuri Institute discovers the fact that exclusively focusing on the well-being of other people is the leading cause of the high rates of depression, stress, substance abuse, and even suicide among therapists. This article has done a great job in discussing the signs and indicators of burnout as summarized below:
Vicarious Traumatization – This term refers to the cumulative traumatic effect that affects therapists when working with trauma survivors.
Emotional Fatigue or Emotional Depletion – Therapists work constantly with people who are feeling suicidal, in pain, are severely traumatized, or are mourning the loss of a loved one. Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that the practitioners might end up being infected with their patient’s sadness.
Constant Worry, where the therapist is always wondering whether their patient is going to follow through with a homicidal or suicidal threat. Whether or not the therapists make a suicide contract with the patient or report the case, the worry is something that is inevitable.
Getting distracted and focusing on other people’s problems.
A sense of inefficiency because the effects of therapy are often slow, and it takes time to see results.
While therapist burnout seems like an inevitable and ultimate challenge that faces therapists, this article by Zuri gives us hope that burnout is preventable. The article provides tips on how to avoid burnout, and most of these are an echo of (Howes, 2018).
Lack of Funding for Mental Health Services
Saraceno, B., van Ommeren, M., Batniji, R., Cohen, A., Gureje, O., Mahoney, J., & Underhill, C. (2007). Barriers to improvement of mental health services in low-income and middle-income countries. The Lancet , 370 (9593), 1164-1174.
In (Saraceno, van Ommeren, Batniji, Cohen, Gureje, Mahoney, & Underhill, 2007 ), we see the authors making a comparison between the efforts that have been made in curing cancer and mental health cases. Billions of dollars in funding have been directed towards cancer research. On the other hand, only a fraction of the same is directed towards mental health research, yet mental illness has posed unexplainable personal, economic, and social challenges. It is approximated that one in five people are faced by the challenges of mental illness daily. Almost every individual can refer to a family member or a friend who is affected by mental illness. It is sad to note that the PTSD, depression, and suicide cases that result from mental illness have only reinforced the stigma that surrounds this issue. After recognizing the fact that non-communicable diseases are set to be the biggest cost drivers in healthcare in the 21 st century, the World Economic Forum asked for a projection and estimation of global costs to 2030. The estimates made in 2010 showed that the largest cost driver is mental disorders, which stands at $2.5 trillion in the global costs as at 2010 and an estimated cost of $6 trillion by 2030.
It is unfortunate that the funding for mental illness research has not yet reached the necessary level to meet the need. The case is especially true when it comes to young scientists who wish to further their careers on brain research. The low levels of government funding to support young scientists pose a major risk of losing the young generation of scientists. There are scarce resources, and these translate to lab closures, increased competition for federal grants, and fewer incentives towards pursuing scientific careers. This article emphasizes the fact that it is now time to fund innovative neurobiological research as we declare war on the rampant cases of mental illness.
The Week (2018). Fact Check: The truth about mental health funding . [Online] The Week UK. Available at: http://www.theweek.co.uk/93320/fact-check-the-truth-about-mental-health-funding [Accessed 19 Sep. 2018].
According to (The Week, 2018), Prime Minister Theresa May has for a long time made a pledge to ensure that equal priority is given to both physical and mental health services as required by the law. However, critics still say that there is a major funding disparity in reality. According to the government, represented by May, dealing with the injustices that face mental illness is one of the government’s absolute priorities. The government promises to treat mental health in a serious manner, as they do physical health. However, critics, led by Jeremy Corbyn, still accuse the government of having allocated insufficient funds towards mental health services. Jeremy challenges the Prime Ministers’ report, and he makes a claim that the government spending on mental health has fallen by £600m between the years 2010 and 2016. So, what are the facts?
The Centre of Mental Health states that while mental ill health issues account for approximately 28 percent of the overall disease cases, this sector receives only 13 percent of the NHS funding. Further analysis made by The King’s Fund indicates that 84 percent of the mental health trusts, which account for the most of mental health services, received an increase in funding in 2016. However, acute and specialist hospitals have seen a fast growth in the funding received with a 16.8 percent increase from 2012 to 2017, which is very high compared to the 5.6 percent increase for mental health trusts. For this reason, the think tank argues that the mental health sector does, indeed, receive sufficient funding, it is only that the growth has not been as fast as that experienced in the physical health sector.
The Effectiveness of Electroconvulsive Therapy Treatment.
Corry, M. (2018). ECT must be outlawed — now . [Online] Wellbeingfoundation.com. Available at: http://wellbeingfoundation.com/ECT.html [Accessed 19 Sep. 2018].
This article by (Corry, 2018) is completely against electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and the author claims that this is a crime against humanity, which should be outlawed. The author begins by giving a case scenario of a patient called Mary, who received an ECT therapy in 2003. However, two years later, Mary could not remember the time of year that she was in the hospital, how many months she stayed there, and the number of shocks that she received. It was clear that Mary’s memory had completely deteriorated, and what is left is old photographs that remind her of her past life. Her grief ended up overwhelming her so much to the extent that she ended up falling back into an even deeper pit of depression. After another session of ECT, Mary was left in a state where she could not feel anything, joy or sadness.
It is sad that Mary’s story is not uncommon for a large number of ECT survivors. One thing that makes (Corry, 2018) very much opposed against ECT is the fact that this procedure could induce a cardiac arrest if the voltage is not properly regulated. This procedure is essentially an electrical brain injury that results in global mental injury. If a patient went to the hospital displaying the symptoms that result from an ECT procedure, this would be treated as a serious medical emergency and would even be taken to the ICU. Why then would such a procedure be intentionally performed on an individual? ECT does more harm than good in that it completely wipes out certain intellectual abilities and memories, resulting in traumatic and irreversible brain damage.
Kirov, G. (2018). Electroconvulsive therapy does work – and it can be miraculous . [Online] The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/electroconvulsive-therapy-does-work-and-it-can-be-miraculous-76381 [Accessed 19 Sep. 2018].
This report by (Kirov, 2018) acknowledges the rise in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. According to this report, the number of ECT procedures between 2012-13 and 2015-16 rose by 11 percent. This article begins by explaining the process of ECT, which involves anaesthetizing a patient and then passing an electric current through their head with an aim of producing an epileptic fit. This procedure has proven to be effective in the treatment of treatment-resistant or severe depression, but it is also beneficial in some cases of schizophrenia and mania. According to (Kirov, 2018) electroconvulsive therapy remains to be the most effective treatment for severe cases of depression despite the negative comments made against it.
Data presented by the ECT Accreditation Service (ECTAS) shows that ECT has been used in the treatment of a wide range of mental illnesses, and it has resulted in remarkable outcomes. Before the ECT treatment, 18.7 percent of the patients were rated as “the most severely ill” while 51.7 percent were “severely ill.” However, at the end of the treatment, only 1.7 percent of the patients had deteriorated, and 74.4 percent were “very much improved”. This treatment, therefore, results in unmatched improvements for the most severely depressed patients. This article states that a lot of trials have been made to test the effectiveness of ECT, and the results are in favor of the procedure, regardless of the numerous passionate opponents of the same. There are several unrecorded benefits of ECT in that it is very effective for most severely ill patients, who have reached the extent of becoming psychotic, stopped eating, or stopped talking.
