MENTAL HEALTH TECH

I was introduced to MENTAL HEALTH... no, let's say I learned there were people with a MENTAL HEALTH problem after being hired to work a job in caregiving at age 19. The person hiring me marveled that someone my age applied for the job as MENTAL HEALTH TECHNICIAN... trainee, at the time; but she hired me because I "showed promise via my nerves and attitude." The basic requirement was that an applicant must have had experience in caregiving. I had taken care of children. I was compassionate and sympathetic to distraught individuals. I was hired to train as a paraprofessional at a major mental health hospital for adults. In 1976, adults who were determined to be MENTALLY RETARDED by the state of Illinois. The opposite side of the hospital on different institutional grounds housed those who fell to MENTAL ILLNESS from any of the many upsets in life. It was a rude awakening. My caregiving prior to this job was limited to my own two babies, not even old enough for elementary school.

It was a bigger issue than I realized and is not always contained. DURING MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS MONTH the hope is to prevent issues in the general public. Issues which can stem from the pressures of today's society locked down under a health scare that went into a pandemic phase after a lengthy battle with terrorism from unknown sources and loading on of illegal aliens at our border which not only rip at tax dollars stretched thin at the welfare line, but on identification and credentials loss by those rushing to escape the law. Break-ins at businesses due to loss of income, denial of access to housing, and inevitable homelessness because of it all eventually takes its toll on the mental strength of not only the head of household but those under the care of that individual. A nervous breakdown or stroke can land anyone in the emergency room, and without short resolve; they would find themselves in the clutches of a psychiatric center or hospital.

Because there is such a broad spectrum of issues that can break even the strongest of us, mental health support organizations have sprung up not only in the United States but in other nations around the world supported by United Nations. The mental health crisis is a monster that can bite into anyone's life be they rich and powerful or lost in the streets for most of life. Take an overly burdened politician of high status who is continuously heckled regarding his personal life, the personal lives of those he is related to, and heckled for his rationale regarding public policies and law for which he was hired... elected to. For the arguing public who see only the political agenda, there is no private individual in his existence. He is signed to a public property be although placed in a commanding position... there "for the people" unlike a king or magistrate who is there on his own accord. Unless he has nerves of steel so much chaos in his daily scenario of work added to that at home would break him, placing him in need of serious rehabilitation time if only to focus upon his own mind. His appearance would become more haggard, facial stress readily presenting his anguish and potentially premature graying of hair. But this is an extreme example of stress overload before a breakdown that causes a need for hospitalization.

When I was hired to work the state position mentioned, there were tags assigned to behaviors and conditions surrounding onset of behavior determined to be of mental cause. There was no discrimination between issues of the mind or issues of physical cause. In the world of psychology and psychiatry, the two are very different and are treated as such. For the mental challenges, patterned learning subject to the B.F. Skinner approach are put to use after individual assessments are performed and monitored using a "S.O.A.P. tabulation" method. S/subjective, O/observation, A/assessment, and P/progressive chart notes similar to those of a medical doctor's medical record.

For those falling under the need for physical repair after nerve and tissue damage, it is a learning phase for repairing or replacing lost skill and intellect. Carl G Jung is credited for research among the central concepts of analytical psychology is individuation—the lifelong psychological process of differentiation of the self out of each individual's conscious and unconscious elements. MENTAL HEALTH

It's just another physical pain.