Bipolar Disorder & Institutionalization

As we know the social democratic ideology very much takes an institutional approach in responding to the needs of society members. I would like to use a personal example of this approach to social welfare. A friend of mine suffered from a psychotic manic episode a short time ago. He was experiencing a sense of grandiosity and believed that the devil was going to make him do something terrible if he removed the bible away from his face. He believed that he had a certain mission that he was to complete by the end of the week and that if he didn’t succeed there would be major repercussions. As a result, he ran all over town and spent hours speaking in a tone and language that was very uncharacteristic of him. Psychologists say that often an environmental cue or situation can set a person off and it is my belief that his loss of his dream job and failure at being a business owner, acted as a trigger to his mania and caused him to turn into a state of chaos.

His family and close friends were at a loss as to what they could do for him and eventually the police were called. After much struggle, he was admitted involuntarily to the Center for Adult Psychiatry (CAP). I think that such institutionalization is a prime example of the government helping a citizen who could not be helped by his family, his church, or by himself.  With institutionalization, he was diagnosed with bipolar disease, he received medication, and most importantly; he realized he had a problem and he needed help. His involuntary admittance was up after 48 hours and he agreed to stay for another 14 days to restore his mentality. Throughout his treatment it was found that depression and manic episodes were prevalent in his family history.

He has since been released from the hospital and from what I hear, he is doing much better. I believe that without being involuntarily admitted to CAP he could have been a threat to himself, to those close to him, and to society as a whole. His treatment gave him a sense of realization that this was abnormal behavior and gave him an opportunity to step back and form a plan of action to regain his mental health. The medical treatment and counselling gave rise to biological underpinnings and I think that this is critical because without such services they would have gone undiagnosed. Upon being released, he is now a healthier functioning member of our society.

We know that members of a society must be physically, socially, psychologically, financially, and materially healthy to strive (Chappell, 2010). In the case of my friend, many areas of his health were compromised and thus his social welfare was inhibited. At one point he was an aspiring and credible professional. He decided to open his own business with a partner and in the end, failed. I believe that his failures and poor decisions made him feel trapped in his current position. He looked at his old job and saw its success and thus he felt there was an unequal distribution of wealth and power in the profession within Brandon. His resulting debt and minimum income from a job he hated drove him into a state of disarray because of the frustration and hopelessness he felt.

I think that the prevalence of psychiatric institutions hold much stigma attached to them, and it wasn’t until an issue hit home with me; that I recognized the significance of such institutes. Psychiatric centres and practices have come a long way since lobotomies and inhumane treatment. Mental illness is a prevalent social problem and as a response to meet human needs. Such centers must exist to help at the individual and collective level to address special needs related to mental disorders (Chappell, 2010). This will give individuals with mental disorders an equality of condition by means of social democracy.
    ~ Tara

References

Chappell, R. (2010). The nature of Canadian social welfare (Chapter 1). Social welfare in Canadian Society (4^th Ed,: pp. 1-29). Toronto: Pearson Prentice Hall.