Social Work and Social Democracy

From the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry:
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Policy and Plans in Canada: An Analytical Review.

            The journal article I read was a review paper about services and policies in Canada, and which provinces in Canada have effective systems already in place. This article stated that the majority of those who have mental disabilities, specifically Major Depression, have a greater chance of committing suicide. One of the main points I took away from this article was that due to mental disorders being very expensive to treat and research, the policies and services in place are not enough or accessible to everyone. True to social democratic value, one of the results of this study was making people aware there is even an issue.  This ensures  people will be aware of problems in society and take action if they want to (Mullaly, 2007).

           The problem argued in this article is that we need to help people who are struggling to get help.  Although there are services that are very effective and helpful not everyone has equal access to these services due to wait times and lack of planning (Kutcher, Hampton, & Wilson, 2010).Some of the facts given in the article were surprising to me and I had to read it a few time before I could believe it. For example; over one million young Canadians are affected by mental disorders with around half developing by age fourteen and the remainder usually surfacing at age twenty four. (Kutcher, Hampton, & Wilson, 2010). I can't even imagine how many people out of the one million are on waiting lists.

            I can appreciate how frustrating it can be to be denied services because there is a wait time or absolutely no room. Many of us can relate to this in some way. It may be as simple as not getting a table at your favourite restaurant, or waiting over a year to get surgery that may better your quality of life. Whether waiting or being turned away due to lack of space is fair or unfair is something society can debate. There are multiple factors affecting who gets services and when. But when it comes to a person’s basic quality of life and they have to wait many months to get the most basic services, the anger and disappointment is understandable.

             I recently came across an article from the CBC news website about a man who committed suicide after bringing himself to emergency because he claimed to be suicidal. According to the article the man had been telling staff he felt as though we would harm himself and wanted to talk to a counsellor. Without any attention after many hours he hung himself. This terrible incident is under much review but the mother of Shayne Hay is left to wonder what happened or didn’t happen to get help for her son.  As mentioned in Kutcher, Hampton and Wilson’s article from the journal of psychiatry, suicide is one of the major causes of death among people with mental illness. This man had brought himself in quite possibly at his breaking point or maybe as a last resort to gain something positive in his life. Regardless of why he went to the hospital requesting help the system still did not manage to help him.  Studies such as the one mentioned earlier from the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry are important because without the research and data no one would be aware there was an issue (unless they were caught up in the struggle themselves).

            In my own experience witnessing some of the struggles my family has gone through, I have seen firsthand how frustrating it is to fight for services when you need it most. At times it seems as though the system has failed you. Social Democrats find equality very important and think that government should be very involved to help prevent the feeling that the system let you down (Mullaly, 2007).  I’ve seen the results of people not getting the help they need due to undiagnosed or untreated mental illness. They’ve ended up in jail, commit suicide, lost their children and have died from complications that are not only mental but become physical as well. Society is quick to judge the mother with the screaming child in the grocery store but they don’t stop and think. "What if the young child has autism?"  If anyone knows anything about autism you’d understand how difficult it can be to communicate with someone when they have a meltdown. It’s quite possible that the mother is unable to get her child the help to control their behaviour or learn skills she can use to aid her screaming child. Problems like these tend to lack a solution but many people will continue to get by clinging on to the hope that one day their name will be next on the list and it will finally be their turn.

Jennilee M.

Kutcher, S., Hampton, M. J., & Wilson, J. (2010). Child and adolescent mental health
              policy plans in Canada:An analytical review. The Canadian Journal   
              of Psychiatry, 100-107.
                                                      

Mullaly, B. (2007). The Social Democratic Paradigm. In B. Mullaly, The New Structural
               Social Work: Third Edition (pp. 114-137). Oxford University Press.