Factors That Affect Schizophrenia Well-being Across The Demographic

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The impact of schizophrenia on individual is not just limited to the person alone, but also extend to family member, friends and community at large. Being the main carer of a person with schizophrenia can have a toll of an employment, a person income, social life as well as psychological well-being. However, children who have people with schizophrenia may have higher risk experiencing stigma, discrimination, poverty, stress and burden of becoming carers.

This report will highlight the status schizophrenia today and how frequent change of legislature and policy, treatment and paradigm change in demographic have had influenced on the transitional of children and young person to adults likely that a person with severe mentally ill such as schizophrenia will end up living in the community with their families or living independently. Factors such as social economic, environment, psychological, biological and risk factors these individuals face also contribute to the burden of the schizophrenia mentally ill family. The impact of using services such as social exclusion, discrimination and stigma notably if they are ethnic minorities. The report will also use theories such as social drift and causation to evaluate the impact of schizophrenia in the family. Nevertheless, the resilience of patients with schizophrenia and their families and new treatment approaches provides hope for the future.

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Intro Definition Schizophrenia and services available

According to Hatfield (1990) schizophrenia is intricate and debilitate disorder which can affect individual’s life in terms of thinking, felling and behaviour with symptoms of disturbing perceptions including delusion and hallucination. The disorder tends to be chronic and episodic, and few patients with the disease return to their pre-morbid state. Recent study shows that life expectancy among people with schizophrenia is 15-20 years shorter than those without the episode. In the aspect of service treatment for schizophrenia ill-people in the UK, there are many different services that a person schizophrenia can access. This may include community mental health teams (CMHTs). They are main responsivities is to provide treatment, assessment and social care in the community to schizophrenia ill-person. Crisis service or team is another specialist mental health team who work out of normal hours where people with mental illness can get home treatment as well as admitting people if is necessary. Train peer support is another team which is available through CMHTs to give support such motivation and encouragement to people with schizophrenia as they themselves have through the episode and now stable. Hospitals is the last stop where inpatient get treatment specially those with severe mental health episode as well as those under section and finally, the GPs- who sometimes spot the early signs of schizophrenia and make referrer to some of the early intervention teams that might be available. However, policy regarding mental health treatment based on eligibility sometimes prevent people from getting early diagnosis and treatment.

Factors That Affect Schizophrenia

Socio-economic factors

How much money the person has and what occupation individuals have may affects their mental well-being. Too much wealth can be harmful – children raised in an environment where children have everything, they want may have too many, material goods but lack the security that comes from knowing they are loved for themselves and may not have the chance to develop the mental resilience needed for later life. In contrast, a child raised by a loving family who do not have much money may in fact have a greater sense of mental well-being as they learn to be creative with what they have and learn to be resilient.(Reiss, F. 2013).

Environment, endowment and experience

The immediate environment around us affects mental well-being. A child who is loved and valued at home and then goes to a school where a child is encouraged to develop will have a stronger mental capacity to draw on in times of adversity. If work environment and the world value their talents they will draw strength from that, but if they experience unemployment and redundancy, they can draw on their mental capital and know that they are valued by their family. In contrast a child who is abused at home verbally, physically and emotionally, may lack the confidence to cope in a school environment and has nothing to draw on as they get older and face the world beyond. A child may be endowed with potential to do well but the environment they are in will determine if they can use their talents. (Fryers and Brugha, 2013); (Marmot Review Team, 2011) and schady et al., 2011)

Biological factors

Biological factors affect a child even before birth. A mother who is addicted to alcohol or drugs, is already exposing the child to harm at these substances can cross the placental barrier. A baby born to a mother with addiction will experience withdrawal symptoms when they are born because they have been exposed to the drug during their development. In some cases, genetic inheritance is a factor in mental well-being and mental health. One study suggests that autism, ADHD, clinical depression, bipolar and schizophrenia may have common genetic risk factors (Joint Commission Panel for Mental Health, 2011; Mednick et al., 1988).

Psychological factors

Psychological factors are particularly important in the adolescent years. A young person with a sense of self- worth who is confident will be stronger and more able to resist peer pressure for harmful behaviours such as drug taking and unprotected sex. They are more likely to grow into adults who have cognitive resilience and coping skills to deal with stresses in relationship. As they mature into older adults, they will have greater reserves to draw on face challenges of bereavement and age related physical and cognitive challenges (Ali et al.,2013). In contrast, children who have valued and who have not been supported to develop resilience may seek approval from others outside the home and adopt risky behaviours to gain approval from peers. Smoking, teen pregnancy, bullied, drug taking, and gang membership are options that some young people choose in order to boost their self-esteem and a need to belong. These can then affect their life chances and their future ability to cope with stress (Ali et al.,2013).

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