Mental Disorders are Common, But Prevention May Be the Key

Mental disorders are on the rise, and the fact is that some of these mental disorders are more common than once thought. There have been recent studies that have shown that people from all walks of life may have experienced things such as depression or anxiety which was never documented, thus making the problem of mental disorders even bigger than imagined. 

There was a long term tracking study done by Duke University psychologists Avshalom Caspi and Terrie Moffitt in conjunction with experts from New Zealand and the United Kingdom, which revealed that a lot of the time people do not report it when they suffer from mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, or substance abuse. The study included 1000 New Zealanders and they were part of the study from birth up until age 32. What they found was if you study someone throughout the course of their lives, most everyone will at some time in their life experience at least one of these disorders, but they will not always have reported them. 

This is also backed by what was called the "Great Smoky Mountains Study", which tracked 1,400 children from the U.S.A. ages 9 to 13 into their late 20's. What was found was, much like the Duke study, mental disorders were very common but yet were untreated and thus were hampering people's ability to get all out of life that they could.The Dunedin study in New Zealand found that 41 percent of people from ages 18 to 32 had experienced clinically significant depression, with a 32 percent rate of alcohol dependence within the same group reported as well. How we deal with the prevention of these issues is the main question.

Unfortunately, prevention funding remains low compared to residential placements and treatment services. Though there has been growing support for preventive services, there is still much work to be done to make this treatment more available to those who may be in need of these services. Perhaps the above studies will have a hand in making prevention a more common practice in the future, but as it stands presently there is still more emphasis placed on treatment for existing conditions rather than prevention. 

Prevention is a course of action that needs to be addressed, and there are some preventative procedures that can be of great help. Clinics, local community centers, churches and libraries are just some of the places we can look to for help in these prevention services. One such service is short term targeted mental health therapy.

Another is prenatal and infancy support groups or even home visits. Self care education for adults is another consideration, as well as adult supervised weekend or after school activities that will help younger people avoid having to deal with mental illnesses. There are also mentoring programs available for young children, and to reduce alcohol use there can be counseling and advice programs. 

Drawing upon our more than 30-year history of granting degrees in professional psychology, Argosy University has developed a curriculum that focuses on interpersonal skills and practical experience alongside academic learning. Because getting a degree is one thing. Succeeding, quite another.

Please click here <http://helpingpsychology.com/about-2/learn-more> to request our Viewbook