Effectiveness of Mental Health Awareness

Terms of reference

Mental illness is one of the dangerous disorders which should be avoided. Any disease which affects the mind is likely to influence the performance of the whole body.

The brain controls all human body functions (Olson et al., 2016, p136). Whatever affects the brain can easily result in other diseases.  

There are different mental disorders, such as depression. Depression is a mental disorder that has notable symptoms such as stress and lack of sleep.

This disorder is known to affect many people. Additionally, some people are depressed in the society, but they are not aware of. Such a situation is most common to those who are affected by depression and anxiety.

Today, the number of people who are depressed exceeds the amount in many years back. This indicates that mental illness has tremendously increased.

According to the world statistics on depression, depression affects not only adults but also young people. Mental health can affect anyone regardless of their status or gender (Thornicroft et al., 2016, p1125).

However, mental illness can be prevented through the creation of awareness to the people. Therefore, this paper discusses the report on the effectiveness of mental health awareness in the prevention of depression and anxiety.

Methodology

The research was conducted using both primary and secondary sources of data. The main goal of the study was to find whether prior mental health awareness can be used as one of the best prevention measures of mental disorders.

The study considered a lack of knowledge as one of the courses of mental disorders. Due to this reason, the main method used in this research was group comparison.

A Focus group was used to make a comparison between those who were aware of various mental illnesses and the likeliness of getting affected with particular mental disorders. Therefore, the research team randomly selected a sample of people who were suffering from mental illness and those who were not affected.

Hospital records were used to identify those who were affected by mental disorders. Additionally, the research team interviewed some people living with mental illness who had been confirmed to have recovered entirely.

Besides, both written and online materials were used to get more information about the topic of research. Written materials included books and peer-reviewed journals on the subject of study. Online sources included relevant websites of different research and statistics organizations that deal with mental illness.

Data collection

One of the methods of data collection method used was the questionnaire. The technique was used to get information from those who had recovered from mental illness, patients who were mentally ill, and the rest of the people who were not affected in any way.

The main aim of the questionnaire was to know the exact reasons regarding the effectiveness of mental health awareness.

The questionnaire involved both rigid and open-ended questions. Additionally, there was no place where the respondents could indicate their details.

The research was also concerned with the privacy and confidentiality of the respondents. Due to privacy, the respondents gave accurate and fair information based on their knowledge about the questions asked.

In regards to the research topic, the questionnaire includes questions on the preferred methods of creating awareness. I

deally, people tend to consider different ways of creating awareness in the society (Townsend and Morgan 2017, p2334). For instance, some people perceive that educational seminars and public lectures can be used to create awareness.

On the other hand, some people perceive that social media can be used to create awareness since many people use social media daily.

Therefore, the research allowed the respondents to present their views on the best method of creating mental health awareness.

Data analysis

A thorough analysis of the qualitative data was used to analyze the data. The data analysis team used various set standards to determine the relevance of the responses obtained from the questionnaires and the physical interviews. The responses were grouped according to the information portrayed by the respondent.

For instance, the responses which were in support of the effectiveness of mental awareness towards the prevention of mental disorders were put together.

The other reactions which showed criticism were also put together. After that, the team concluded that mental health awareness could help in reducing notable mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety.

Findings

Based on the secondary sources, the research found that many people are unaware of their mental situation. A good number of people were recorded to have depression, but they had no idea, yet they could feel the symptoms.

World Health Organization reported that more than 300 million people are depressed (WHO 2018). This number represented all ages, and depression can affect anyone regardless of age (Clement et al., 2015, p25).

Moreover, the World Health Organization reported that depression leads to suicide. On that note, statistics showed that more than 800,000 people die of suicide each year. Creating awareness is, therefore, important to everyone in society.

The research found that many people who were suffering from mental illness were not aware of more details about mental health.

Many people suggested that they were aware of the common diseases which affect human beings. Such conditions include those which affect the physical body but not the human brain (Bateman and Fonagy 2019, p354).

Some respondents indicated that they did not know what they were going through until the medical practitioners informed them that they could have a mental illness. Many patients also indicated that they have do not have complete information about mental illness.

Furthermore, some responses from the filled questionnaires indicated that some people had no access to information about mental health. They perceived that mental health could only affect a particular age group in society.

Consequently, some patients thought that mental health could only affect women. This was a clear indication that many people were not aware of mental health.

Therefore, the research team concluded that many people were not aware of mental health. Lack of information about mental illness portrayed some consequences such as ignorance among the patients.

The data collected from those who were not affected by mental disorder indicated that most of them were aware of the effects and causes of mental disorder.

Some of them said that they have different preventive measures to control mental disorders such as depression. They also suggested that everyone should be made aware of mental health issues.

The research also found that most people who were not affected had been through counseling or an awareness program on mental health. This was an indication that mental health awareness can be embraced through organizing public campaigns and lectures to educated people on how to prevent this menace.

The report from the people living with mental illness indicated that most of them regretted having not known much about mental health before they got into it. They suggested that if they had known more about mental health and how to prevent it, they would not have suffered from various mental illnesses.

This was also a clear indication that there is a need to create mental health awareness in society. Due to technological advancements, both governments and other private organizations should use social media to create mental health awareness.

Conclusion

In conclusion, a mental disorder is one of the dangerous diseases on earth. However, preventive measures such as creating awareness can help in reducing the influence of mental disorders in society. This report indicated that there is a need to develop mental health for everyone in society.

The findings showed that some of those who are suffering from mental illness were not aware of mental health issues. Therefore, awareness can be created through various activities, such as organizing public campaigns and education programs.