Mental Health Counseling and Social Change

Mental health issues create a very serious and widespread health burden that affects the whole society. Mental health problems remain neglected and under-resourced even with the burden it creates to the society. Of particular concern has been the fact that people with mental health problems lack access to effective and safe services something which acts as a barrier to the access of mental health care. Throughout my academic career as a student in the Mental Health Counseling Program, I have explored the Walden University’s mission of positive social change and I have formulated strategies to affect positive social change in my community as a future counselor.

My first strategy is to identify the people who suffer from mental health problems socialize and start offering support. In this view, I have been doing some outreach work in the Hispanic/Spanish speaking population in my area where I have introduced mental health counseling services that were initially unavailable. Here, my approach to social change is to continue developing my contacts within the community and offer counseling services. Currently, I meet twice with the two local Hispanic community centers to assess their needs and the needs of low income families who require counseling.

My second strategy is to engage families with individuals who suffer from mental health problems and encourage them to help these individuals seek treatment and counseling. Most of the people with mental health problems hide this fact because they consider it as a shame. Others who suffer from mental health problems such as alcoholism never consider it as a problem. Others with issues such as anxiety and depression feel they can control their problems without seeking treatment or counseling. As such, these issues increase the burden to the society that originates from mental health problems. Therefore, my strategy will be to encourage people not to see mental health problems as shame but problems that can be solved through counseling and treatment. This will help effect a positive social change in the community by helping the community have a different perspective in regard to mental health problems (Ellis & Carlson, 2012).

My third strategy is to work hand-in-hand with healthcare institutions and other societal institutions to create a climate that protects and respects the basic, political, socioeconomic, civil, cultural rights and healthy habits for all people within the community. This will include such issues as early childhood interventions through pre-school and psycho-social activities, support to children through skills building and youth development programs and socio-economic empowerment of women through improving access to education. My work here will be to liaise with the responsible departments to ensure that they offer support to the groups as a way of reducing mental health problems that come from depression, extreme stress and alcoholism because of poor living conditions (Odegard, 2009).

Another strategy that I will use is to establish community-based initiatives that encourage prevention, diagnosis and early treatment. I will ensure that I link the healthcare services that start from the community to the referral centers to ensure that people access information about their health and prevent mental health programs or seek early treatment to avoid further development and the resultant suffering (Alexander, LaRosa, Bader, & Garfield, 2009).

In conclusion, the strategies that I have highlighted require determination and support from other health institutions because, without them, positive social change cannot be achieved within the community. Therefore, my strategies are both personal and integrative to ensure that mental health problems are dealt with appropriately and effectively, in the community.

References

Alexander, L., LaRosa, J., Bader, H., & Garfield, S. ( 2009). New Dimensions In Women’s Health. New York: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Ellis, C. M., & Carlson, J. ( 2012). Cross Cultural Awareness and Social Justice in Counseling. New York: Taylor & Francis.

Odegard, M. (2009). A Grounded Theory of Counselor Educators Integrating Social Justice Into Their Pedagogy. New York: ProQuest.