Children Affected Mentally by Legal System
The U.S legal system has been linked to the rising cases of children having mental problems. Children in juvenile or foster homes have cases of acquiring mental disorders whenever a court ruling places a child under their care. Research conducted in the U.S indicates that nearly 22% of children in juvenile reports cases of having mental disorders (Washburn, et al., 2015). Similarly, the reports indicate that in every teenager having been incarcerated, half of them develop stress, while others had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a higher risk of committing suicide (Washburn, et al., 2015). Therefore, doctors and the authority have taken the mandate to find a solution to the problem while trying to implement a legal system that would not cause severe effects towards the youths. The government has incorporated diverse measures that would help to minimize the risks of legal system towards the young people. For instance, they should prepare the affected youths psychologically for the possible outcomes of the legal system before placing them into custody. Similarly, the family has the mandate to protect their children when it comes to matters of the legal system and ensuring the children have full support after imposing laws affecting the youths (Washburn, et al., 2015). Legal system such as the placement of children in foster homes or juvenile facility would cause young generation to obtain Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) hence acquiring negative side effects that results to mental disorder or stress. In essence, this paper focuses on the plan that can help reduce the effects of mental illness among children and the young people who have been affected by the legal system.
Effective Intervention Strategies
Various strategies have helped to minimize the risks associated with mental disorders on youths affected by the legal system. For example, Multi Systematic Therapy (MST), Family Integrative Transition (FIT), Functional Family Therapy (FFT), and Wraparound are the available strategies that help in catering for the mentally-ill youths.
Multi Systemic Therapy (MST)
Multi Systemic Therapy (MST) strategy involves the incorporation of family members in an effort of evaluating the causes of mental disorders (De Nadai, et al., 2016). A therapist would recommend minimizing the risks of youths using drugs due to stress. MST strategy helps the affected individual in trying to reduce the effects of peer pressure when affected by the legal system (De Nadai, et al., 2016). The psychological therapist would prepare specific platforms in helping the youth from involving themselves with delinquent peers. The strategy would also help the youths by engaging in recreational activities that reduce the risks associated with mental disorders.
Family Integrative Transition
The process involves helping the affected youth to see the positiveness of the legal system. For instance, the affected child placed in a juvenile facility may be taught to utilize the time by being involved in creative courses as well as obtaining an educational program. Similarly, the strategy incorporates the existence of parents or guardians as the therapist would utilize dialogs to enhance the relationship between the child and the parents. The process would take a month or two and the result might be helpful to the family and the affected child.
Functional Family Therapy (FFT)
Another strategic program is the use of Functional Family Therapy (FFT) that includes an approach that is family centered as well as helping youths between the ages of eleven to eighteen years. The platform helps the victims attain a self-confidence nature as the psychology therapist tries to enhance individual self-respect (Ai, Foster, Pecora, Delaney, & Rodriguez 2013). As seen in MST platform, FFT helps an entire family in creating tasks that would see the development of the victim as the therapist aims at bringing positive thinking towards the family (Ai, et al., 2013). Therefore, FFT is also a family oriented platform in treating mental disorders.
Individual Therapy Treatment
A philosophical strategy that also uses individual orientation is the Wraparound. The method of helping people with a mental health condition aims at utilizing communal services in the society that would achieve specific outcomes (Hilty, et al., 2016). The therapist helps the mentally ill patient in different situations in every possible place including school, home, church, as well as in the community. Similarly, the psychological therapist aims at focusing on the voice of the child, compassion, and the flexibility of the child’s behavior in realizing the importance of his mental stability (Hilty, et al., 2016).
Multidimensional Foster Care is a method of helping the affected youth in regaining their mental health. The process involves group therapy where the affected children are placed in a facility and the therapists train the children on measures that would help them psychologically. Multidimensional care would mean every child participate in the therapy individually regardless of being in a group. Every child has his or her task to accomplish in the group with the supervision of the therapists. Therefore, the process would yield positive results in the treatment of mental disorders experienced in children affected by legal system.
Individual treatment strategies would include focusing on the positivity of maintaining a positive mental self-control. The patient would ensure having basic needs that would minimize the risks associated with mental illness (Stahlberg et al., 2016). For instance, a patient thinking of committing suicide would not be allowed to stay alone since their corrupted mind might make them commit the crime. Therefore, the patient would assess the risks of the illness that would have great impacts on their lives as well as incorporating the treatment procedures offered by the therapist.
Treatment Options and Family Therapy Evaluation
The first step in analyzing the treatment options towards the affected children is realizing the nature of the illness. Psychological therapists start with defining the nature of the illness whether hereditary or acquired illness (Sherman & Johnson, 2014). Hereditary illness is associated with the nature of anxiety developed that runs in the family (Sherman &Johnson, 2014). Similarly, the nature of the illness that runs in the family might have simple effects to the affected child compared to the acquired illness. However, the child affected would not know the nature of the mental illness regardless of the legal system. Families with hereditary anxiety report cases of experiencing instances of mental disorders whenever affected by the legal system or any other form of pressure (Sherman & Johnson, 2014). Children with mental disorders would face challenges in the implementation of health care strategies.
Family therapy incorporates the use of Family-Based Treatment (FBT) that involves the utilization of resources available in a family that would help in curbing the risks associated with the mental disorders. The strategy aims at helping the children affected by the legal system to regain their potential as well as enhancing the child’s behavior (Sherman &Johnson, 2014). Therefore, the psychological therapist would recommend the use of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) as well as applying the enhanced CBT. The process is gradual and aims at developing the impacts of the therapy towards the patients (Sherman & Johnson, 2014). Therefore, families that implement a therapy have an added advantage in the fight against mental disorders caused by the legal system.
Families have been asked to apply the enhanced CBT since it has positive results and it has been named as an alternative of FBT. FBT is costly and takes time before experiencing results (Sherman & Johnson, 2014). However, the enhanced CBT is an advanced strategy of treating mental disorders in families. The platform aims at helping the patient to have positive thoughts towards their mental status (Sherman & Johnson, 2014). Patients are encouraged to think the consequences of having a mental illness as a way of helping them think positively. Similarly, the family representative who is helping the patient or the psychological therapist analyses the potential pros and cons of tackling mental illness (Stahlberg et al., 2016). The strategy would encourage the patient and help them focus on the available healing strategy offered by the doctors.
Environmental Factors Affecting the Implementation of Strategies
Children with mental disorders would receive special treatment and care from professional therapists aimed at preventing any harm that would affect the children physically. However, the implementation of treatment strategies might face some challenges within a family or jurisdiction level. Four cultural factors affect the implementation of health strategies towards children with mental problems. They are community context, cultural population characteristics, organizational network, and direct service support.
Community Context
The community context entails the form of community structure where the medical strategy is aimed at performing. The people helping the community in the fight against mental disorders would face a big problem in maintaining sustainable development of services. Similarly, the community context factor affects the delivering of medical care to children with mental disorders in consideration of racial disparity (Zumbach, 2016). For instance, African-American children with mental disorders are likely to be forcefully taken to custody compared to the other races. Similarly, Zumbach (2016) states that, Latino natives in the U.S have a higher rate of incarceration that would lead to the rise of mental illness within the community. Therefore, the community context hinders the health practitioners in delivering the appropriate health strategies to the affected community.
Cultural Population Characteristics
A community has a perspective or definition of a specific problem. However, mental illness medication might have a different perspective from the community. Health practitioners may have differences with the patients leading to a negative relationship between the two groups. For instance, an affected youth having mental illness would go for treatment to a doctor of different ethnic group (Bloomquist, et al., 2016). The doctor or health practitioner might not act under the ethical standards of medical practices and the service rendered would have negative feedback. Therefore, the culture difference would not help in fighting the mental illness problem in the community.
Organizational Infrastructure
An organizational composition or structure would determine whether quality services would be offered to patients with mental health disorders. The health disparities associated with the size or form of an organization would depend on the values of the organization. Values of a company are found in the vision and mission statements of a company that helps the organization to realize and act under their mission. Therefore, the mission statement articulates the role of the organization in helping the affected individuals and the strategy of providing medical care. Similarly, communication and community participation would affect the implementation of medical care to the children affected mentally by the illegal system. Chorpita et al. (2016) state that, children fear communicating with their doctors on matters affecting their health. Therefore, the doctors or therapists would have a hard time identifying the problems affecting the diagnosed children. Similarly, lack of affordable resources would affect the implementation of adequate health care to the affected community.
Direct Service Support
The implementation of health care towards children with mental disorders would consider direct service support that entails the incorporation of the availability, accessibility, and utilization of available resources that would help the affected population. A community that does not analyze the effectiveness of implementing healthcare procedure does not have a positive end product of healthy population (Van Damme, et al., 2015). Therefore, one must assess the accessibility of the health care as well as utilizing the available resources that would help in achieving the desired health care target. Similarly, implementing health care strategy would focus on checking the availability of the range of adequate resources in the community (Van Damme, et al., 2015). Therefore, these factors would affect the implementing the desired healthcare towards children affected by legal system hence, obtaining mental illness.
Families with patients affected mentally by the legal system have a way of hindering special care reaching the patients. For instance, separation or divorce of parents might lead to the children becoming stranded. The decision of court system on the nature of a divorce would make some children choose one parent over the other while others are given the option of moving to foster homes when single parenting is incapable of handling children (Van Damme, et al., 2015). Therefore, the separation of children from their parents would affect the nature of implementing medical attention to the mentally-affected children. Families play an important role in the implementation of medical care to the patients (Van Damme et al., 2015). They provide a conducive environment that would bring care to the affected. Similarly, family helps in identifying the available mental disorder. They help in identifying the risks a person could have as well as providing a platform that would help to minimize the risks associated with mental disorders.
Recommendations of Intervention Strategies
Special programs exist that helps in identifying mental disorders and the possible ways of minimizing the risks associated with mental illness. The programs would help in changing the nature of situation where the affected children are transferred from the legal facility to a community-based mental health treatment facility (Szilagyi et al., 2015). Therefore, the child in question would have the desired medical attention that would minimize the effects of mental disorders (Szilagyi et al., 2015). The strategies would help in controlling the effects of mental illness in some ways. For instance, a child with a mental disorder would get enough time with the psychological professionals. Similarly, the child would get less duration in a legal facility like jail that has negative effects on the child.
The strategies would work best when the legal system focuses on rehabilitative outlook rather than punitive. Therefore, the strategies help in preventing the effects of delinquency within the peers that would result in conflicts between families. Similarly, the court system implementing the legal system would focus on preventing possible access to firearms, drugs, and other vices within the community (Szilagyi, et al., 2015). As such, the strategies helping the implementation of medical support towards teenagers with impaired mental disorder recommends assessing the risks associated with the legal system. The youths should have a close relationship with the parents, teachers, reliable peers, and other reliable adults (Szilagyi et al., 2015). The interaction would help the youths focus on positive activities that would help them achieve desired living standards.
Ethical Issues
The health practitioners have the mandate to provide treatment and care to the patients affected by legal system leading to mental disorder. Similarly, the doctors have the privilege of utilizing the available resources in providing care to the patients (Cavis, 2014). There are three basic rules in the medical ethics where the doctors and psychological therapists have the mandate to protect the information of the patients. For instance, the patients have the right for confidentiality, the right to receive treatment, and informed consent.
Confidentiality is the protection of information regarding illness since the doctors and therapists are forbidden from disclosing any information (Davis, 2014). The patients disclose vital information regarding their sickness to the doctors and the health practitioners have the mandate to protect that information. For instance, patients with mental illness have similar right since other individuals would react negatively when they realize the condition of the patient. Therefore, therapists only discuss the condition of their patients with the rightful trustee either the parents of the child or other guardians.
Every individual has the right for treatment. The government provides basic commodities in hospitals, and the community should access the facility at their will (Mauch & Bartlett, 2013). Therefore, the right to treatment should be a communal commodity since every individual has the right of having a good health. Health practitioners should treat every individual before asking for remedies or payment (Mauch & Bartlett, 2013). One should not be deprived from treatment because of their financial status. However, government policies have provided basic equipment that helps an easy access to medical facilities.
A patient has the right to be informed of any possible negative impacts of the proposed medication. Medicine has diverse effects on a human body and some people react differently due to the difference in the immune system. However, some medicines are said to have side effects to a human body regardless of their importance in treating some diseases (Bankyard, 2013). Therefore, the doctor or therapist should inform the patient about any possible side effects before administering the medicine to the patient. For instance, mood stabilizer medicines used in treating mental disorders have a negative side effect of loss of appetite (Bankyard 2013). Similarly, the medicine used in minimizing flu has side effects of sleeping. Therefore, the patient should be informed of the possible outcomes.
Legal Systems
A well-planned treatment strategy would focus on the availability of resources that aims at promoting medical facility in the treatment of mental disorders. The strategy would incorporate the factors that would promote the delivery of medical practice to the community (Pietrzak, et al., 2015). Similarly, the psychological therapists have the privilege to help the patients achieve a standardized medical attention regardless of their race, origin, financial status, and other aspects affecting medical practice (Pietrzak, et al., 2015). Therefore, medical practitioners would refer exploiting the resources available for a better implementation of a medical strategy.
Foster care homes are facilities that help orphans and homeless children attain their basic growth attention. The facilities are government operated and financed under the care of specialized individuals employed for the specific purpose of providing care to the children (Pietrzak, et al., 2015). However, children admitted to foster care are not always orphans, but some are there because of criminal activities. Some foster homes act as juvenile custody since children under the legal age could not go to a jail.
Foster care facilities help the medical practitioners in identifying the possible illness that affects the children. Studies have been conducted at different foster care facilities where the results communicated similar challenges (Pietrzak, et al., 2015). However, the medical attention offered to different children with mental illness differs at a slight margin. Foster homes act as a basic necessity for children without parents as well as those with criminal records. Therefore, researchers have utilized these resources in conducting studies that has been affecting the children with mental illness. Similarly, the foster homes help the authority reshape the lives of children whenever they experience a criminalized life (Pietrzak, et al., 2015). Most teenagers in foster homes are associated with criminal records regardless of their origin.
Being in custody is much different from being in foster care. Children under the age of eighteen with criminal records are usually taken into custody at the juvenile facilities. The facility acts like a jail for the minors. However, the government takes the opportunity to provide necessities to the children in juvenile as well as preventing the children from any further crimes (Pietrzak, et al., 2015). Therefore, the custody helps the children regain their potential in developing the community as well as providing support to the government. Juvenile helps in providing adequate and responsive care to the children that see the children changing to be a better generation (Pietrzak, et al., 2015). A treatment plan based on the lives of a juvenile child has positive impacts since the research is based on true potential strategies on the life in the facility.
Conclusion
Legal system has a negative impact towards the lives of the youths who reports cases of mental disorders when legally placed in juvenile facilities or foster homes. However, legal system affects the implementation of a medical strategy that helps medical practitioners in providing medical attention in foster care. Therefore, the implementation of medical attention to the children would receive positive feedback from the government and the society since it would help minimize the risks associated with mental illness such as suicide. The government should incorporate different strategies in coming up with a solution towards the rise of medical illness caused by legal system.
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