The Impact of Parental Mental Health on Children and Young People
The effects of parental mental illnesses on their children are grave and have severe implications for them. It is noted that the academic performance of the children in school will drop, their social sphere and interactions will be raptured, and they will have emotional torture from their peers. However, this discussion predicate itself to analyze and reflect upon the beliefs and attitudes that have been used in the past and the present to safeguard the children and their effects in due process. On the other hand, the discussion will identify and develop an evidence-based approach to protecting children and promote effective partnership working with families and professionals. These guidelines will safeguard the development of the child socially and behavior-wise. Effective decision-making has facilitated an ambient environment for critical analysis, safeguarding issues as they arise, and assessment and management of risks involved. Additionally, the United Kingdom’s, Brighton, and Hove’s legislation and published research have been used to fight parental mental illness and its effects on children. Finally, the discussion will look at the critical societal issues such as inequity and vulnerability toward children.
Research findings show that societal beliefs have defined mental illnesses as forms of religious and spiritual punishment (Uniteforsight.org, 2019, np). People in the ancient times viewed mental illnesses as a supernatural phenomenon (Wsu.edu, 2018). The belief had its footing that any mental illnesses were the works of evil spirits and witchcraft. People in this era believed that for a person to be mentally ill, they were liable for some behavioral misconduct that contradicted the ancient religious teachings. However, the treatment that the older adults posed included trephination which involved drilling a hole in a person’s head using simple surgical tools and removing pieces of bones and blood clots after an injury (Irving, 2013, np). Evidence has been assembled and stored to show the reality and the process through which it was done. Kangxin and Xingcan (n.d. np) states that the primitive procedure to cure mental illness left behind more skulls in five Chinese archeological sites.
Ioi the present time, mental health is viewed as a health problem triggered by the various factors in play. Depression being at the peak of the causative factors and agents of mental illness (World, 2019, np), has caused many deaths among young adults ranging from 15-19 years old. Ironically, people experiencing mental health have received a tiny amount of attention despite asking for help (Apolinário-Hagen, Vehreschild, and Alkoudmani, 2017, np). Despite the significant improvements in countries and institutes for mental illnesses, more people have faced violations of their rights and freedom. For instance, these people are denied the right to integrate and interact with the community members (the right to community integration for people with disabilities under the United States and international law – disability rights education & defense fund, 2012, np). Often, mentally ill persons in the community have been blamed for various occurrences in the community. The ancient and the present views of mental illness vary in different angles. The onset of the illness however required treatment that was fundamental in the person’s lifestyle and way of living. Difference in viewing angle differ in the methods and ways to cure the illness. Recent reviews (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2017, np) suggest that children, including teenagers, have exhibited signs of mental health including anxiety, depression, and conduct disorder. The impacts of the parents who have mental illness have had significant effects on their academic performances. However, the changing trends have seen the employment of more nurses to help deal with the situation including the driving of operations which will help children and mentally ill persons physically and emotionally (Regis College Online, 2020, np). These nurses’ mandate is to treat and manage mental illness through medications, relaxation techniques, psychotherapy, and meditation. In the direction to conclude, people in the ancient times treated mental illness as a disease from the gods and a form of punishment. Similarly, the present and the ancient people worked in the same direction to cure the onset of mental illness despite the difference in technology and fatalities. More people in the ancient era could even die during the curing process unlike the present era where the number of fatalities have reduced by a significant percentage
Evidence to safeguard children against child abuse from parental mental illness have shown that, Australia has enabled the development of policies that will see the extermination of child abuse with issues regarding the mental health of their parents and guardians (citeseerx.ist.psu.edu, n.d. np). For instance, the product of a more comprehensive investigation of professional decision-making realities, including case tracking. However, adopting an evidence-based approach uses those available resources to manage and make critical decisions regarding child abuse. These practices help strengthen the families of these children and reduce child abuse cases. In identifying and developing these practices, more resources have been used in due process.
Consequently, the effectiveness of this approach has guaranteed the development of children mentally and socially. As a result, they are better equipped to deal with mental and societal challenges. Coherently, these policies, according to (Helpdesk Research Report: Evidence about the effectiveness of child protection programs in developing countries, 2013, pp. 1-15), help to guarantee child protection by preventing abuse, violence, and exploitation to fulfill the children’s right. Recent studies statistically prove that that more than 1500 children die annually due to neglect and abuse (Are You Familiar with These Important Facts About Child Abuse, 2022, np). United States centers of authority have received many complaints and recorded a wide range of cases that reported. More children who have fallen victims to these statistics have been those are below three years, reflecting 75 percent of the children population.
On the contrary, parents supposed to give children refuge have incapacitated 78 percent of the fatalities that the children face and endure. Children in these countries have faced abuse and violence from the persons they look up to for protection. Reports have proven that neglect has been the most common form of child abuse in the western countries and other countries worldwide. Therefore, neglect negatively influences the child’s physical and emotional growth. This retard their growth, including brain development. The aftermath is that they will experience psychological effects and experience low self-esteem. Other literature elucidates and show that more than 4 million children have been referred to child protection agencies to work and take action where possible. The united states being the leader in the counts of child abuse has evidentially proven that, on an average, more than five children are dying daily due to abuse. This is only in the united states of America; more than 600,000 cases have been reported to the state agencies due to maltreatment and abuse. Communication has been a critical component in the fight against child abuse. The best way to prevent child abuse is to talk to the community and the child on matters concerning sexual harassment and abuse (First 5 Los Angeles, 2014). Constant communication with the public and the child will create awareness in the communal fraternity, and the rates and cases of sexual abuse will significantly drop. Ironically, these children have fallen victims to sexual harassment from the people they know and have trusted. Additionally, constant parent-child communication will break the taboo and help the parents instigate their children’s issues in tough times and try to help them. The change in the social norm of parenting will have to be examined, and the necessary changes to take effect immediately before the trajectory changes for the worst. Nurses, however, have played vital roles in ensuring that the children and parents have a clear scope of the happenings. Similarly, recommendations have been given to the public to prevent child abuse that have retarded their growth physically and mentally. Constant parent child communication is key to de-cypher their atrocities and try to help them. In my opinion, it is evident to say that communication is key in the process to fight and help children from abuse that may lead to mental illness.
Effective decision-making has is an essential quality in managing and safeguarding children’s rights and protecting them against abuse. Major decisions have been made to make a positive error in societies in the recent times and years. However, decision making explains that the community will constantly learn and improve from the mistakes that have been made in the past (Munro, 2018) either in the community or other communities around them. Constant learning about the mistakes made will harbor major priorities to seal loopholes that these organizations have faced in the pursuit to prevent child abuse. Recent literature (Kirkman and Melrose -The, 2014, np) elucidates that significant policies have been established to make social workers have a practical and social awareness to make critical decisions that will impact the lives of children. Arguably, this will enable and help in the planning processes.
Similarly, the processes to make an effective decision will always have its trajectory depend on the crucial issues and matters (Harvard Business Review, 1967, np). Therefore, it is paramount to solve problems that are of an acute degree, which will save many organizations that have made their way to solve and fight child abuse. Opinions have therefore suggested that decision-making is a critical tool most nurses should possess. The ability to think in the most vital state of child abuse will make the nurse an essential tool in the fight. Concurrently, parents also should have wise decision-making capabilities to focus more on the ways and procedures to raise their children without harming them. To safeguard children from abuse, home visitation has been a common practice. At the onset of maltreatment, the cases have been reported to the relevant authorities to prevent continued abuse of these children. Consequently, authoritative bodies have been mandated to assess the ongoing conditions of suspected child abuse cases in-some homes and states. Over the years, more children younger than 18 years have experienced forms of maltreatment and abuse in their homes. Nevertheless, to assess child abuse, more people have confirmed that the same effect has had a fatal impact on their moral development and physical growth. However, the problems people have faced have resulted from different factors that they faced in their early life and childhood.
To manage risks involved in child abuse, the family, community, and individuals can play and prevent its occurrence. Nurses, as caregivers, can create an ambient environment and relationships with the children. It is eminent for Caregivers to seek knowledge, which will make them employable in firms that have been instituted to manage the outcomes and results of child abuse. Additionally, Families can also play critical roles that will help in the management and control of child abuse. For instance, these families will embrace strong social support networks and have good relationships with people. The effect will see the reduction of child abuse by a significant rate and amount. Societal caring and protection of children reduces the rates of children being abused having and experiencing abuse. They can provide clean and stable homes to rehabilitate abused children. These recommendations will work well if the management of institutions fighting child abuse enforce the ideas to the local people and have mass education on the same.
United kingdom and Brighton and hove have been an exemplar to deal with and correct the misfortunes children have to undergo in the face of abuse. The policies in the U.K. have suppressed the feeling of loneliness and abuse among the children. For instance, the government recognizes the past failings and suggests that every child who had died deserved better from the government. The policy to protect each child and that they matter an excellent initiative to game change the atrocities that children face. NICE has worked tirelessly to ensure that children have equal potential to their peers by preventing and avoiding abuse. Guidelines have been set to identify and deal with reported abuse cases among children under 18 years. These guidelines have covered sexual harassment, neglect, emotional damage, and physical abuse. Therefore, to allow for a full packed capacity action, the organization helps practitioners, including nurses, to carry out assessments and providence of early intervention.
On the other hand, working together to safeguard children suggests that children’s lives are crucial (H.M. Government, 2018, pp.1-116). The organization works tirelessly to provide better and quality services to the children who need help. Additionally, it works to integrate the system to work in the interests of the people and the children. However, the children’s activities in play strengthen the agencies in place to act in total capacity to deliver a pitch in providing services to the afflicted people and the children. The agency works in full flavor to prioritize the safety of children, keeping them free from maltreatment, and empowering children through imparting them with knowledge. Children’s activities in the U.K. have enacted principles to protect the child’s interests and rights. The enactment of these policies has seen many dropped abuse cases. However, some sanctions will catch the perpetrators facing legal action against them.
An example is that the guilty party may spend more extended periods in jail and imprisonment. The legislation has worked hand in hand with the judiciary to see that child abuse rates have been reduced. The agencies and policies will help children from poor backgrounds have justice in cases of abuse and maltreatment.
Critical reflection on issues of inequity, recognizing the increased vulnerability of some children, families, and communities to harm. (e.g., Social determinants of health, problems that increase exposure)
Social determinants of health (SHD) have had a detrimental effect on the people accessing medical facilities and other necessities. Consequently, these factors have created social inequities among the people of a society. One major SHD is that education has enabled many people to have a healthy life and access better medication (World, 2019). On the other hand, nurses must access education before performing any professional activity and practice. Secondly, poor housing has contributed to the stunted physical growth of the exposed child and children (Braveman and Gottlieb, 2014). Various factors have played a role in increasing vulnerability among children and people. According to (Lowe, Ebi, and Forsberg, 2013), natural disasters such as floods have significantly increased exposure. Notably, flash floods in an area have left more people vulnerable to the weather and other factors like mosquitoes. Climate changes have also played a role in making people more vulnerable. The harsh climatic conditions will reflect the absence and low food production. Hunger resulting from adverse weather conditions has made children and other persons susceptible and may die in due course.
In sum, society has had a harsh judgment on that who suffer from mental illness. The historical view elucidates that mental illness among people represented witchcraft or religious punishment. However, people in this era had their form of treatment for this occurrence. This involved drilling holes to the head of the affected and removing parts of the charge they believed had a hand in the onset of mental illness. On the contrary, the current view implies that the occurrence contradicted the people’s beliefs in the past. Psychological therapy has been used as a form of treatment. Nurses, therefore, have had important input in the collaborative fight against mental illness to minimize child abuse in many homes globally. Notably, evidence shows that the ongoing conversations have worked collaboratively to reduce the effects of mental illness on children and reduce child abuse. Therefore, identifying the children’s abuse in times of hardship is critical to fighting the onset of child abuse. It is then a practical idea to report the event and let legal activities and sanctions work on the issue. Arguably, effective communication and constant parent-child talks will positively affect the child and the process to fight child abuse. Effective decision-making is the essential player in preventing and fighting child abuse. Nurses have the high-end rank to perform to the best of their abilities according to their ability to make proper and effective decisions. Different approaches have been employed to assess and manage risks at different levels regarding child abuse. U.K. and Brighton and Hove have had policies and children acts protecting them from abuse and maltreatment. To implement this, the perpetrators of child abuse have faced legal actions that have seen most of them imprisoned. Finally, the social determinants of health have created an environment that does not provide a common ground for the people to work on. For instance, education will give knowledge to the people that want to seek better medication and services. However, nurses do need the education to perform in total capacity to prevent harm to the people. Cognitively, vulnerability has been increased by the changes in climate. Flooding and extreme temperatures have left more people more vulnerable and susceptible to hunger and mosquitoes that will leave more children and adults dead.
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