A Case Study Of Mental Health

A Case Study Of Mental Health Mental health has become a major global problem. It affects 450 million people and one in four of us will suffer from mental ill- health at some time in our lives (WHO, 2001). Mental Health is † used positively to indicate a state of psychological well- being, negatively to indicate its opposite ( as in ‘mental health problems’) or euphemistically to indicate facilities used by, or imposed upon , people with mental health problems ( as in ‘mental health services’). During the nineteenth century, all patients were certified under lunacy laws. That is, the State only made provisions for the control of madness. The fledgling profession of psychiatry ( this term was first used in Britain in 1858) was singularly preoccupied with segregating and managing lunatics . With the emergence of the First World War, soldiers began to break down with ‘shellshock’ now called ‘post – traumatic stress disorder’ . From this point on, psyc hiatry extended its jurisdiction from madness to versions of nervousness provoked by stress or trauma. In the twentieth century, more abnormal mental states came within its jurisdiction, such as those due to alcohol and drug abuse and personality problems. Today, ‘mental health services’ may be offered to, or be imposed upon, people with this wide range of problems, although madness or ‘severe mental illness’ still captures most of the attention of professionals .Another aspects of the term ‘mental health problems’ is that some people, critical of psychiatric terminology, object of scientific or logical grounds to notions like ‘mental illness’ or ‘mental disorder’. In the 1983 Act and equivalent Scottish legislation ‘ mental illness’ is not defined. However, Article 3(1) of the Northern Ireland Order does define it as ‘ a state of mind which affects a person’s thinking, perceiving, emotion or judgement to the extent that he requires care or medical treatment in his own interests of other persons’. Neither the Scottish nor Northern Ireland definitions include psychopathic disorder and there has recently been some discussion in the context of review of the Mental Health Act about removing it in England and Wales. Issues concerning mental health have been raised substantially in the consciousness of politicians, the media, and the public. Moreover, the ‘burden’ of mental disorder is regarded not just as a – if not the- principal cause of human misery, but as a significant impediment to social and economic growth. Measurement of the years of potential life lost and the years of productive life lost through mental ill- health could reach 15% of all diseases and deaths globally by 2020 (WHO, 1999). A further dimension of inequalities in the apparent scale of mental health problems is race. Race is controversial to define. Genetic distinctions between groups of humans ( other based on sex) have little empirical basis. Racial distinctions arose from anthropological investigations carried out by colonized indigenous people. However, because of colonization, the social identity of these people became real for them and others. In the United States black patients are overrepresented in mental institutions, and have become increasingly so over the postwar period. This has particularly been the case within state mental hospitals, where minority groups constitute 35 per cent of the hospital population, and are subject to higher rates of admission and readmission. In a review of eight epidemiological studies conducted in the United States between the late 1950’s and mid- 1970’s, Kessler and Neighbors (1986) found that among persons with low incomes black people exhibited significantly more distress than white people. They claimed, therefore, that race is an important independent variable in determining the likelihood of an individual becoming mentally ill. There is some dispute over what to make of this evidence. Cockerham (1990) maintains that the majority of studies on the incidence and distribution of mental health problems suggest that race is not an independent variable:†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ race alone does not appear to produce higher rates of mental disorder for particular groups’. Rather, it is because more black people are in the lower social cases that they tend to demonstrate more signs of mental distress. Others, however, disagree. Halpern (1993) argues that minority status can be demonstrated to result in a tendency towards psychiatric problems.

Psyche (The Butterfly) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Psyche (The Butterfly) - Essay Example The butterfly is approximately 14.5’’ wide and 10’’ high, and it is suspended allowing it to move gently in currents of HVAC, with fabricated wings that are made of steel and the section in between is stretched with mesh made of steel, hence creating a space for the suspension of the test tubes (Colorado creative industries, 1). The term psyche means soul to the ancient Greek, and the term butterfly establishes the idea of its life cycle from a caterpillar to a chrysalis and later a butterfly. Therefore, the art was created as a symbol for the passage from life to death, and the sculpture is titled Psyche (the butterfly) by Donald Lipski. The cells of the wings are made of test tubes as tools in science, since the artist had a conviction that melding the butterfly using test tubes was inspiring and beautiful, hence making the building to be a destination. The butterfly has two sets of wings, both top wings and bottom wings, which are not entirely opened, whereby the bottom wings are slightly wider, while top wings are 8’ across, and bottom wing 6’ across. The butterfly hangs at an angle of 60 degree, whereby it suspends and moves along with the air currents of HVAC, while its framework comprise of ideas that the black areas are veins of the wins of a monarch butterfly. The sculpture is fabricated using laser cut steel, and the sections between the stretches contains grids made of stainless, where the test tubes are suspended filled with a pigmented acrylic of transparent orange. The idea of creating this sculpture began with Art in Public Place Act, which was a statue passed in 1977, whereby one percent of the cost incurred in construction of new or renovated building owned by the state was to be appropriated for public artwork. Therefore, construction of the new Auraria Science Building led to creation of this sculpture during the summer of 2008, whereby the director of Art in Public Places

Facial landmarking (mapping) on the FBI facial catalogue Literature review

Facial landmarking (mapping) on the FBI facial catalogue - Literature review Example Owing to the sub rosa nature of criminal activity, such measurements are often inaccurate, but indicative nonetheless. There are several sources used to gauge crime rate in a country, the first being the official crime statistics drawn from criminal records compiled by the police and law enforcement agencies. However, unlike health, employment and housing, police records are not exactly comprehensive and complete, as some offenses, especially victims under threat and experiencing humiliation (i.e. rape and abuse), are not reported. Thus, governments like that of the United States institute public surveys throughout the different states, along with collating hospital and insurance records to fill the gaps that official police records are afflicted by. Having both economic and social welfare in mind, international organizations like the United Nations (UN) and the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) gather and compile crime statistics from different countries to publi sh worldwide crime indices. One such index was created by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2009) which features a statistical compilation of various violent crimes that occurred from 2003 to 2008, classified according to the continent and country where they occurred. According to the index, there has been a steady decline of at least 5 – 10% in violent crimes that occurred in the European regions, specifically those involving crimes against property. This decreasing trend in the crime rate can be explained by the widespread installation of surveillance cameras that occurred at the turn of the millennia. Today, surveillance cameras are set up in main throughways, business establishments as well as in households, waiting to record the criminal activities of unsuspecting wrongdoers and help bring them to justice. Facial Recognition Where available, surveillance cameras are invaluable to the police and law enforcement agencies as the video record narrows down their s uspect list to persons that closely resemble the perpetrator caught on camera. According to Enciso et al. (n.d), however, matching the 3D image of a person to 2D photographs in a database presents several problems because it involves the processes of visualization and analysis. The procedure is therefore prone to asymmetries and deviations from the norm. Additionally certain video surveillance equipment have poor contrast and resolution or they are mounted at an angle that distorts the face of the criminal. Adding insult to injury, criminals have learned to wear masks to hide their faces. All these hinder precise identification. The following sections discuss the methods, current and previous, used to identify criminals in 2D photograph databases as well as the technology required to automate 3D facial recognition. Identification Methods Anthropometry is the field of science that defines the physical measurements of a person (i.e. size, form, stature) for the purpose of studying hum an physical and functional variations. According to De Angelis et al. (2008), the identification of the living began in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Discovered in 1883 by Alphonse Bertillon and accordingly termed â€Å"Bertillonage†, anthropometric identification was based on the unchanging measurements and characteristics of human body parts. This scientific field therefore worked on the premise that if a database of measurements of specific parts of every individual was recorded, it would