Saturday, November 12, 2011

CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND PUBLIC HEALTH

Mental health is an issue that is very passionate to me.  Mental health does not have a definite disorder.  Mental health is an integral and essential component of health. The WHO constitution states: "Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." An important consequence of this definition is that mental health is described as more than the absence of mental disorders or disabilities. Until recently, I was unaware that mental health affected infants.  As an Early Childhood professional, I was only taught to focus primary on the physical and emotional health of a child.  Now, I am focused on the entire child’s health and well-being.  Over the years, I have been amazed of how many children are being affected with some form of mental disorder or illness.  It has been an out poor of children in our community that has been diagnosed with some form of a mental disorder.  However, after looking at the family of most of the children, we found that many of their parents or grandparents had some form of mental illness. 

When mental health has a negative impact in your life it can cause dramatic changes in your life.  Unfortunately, I have an uncle and two cousins, in which all were diagnosed with schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder.  They all live in separate states and they all receive medical treatment in different ways.  My uncle does not cope well with his disease, which causes him to act out and spend most of his life incarcerated. On the other hand, one of my cousins takes his medication and lives a normal and productive life.  My other cousin is currently taking online classes to receive his degree in electronics. 

In our lives we need to focus on having a strong and positive mind.  As a mother I pray for mental state so that I can raise my children to the best of my ability.  As a teacher I have to be mentally stable working with other people and young children.  I cannot be overpowered with stress or depression because I believe that it will have a negative impact on the well-being that I am providing for the children in my care.

Mental health issues are everywhere.  We all have a mental health, same being as we all have physical health.  Across the world anxiety disorders are increasing. When we think of mental, we think of crazy, loco, off, and or a dangerous individual who may click and go off at any time. Doctors have different ways of treating mental health issues. In Cambodia they use the traditional "cupping" treatment, believing it allows harmful "excess wind" to escape their body. Mental health professionals have long been skeptical of such techniques, but some are becoming more open to including them along with Western treatments. With cupping, a small heated glass is placed upside-down on the skin. As the air inside it cools, it creates a vacuum that draws some of the skin into the cup, leaving a welt.  Whereas in the United States the most common medicines for mental illness are Chlorpromazine (Thorazine), Haloperidol (Haldol), Perphenazine (generic only), Fluphenazine (generic only), Risperidone (Risperdal), Olanzapine, (Zyprexa), Quetiapine (Seroquel), Ziprasidone (Geodon), and Aripiprazole (Abilify).  Though mental health is becoming a major issue in infants and toddler, our past family members have been dealing with mental health issues for a long time.  We must remember that there are treatments, programs, and medications that are in the community that can be utilized, so that we can have a clear state of mind while we are progressing through our lives.

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3 comments:

  1. I agree with you Tamieka, we have to make sure as educators, parents, and role models not to allow stress and other triggers to cause us to have mental health issues. Our brains control everything and if we allow things to disturb it life will only be harder. I'm sorry to hear about your relatives and their disorders, it's always hard to see a family member go thru something difficult like that. Thanks for sharing! Great post.

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  2. I also posted on mental health issues and how they affect a child's development. My nephew's father was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder. He is no longer involved in my nephew's life because he pushed my pregnant sister around and she removed him from her life. My nephew (age 4) now has another father figure in his life who is positive. I am sad that he will not know his biological father, yet happy that his development does not seem to be affected. I am concerned that my nephew could have inherited the Bi-polar gene. I try to stay educated on this issue so that I can look for any signs as he continues to grow.
    Thank you for sharing such a personal story!

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  3. it was interesting to read about mental health. We are still in an age when most people in our community do not really understand the diseases like schzophrenia and its anydody that can have these diseases so we need to know the symptoms.

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