Personal Narrative: A Career in Social Work

As you will see in this paper, mental illness has been a serious situation for many years. Over the years, there have been different thoughts relating to the causes of mental illness including what the actual situation is and observance of how to treat the mentally ill. This paper will inform you of three different historical periods: Colonial America, Depression & the New Deal and War & Prosperity in which an important aspect of mental health happened in each. I will include some religious and economic information for each period due to the relationship that religion and economy had to the way mental illness was viewed and treated in those periods.

The United States has never had an official federal-centered approach for mental health care facilities, entrusting its responsibility to the states throughout the history. The earliest initiatives in this field took place in the 18th century, when Virginia built its first asylum and Pennsylvania Hospital reserved its basement to house individuals with mental disorders (Sundararaman, 2009). During the 19th century, other services were built, but their overall lack of quality was alarming. Even then, researchers and professionals in the mental health field attempted to implement the principles of the so-called public health, focusing on prevention and early intervention, but the funds were in the hands of the local governments, which prevented significant advances in this direction.

Throughout history our nation has struggled with the treatment of mental illness. In our early history, mental illness was not seen as something of interest, and as a result, those who had a mental illness were not treated the way they should have been. The advancement of science and medicine has allowed society to start to unfold once seemingly impossible to understand mental disorders, and bringing with it a surge of awareness and motivation to help those in need; but it would not come easy. Through the 1800’s leading up to the turn of the century, state hospitals started to sprout up across the country. One that we will spend our time discussing was the St. Peter’s state hospital in St. Peter Minnesota.We will learn about the hardships experiences

I am passionate on helping people and making changes in others’ lives. Like I stated before, my mother had been trapped herself in the apologetic emotion for years. The mental burden had made her down. Therefore, I decided to help my mother get rid of the self-accusation, by using the knowledge I learned in the Human Services major. To illustrate, I was telling her that it was not her fault of divorce, and she was not showing me the negative image of a marriage. Instead, I admire her braveness of ending a marriage when it was necessary, especially in the time when people were stereotyping divorced women and at the place where people were being judgmental. Now, her self-blameless has been reduced, and she told me that she was not felt as guilty

The mentally ill were cared for at home by their families until the state recognized that it was a problem that was not going to go away. In response, the state built asylums. These asylums were horrendous; people were chained in basements and treated with cruelty. Though it was the asylums that were to blame for the inhumane treatment of the patients, it was perceived that the mentally ill were untamed crazy beasts that needed to be isolated and dealt with accordingly. In the opinion of the average citizen, the mentally ill only had themselves to blame (Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health, 1999). Unfortunately, that view has haunted society and left a lasting impression on the minds of Americans. In the era of "moral treatment", that view was repetitively attempted to be altered. Asylums became "mental hospitals" in hope of driving away the stigma yet nothing really changed. They still were built for the untreatable chronic patients and due to the extensive stay and seemingly failed treatments of many of the patients, the rest of the society believed that once you went away, you were gone for good. Then the era of "mental hygiene" began late in the nineteenth century. This combined new concepts of public health, scientific medicine, and social awareness. Yet despite these advancements, another change had to be made. The era was called "community mental health" and

“I want to live.” She said. She lifted her feet off the small coffee table and set them gently on the floor as she continued to look through me, too interested on the inner workings of her own mind.

The best feeling in the world to me is not going to sleep in my cozy bed after a long and exhausting day at school or work, it is not wiping off a full face of makeup or even cuddling up in a warm blanket after the cold, chilly winter nights. Sure those things are great but the feeling I get when I show any act of kindness is what I define as the best feeling in the world. Having the chance to impact the world, myself, and even my family, is what I have strived for my whole life. The chance to save lives, be there and care for people through illnesses, injury, pain or loss. Pursing a career in nursing is my ultimate goal. It is a profession that allows me to see people at their worst, all the while, helping them become their best.

Nigeria, 2001, I awakened startled with people screaming indiscriminately. My dad's head was bleeding profusely, and my cousin, sitting in the passenger seat was bleeding from his neck. There were shards of shattered windshield everywhere. I was in the backseat uninjured but scared. This commotion was the aftermath of a car accident involving my dad, my cousin and me, while he was driving us to school. Next, we were rushed to the hospital, however, upon arrival, we were refused treatment until we paid an admissions fee. This practice was common in my country. Although the incident was disturbing, it drove me towards a career in healthcare, mainly working with patients who have a difficulty affording their medical care.

I am currently working as a Case Manager and doing my internship as a Clinician at Leake and Watts Services Inc. I need two wear two hats in one job, which make my responsibilities even greater and extensive. The population that I am working is the unaccompanied children, which are the children that are crossing the border to the United States.

In order to deal with psychiatric patients who were either a nuisance or a danger to themselves or others, mental illness was classified as a crime.5 Patients from Alaska, many of them Alaska Native, were transferred to a private, for-profit residential mental health facility, Morningside Hospital, in Portland, Oregon.6 By 1942, more than 2000 Alaskans were residing at Morningside.6 Due to poor record keeping and other issues, many of these patients were never heard from by their families again, and have since become known as “the lost Alaskans.”6

I have had many job and volunteer positions that utilized most of the skill areas listed in the question. The projects I have carried out in these positions have required especially the last three skills, including working with external stakeholders, monitoring and reporting, and evaluation and correction. In the U.S., I have had fewer opportunities to deal with budgeting and contracts, and little to no fund-raising or grant application. However, in Togo, my experience included all the skills listed, including grants and funding along with budget forecasting and working with external paid help. Most of the positions and projects I have been involved with have focused on health.

Growing up I never thought I would pursue a career in healthcare. I always imagined myself as an engineer, someone capable of fixing the world's most difficult problems. As I've gotten older, I opened myself up to an entire new realm of possibilities when I considered more than just one profession. My mom is a physical therapist and I went to work with her often over the years. She is one of those therapists who brings in sunshine and the sound of chirping birds when she enters a room; patients light up when they see her and pass her name around the senior home as if it is a trade secret. I’ve never been one much for sunshine and rainbows, but I do bring a certain energy to the room as people have told me. I am an odd bundle of happiness mixed

I decided to pursue a career in counseling services after many years of reflection, contemplation, soul searching, and personal experience. It was a decision that evolved from looking inward. There is no one motivating factor that steered me to a desire to help people. It was the totality of events, early childhood experiences, personal experiences, and an inner calling to want to help people in need.

Do you believe that your role as a therapist will end at the end of the day or will it be present in your personal life also?

As far as I could remember, I always want to have a career in the helping field. I love nursing animals back to help and listen to my friends. I felt like I was so much more mature than the other kids my age. My parents had jobs that require them to help others. My mother worked at the local department of social services for many years. My father worked at various jobs that range from the house manager at a group home to a technician at a mental institution. I guess I would say it is in my blood. I would say partly my parents and partly life experiences influenced my decision to major in social work. I had a childhood friend that was getting mentally and physically abused by her stepfather and biological mother. The way she would escape from