Deinstitutionalization Of Mental Hospitals In 1970 Criminology Essay

Deinstitutionalization Of Mental Hospitals In 1970 Criminology Essay Introduction Deinstitutionalization of mental hospitals came into play in 1970 in the United States; the program aimed at treating mentally retarded patients within the community itself rather than maintaining and treating them at mental hospitals. During these days, state mental hospitals were regarded as institutions that deprived the mentally ill patients their freedom to associate with family and community members within the society. For instance, the United States Congress approved the Community Mental Health Centers Act that facilitated deinstitutionalization, thus getting out the mentally ill persons from confinements of the custodial institutions into deliberate medication at the community mental health institutions. Despite the perceived good of deinstitutionalization by the policy makers in the United States and the world over, the move has brought about more sophisticated problems. In essence the whole program has failed to achieve its objectives and has led to mentally ill individual suffering in the boulevards and dungeons, as well as in the shelter homes, and beggars homes, (Sheth 12). To be true enough, the policy of deinstitutionalization has failed completely. New Freedom Commission on Mental Health analyzed the American public mental health and confirmed that it is in a terrible state. This paper is aimed at discussing the impacts of deinstitutionalization for the last 35 years on criminal justice, advantages and disadvantages of deinstitutionalization and how mental health issues should be addressed in correctional systems. Discussion As at the present, it is estimated that more than 4.5 million Americans are suffering from severe mental illnesses. The total number of persons that do not receive medication out of the 4.5 millions is approximately 40%. This has increased homelessness, violence, and incarceration. Since the onset of deinstitutionalization policy, almost one third of homeless persons in the US suffer from severe mental retardation. In addition in Oklahoma, researchers have established that there is a correlation existing between the increasing number of suicidal and the decreasing state of mental health centers. Ted Strickland, a US congressman testified that, thousands of mentally ill persons are being taken out of hospitals and dumped in communities where there are no adequate mental health services that cannot receive and take care of them. The idea of deinstitutionalization has culminated into trans-institutionalization, whereby large numbers of mentally ill individuals find themselves in prisons, jails, and homeless shelters, (Sheth 15). For instance, the recent studies have shown that more than 40% of Beggars Home inmates are mentally ill. The policy of deinstitutionalization is a recipe of the evil that is done to the mentally ill persons in the US. The defenseless and helpless mentally ill people roam and beg on streets, roadside, footpaths, and are also seen starving in streets, eating from garbage bins and take refuge in shelter homes. In addition the society jeers at them, verbally, physically and sexually abuse them. Policy makers who came up with this particular policy, wanted to clean and beautiful mental hospitals without taking into consideration that the streets and other social places will be messed up. Recent studies have established that there are more mentally sick people in prisons and jails compared to those ones that are hospitalized. Around 9,000 people released from New York jails and prisons on annual basis have psychiatric disabilities without housing or support services. It has also been found out that 40 to 50% of community mental health system clients have a history of criminal arrest. Furthermore there is a direct link between closure of mental hospitals and mushrooming of new prisons and jails. With regard to the US department of Justice, when 40 mental hospitals were closed in the past ten years, 400 new prisons were opened up. The law enforcement department is now tasked with confronting and solving the communitys problems resulting from deinstitutionalization. For instance, studies show that, more than 70% of mentally ill individual should be sent to jail for their own safety and well-being. Recent research depict that rates of arrest of mentally ill persons is higher compared to that of normal people, (Sheth 17). This is because; such individuals are arrested on charges like disturbing peace and criminal trespass. In the first place, incarceration was thought to be the best remedy with regard to vast problems faced on the streets; the reality is that arresting a chronically mentally ill person and taking him or her into custody and forcefully imposing criminal justice, denies justice to all concerned. Of all the mentally ill persons arrested only 12% are arrested for charges that significantly warrant for incarceration. Moreover, 54% of mentally ill arrestees are always found to be incompetent and hence can not stand trials. Arresting mentally ill persons in essence does not solve the problem or enforce criminal justice but rather intensifies management and financial problems for detention facilities. These kinds of arrests only fill criminal court calendar rather than solving the problem. The moment of arresting mentally ill individuals, the criminal justice enforcement funds are shifted to mental health area to cater for the arrestee, with law and justice enforcement agencies instead of state hospitals playing their fundamental duty of housing and treating the mentally ill. In fact at the detention levels surveys have found out that between 50% and 60% of the inmate population are mentally ill with successful suicide rate 75% higher that of the general population. Advantages of Deinstitutionalization Treatment of outpatient clinics is less expensive and effective as compared to treatment in highly sophisticated mental hospitals that require boarding fees in addition to medical fees. Consequently, the patients will have freedom of community based treatment as compared to in-patient hospitals. Disadvantages of deinstitutionalization Deinstitutionalization has broadly contributed to homelessness, as people released from in-patient facilities have no place to go. Furthermore, it has also led to a revolving door situation, where chronically mentally ill persons are periodically hospitalized, released and eventually hospitalized. How mental health issues should be addressed in correctional systems With regard to criminal justice to mentally ill individuals, a proactive and conscious approach is a basic requirement and several elements are significant in implementing such an approach. Studies have shown and suggested that law enforcement officers have higher chances of arresting a mentally ill person than it is to a normal person. In relation to this, officers in criminal justice department should undergo or receive extensive training with regard to handling cases of such kind. The training should not only advocate for identifying mental illness symptoms but also provide communication skills and knowledge that the officer can use to communicate with and handle the psychiatric patient. The training should also be designed in a manner that does not compromise the humane treatment or concern for the officers safety. Criminal justice department especially the law enforcement agencies should collaborate and negotiate with medical institutions to come up with policies and mental illness cases procedures, implementing no-decline agreements that would importantly increase the choices of the criminal justice system. For better service delivery by law enforcement officers, the psychiatric com munity should wholly be involved by putting aside their mutual stereotypes and antagonism. It is also necessary for the law enforcement officer to have adequate information on statutory guidelines in relation to law enforcement that initiates involuntary psychiatric commitment. They should also understand that mental illness symptoms should not be taken or considered criminal behavior to aid the arresting if the same behavior will be relied upon for civil petition for automatic hospitalization. The expertise in this section requires the law enforcement officer to undergo training that will eventually equip him with the appropriate procedures that meet the statutory designed standards. The law enforcement bodies can also commence innovative pre arrest diversion systems. For instance, the law enforcing officer in the field, who comes in contact with psychiatric offender, should have more options, instead of making the arrest he can leave the crime scene other than providing the solution to the basic issues. The pre-arrest diversion program, which consists of mobile crisis unit involving mental health practitioners in corporation with law enforcement officers, would give the officer freedom of not making custody related decisions till new options with regard to the situation are reviewed, (Sheth 18). For this matter the non-violent offenders shall be handed over to crisis teams thus allowing officer to attend to other criminal related issues. Conclusion In the last two to three decades there has been a rapid rise in numbers of the mentally ill persons released into the society. Deinstitutionalization has integrated itself into trans-institutionalization whereby a massive number of psychiatric patients have been transferred of shifted from state owned hospitals to streets, beggars homes, prisons and jails. The civil libertarians have eventually changed into criminal justice system. Most, law enforcement officers consider mental illness symptoms to be elements of crime. For this situation to change, law enforcement agencies should shun from being inundated by such social problems, in addition a proactive response linking the societys resources to the real and actual area of need is essential. Work Cited Sheth, Hitesh. Deinstitutionalization or Disowning Responsibility. International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation. 13.2 (2009): 11-20.

The Effects of Music on Laboring Moms

Coping with labor pain when you are a first time mom is usually an experience filled with great anxiety. The first stage of labor is called the latent phase, in which she may be excited and anxious for labor to be well established [ (Marcia L. London, 2011) ]. The laboring mom may be unable to cope with contractions because of fear, anxiety, or lack of information [ (Marcia L. London, 2011) ].The nurse’s response should be to be supportive and provide encouragement and to establish a trusting relationship [ (Marcia L. London, 2011) ]. The challenge for the labor nurse is to reduce the pain and anxiety and to help make the labor and delivery a positive experience. The application of music therapy may be an appropriate tool for reducing anxiety and pain [ (Marcia L. London, 2011) ]. Music therapy has become popular in medicine in the last two decades.Studies show that the impulses from the auditory stimulus override the pain signals carried by the smaller nerve fibers, and music perceived by the right brain may stimulate the pituitary gland to release endorphins for decreasing pain [ (Yu-Hsiang Liu, 2010) ]. Music may also alter pain perception by improving mood, increasing relaxation, and reducing anxiety. Music also increases control and distraction to pain perception. The purpose of the study I read was to undertake an evaluation of music therapy on labor pain and anxiety in Taiwanese primiparas.It was hypothesized that primipara women receiving music therapy would perceive less pain and anxiety and have higher fingertip temperatures, an indication of less pain, during labor than those participants who had not received music therapy but received standard routine care [ (Yu-Hsiang Liu, 2010) ]. This controlled study provided evidence that music therapy for women during the latent phase of labor provided psychological and physiological benefits from pain [ (Yu-Hsiang Liu, 2010) ].The participants in the study were primipara women giving birth with the fol lowing criteria; they had a normal pregnancy, their pregnancy had gone to term, they planned to undergo a vaginal delivery, they had a single, normal fetus to deliver, they did not intend to use pharmacological analgesics during labor, and they consented to the participate in the study [ (Yu-Hsiang Liu, 2010) ]. In this study pain and anxiety were the main outcome measurements. Ultimately 60 participants were included in the analysis, 30 women were entered in the experimental group and 30 women were entered into the control group.Participants were instructed to choose types of relaxing, anxiety-reducing music. In addition to receiving standard nursing care, the experimental participants listened to music for at least 30 minutes during the latent phase and active phase of labor. Measures for pain and anxiety scales were given before and after 30 minutes of music listening during the latent and active phases of labor. Participants in the control group were not aware that they had the opportunity to listen to music, but they received the standard routine care after admission.Both groups completed the same pretest and posttest measures at the same phases of labor as the music group. Twenty-four hours after childbirth, women in the experimental group were asked to complete an open-ended questionnaire to indicate their perceptions of the effectiveness of music therapy on pain and anxiety and a five-point scale to evaluate the helpfulness of music. All the outcome measures for latent and active phases were analyzed separately because of the different level of pain.The results indicated that women in the music-listening group had lower pain and anxiety and higher fingertip temperatures than their peers in the control group during the latent phase, but the outcome measures were not significant during the active phase. Music seems to have multiple functions in pain reduction, including focusing, distracting, and stimulating pleasure responses. The study provides evidenc e that preselected music that is slow, relaxing and calming in nature, with little variation in tempo or volume is helpful for laboring women in the early latent phase [ (Yu-Hsiang Liu, 2010) ].In the active phase of labor the slow music was not effective. This is when contractions are more intense and more painful and it is possible that the auditory cue did not synchronize with the women’s rhythmic short, rapid breathing [ (Yu-Hsiang Liu, 2010) ]. It could be that music with a more rapid tempo would be more helpful. Pain and anxiety can influence heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, peripheral blood flow and fingertip temperature (FT). Elevation of FT is a significant indicator of physical relaxation through the sympathetic response [ (Yu-Hsiang Liu, 2010) ].This study shows that music can promote relaxation and decrease muscle tension which can increase peripheral blood flow as well as skin temperature as evidenced by the increased FT [ (Yu-Hsiang Liu, 2010) ]. In conclusion, this controlled study provides evidence that music therapy for women during the latent phase of labor provides quantifiable psychological benefits. The findings of this study may provide an evidence-based music therapy protocol for women in labor.Clinical health care professionals such as nurses could consider providing music as part of their routine when working with women who face the first-time childbirth process. Nurses could apply music therapy in reducing the pain and anxiety for women who are at the early phase of labor. Music does not have harmful side-effects and is easy to administer, so if it is yet another way to ease the pain and anxiety of a laboring patient and could help make the childbirth experience a positive one, the nurse should consider offering the therapy to her patients.

Analysis of Cyber Law Case about Employee Surveillance Free Essay Example, 2750 words

As employee abuse of e-mail and Internet privileges can have severe consequences - in addition to lost productivity, such abuses also open the employer up to security breaches, viruses, not to mention that employees commit crimes more than the third parties5 - there is a definite need for employers to subject their employees to surveillance. Then there is the issue of cyberslacking, which is just like it sounds employees abusing their privilege and taking away valuable company time with their personal online activities, which leads to loss of productivity and theft of company resources. However, employees have rights as well, and there are a number of different UK cases and statutes that are implicated in employee surveillance. One such is the Human Rights Act 1998, which states in Article 8 that everyone has a right to respect for his private correspondence. 7 Courts have interpreted this particular Act in a variety of ways that would be pertinent to the question of employee surveillance. For instance, the court in Halford v. UK [1997] I. This court found that intercepting phone calls made from an employee on business premises was a breach of the employee s privacy. 8 This decision was upheld in 4839 and Douglas v. We will write a custom essay sample on Analysis of Cyber Law Case about Employee Surveillance or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page For instance, in MS v. Sweden(1999) 28 E. 313 ECHR, an employee complained that the release of her medical data was provided to her employer, which led to her dismissal. However, the court ruled that that disclosure was legitimate and necessary to a democratic society.

Personal Experience With The Stitt Feld Handy Negotiation...

To Negotiate is a part of every day life, and in most cases is absolutely critical to your success. (book) There are a multitude of advantages and disadvantages towards specific approaches to conflict and negation. With several references to Stitt Feld Handy Negotiation Simulations I will discuss with you my initial understanding and experience of negotiation, prior to this class. I will also discuss my personal experience with the Stitt Feld Handy Negotiation Simulations, and how many of my initial views towards negation have altered since completing them. Based on this I will introduce my newfound understanding and plans for negotiating. I will conclude, by providing an overall evaluation of the negotiation module, specifically the negotiation simulations. †¨ Personally, I have always held negotiation and conflict at opposite sides of the spectrum, I felt I was an excellent negotiator, however I generally avoided conflict at all costs. I suppose I thought of myself as a great negotiator because the only instances in which I would be involved in a negation were where the stakes weren t very high, and the conflicts were minimal. What I failed to understand is that negation and conflict are entirely intertwined, you rarely have one with out the other(Book).†¨ The majority of issues I have negotiated in the past have all been minor, interest based negations. The other party and myself focused on each others interests and made attempts to work together to create options thatShow MoreRelatedIntroduction. Cahn And Abigail (2014) Define Negotiation1961 Words   |  8 PagesINTRODUCTION Cahn and Abigail (2014) define negotiation as â€Å"a particular type of conflict management—one characterized by an exchange of proposals and counter proposals as a means of reaching a satisfactory settlement† (p. 229). Negotiation is a fact of life. Subsequently, we spend a substantial amount of time negotiating for something every day. The fact of the matter is that life is full of conflict situations. Whether in our personal or professional lives and whether or not we are aware of it