Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW 1

Mental Health: A Review of Literature

Abstract

Mental Health is a very important subject nowadays because there are many people suffering

from some sort of mental illness and they dont seek the help they need. According to Mental

Health.gov One in five American adults experience a mental health issue. Many people arent

well informed about this topic since it can be a very sensitive topic.

Mental Health: A Review of Literature

Mental health can be a difficult topic to understand, not many people are well inform about this

topic. According to Unite For Sight mental health issues started in the 18th century. Many

cultures believed that if someone had a mental health issue was a religious punishment or a

demonic possession (Unite For Sight,2012). Today mental health is getting more attention but

not many people are seeing how these people are really feeling suffering from a mental health.

Thinking about this, four questions should be considered:

1. What role does a professor play in a students mental health?

2. How have programs changed for mental health?

3. How early can someone develop a mental health issue?

4. What other factors impact someone suffering from mental health.

The following review of literature will provide: information regarding mental health what

impact in their daily lives affect them.

What role does a professor play in a students mental health?

In The role of schools in mental health Allinsmith (1962) argues that teachers and staff have a

big impact on the students that suffer from mental health. He begins by explaining how teachers

are afraid to approach students without it being about academic studies. He also continues on

explaining how mental health is a very sensitive topic that many teachers are afraid to touch with

their students. Allinsmith (1962), explains the issues concerning schools and mental health, it

describes five main viewpoints about mental health. They mostly focus on seeking help for their

mental issue and how teachers have limits of what they can and what they cant talk to their

students. . Now a days schools have a big impact on how students behaviors, especially in

elementary schools since they are at such a small age they would not understand what a mental

health issue is this means teachers are afraid of approaching their students with a non-academic

topic.

Although Allinsmith (1962) had a good point by saying that teachers play a big role on mental

health on their students, it must be pointed out that the students spend most of their time playing

with their friends than with a teacher. Students also have a social life, outside of school activities

can also impact the students mental health. Teachers do play a role on mental health because

students spend most of their time at school which can affect them emotionally but they also have

a life outside of school and that might also play a big role on the students mental health.

Recent studies like these shed new light on teachers behaviors. In this case Khasakhala (2016)

focuses on students with autistic disorders, but the message that he is trying to make is for

teachers to be more aware of their behavior over all. Students with mental disorders need more

attention, teachers need to be aware of they are behaving and the kind of impact they are making

with their students. Students spend most of their time doing school related activities; we can

conclude that teachers and staff do play a big important role in a students life.
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How do programs at school impact students with mental health?

Like I said before mental health was not taken seriously and was seen like a cultural thing

(United For Site,2012) By doing an interview to a student in high school suffering from a mental

health he stated he is in a program at his school in which he has his own instructor. He would

have a teacher for every subject like everyone else but as he gets to a class the he struggles his

instructor will come in and enlighten him on the topic he is struggling. He stayed after school

with his instructor to do homework so when he got home he would not struggle on his own. He

also stated that he has some privileges one of them being, having more time in standardized tests.

According to the student he let me know that once a month the principle his instructor and his

parents meet to see how he is doing with his mental health and academically. According to this

students statement its believed that the programs offered at school do impact in a major way,

one of the questions I asked him was Would it make a difference if these programs would not

be offer at your school? in which he responded My grades would not be as high as they are

now, not only would I be struggling in school but also in my social life. I have learned a lot with

the help they offer here. With that being said we can conclude that having these programs help

the students academically and even socially.

How early can someone develop a mental health issue?

Charles claimed that a mental illness can happened at a very early age. According to Charles:

Infant mental health is explicitly relational in its focus, and therefore a diagnostic classification

system for early childhood disorders should include attention not only to within-the-child

psychopathology but also between child and caregiver psychopathology. I used to think a
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mental health problem could not affect someone at such a young age. Recently, this view has

changed in Defining relational pathology in early childhood: The diagnostic classification of

mental health and developmental disorders of infancy and early childhood Charles (2016)

suggested that you can an infant and still suffer from mental health. Charles also point it out the

caregiver, and the impact that it has to an infant. Depending on how the caregiver is it can impact

the infant in a positive way or negative. According to Charles if the infant suffered from a mental

illness at such a young age, the infant most likely suffer from mental health when he adults.

According to Charles (2016) Infant mental health clinicians have consistently advocated for

understanding young childrens emotional functioning in the context of their primary

relationships. The most systematic research on parentchild relationships has come from the

study of young childrens quality of attachment to their caregivers. With that being said parents

have a big impact on their children since they are the first ones they have a relationship with.

Parents need to be aware that everything they do will impact their children especially at a young

age.
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Source: Child Health USA (2012). Retrieved from:

https://mchb.hrsa.gov/chusa12/hsfu/pages/mht.html

According to the graph above by the age of 12, 47.6% of adolescents will already be suffering

from depression.

In Adolescent mental health : Prevention and intervention (2014) Ogden states that adolescents

are most likely to suffer from a mental illness due to the fact that they are in a phase in their lives

were they are growing according to Ogden. There is also a lot of vulnerabilities. According to

Ogden most adolescents go through that stage in their lives in a healthy way, but not all

adolescents have that luck. Ogden (2014) matters because what he is trying to say is that the

youth or adolescents do have more chance having a mental illness. At that age they are very

sensitive to many things according to Ogden. At that stage in a adolescents life everyones

opinions matter, and everything said to them can affect them either in a positive way or negative.

What Ogden is trying to do is to prevent teenagers go to through a mental illness through

professional and systematic effort as said by Ogden. According to Ogden (2014) Adolescence

has been described as a period of life that starts in biology and it ends in society this a very

string message it because it means that when someone is at such a young age such as an

adolescent.

What other factors impact someone suffering from mental health?

People spend most of their time either at work or a school, as said before by Allinsmith (1962).

But school or work are not the only place someone with mental health affect them. In Cause and

context: Place-based approaches to investigate how environments affect mental health (2016)

Lovasi did research on how the environment affects peoples mood, and in this case their mental
LITERATURE REVIEW 7

health. Lovasi (2016) approached a method by changing the place and analyzing how their brains

will react to this approach. Lovasi explained recent studies like these shed new light on the

impact that it makes by changing the environment. The environment can have a big effect in our

mood and mental health according to Lovasi (2016). I believe that if the environment we are at

is negative it will affect our mental health. The place where you are at can have a big impact on

what your feeling which can lead up to mental health.

Source: Key Findings: Health-care, Family, and Community Factors Associated with Mental,

Behavioral, and Developmental Disorders in Early Childhood - United States, 2011-2012.

Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/childdevelopment/features/key-finding-factors-

mental-behavioral-developmental-early-childhood.html

As we can see above there is other factors that go in when it comes to someone with a mental

health, in this case someone from the ages of 2-8.

In Discovering the impact of psychotherapeutic hospital treatment for adults with serious

mental illness (2017) Allen discussed the treatments that can help those with a serious mental

illness. Although Allen (2017) may seem trivial, it was in fact crucial in terms of todays concern
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over those suffering from a serious mental health there are many illnesses but they are a few that

impact someone in a major way. What Allen was trying to say is trying to display the treatments

to help those with severe mental issues. There are other factors that impact someone with mental

health, one of them being having another disease. In Links between teacher assessment and

child self - assessment of mental health and behavior among children affected by HIV/AIDS.

AIDS Care (2015) Hongfei observed the importance of someone dealing with a disease and

besides that a mental health issue. According to Hongfei having HIV can worsen the persons

mental health even more. Although Hongfei (2015) may seem trivial, it was in fact crucial in

terms of todays concern over people suffering from mental health and having to deal with a

disease that can end with their lives. According to Hongfei they are more likely to suffer from

more than one mental health or even worsen their health in general. With that being said, not a

lot of people know much about mental health according to Pilgrim (2015) argues how mental

health is a very complex or according to Pilgrim, also mysterious meaning not a lot of people

know much about this topic cause people might find it difficult to understand. Although Pilgrim

argues that many people know about mental health by saying that is a difficult topic which is true

I believe there are other factors other than the topic being too difficult or too mysterious

according to Pilgrim. One of the factors can be that there are not many resources to learn about

mental health. To inform the people about this sensitive topic there should be more information

at schools, doctors office etc. I do agree on the fact that metal health is a difficult topic as said

from Pilgrims, but there are more factors that might make it hard for people to be well informed

about mental health.

Conclusion/Synthesis
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In conclusion this literature review gathers information to inform the people who have no

knowledge about mental health. According to Bowings (2016) claimed the real definition of

mental health. He continues to specify on each mental illness and there negative effects on

somebody. He also insists on knowing the real meaning or definition of mental health and

knowing the actual illness will help understand more and be more accurate for research and new

findings. Although Bowings (2016) may seem trivial, it was in fact crucial in terms of todays

concern over. It is very important to know the real meaning of mental health to succeed on

research that can improve all the illnesses that come with mental health. Also knowing some if

not all the illnesses is important because if the researcher of the reader does not have an idea of

what a illness really is, then it will be more difficult to better the illnesses in the future.
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References

Allinsmith, W., & Goethals, G. W. (1962). The role of schools in mental health New York,

Basic Books, 1962.

Retrieved from http://0-

search.ebscohost.com.lib.utep.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat04704a&AN=nug.b126

7987&site=eds-live&scope=site

Allen, J. G., Fowler, J. C., Madan, A., Ellis, T. E., Oldham, J. M., & Frueh, B. C. (2017).

Du, H., Li, X., Weinstein, T. L., Chi, P., Zhao, J., & Zhao, G. (2015). Links between teacher

assessment and child self - assessment of mental health and behavior among children

affected by HIV/AIDS. AIDS Care, 27(7), 876-884.

doi:10.1080/09540121.2015.1009360

Engelhard, I. M. (2012). Making science work in mental health care. European Journal of

Psychotraumatology, 3, 1-7. Retrieved from http://0-

search.ebscohost.com.lib.utep.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=80826649&site

=eds-live&scope=site

Holmes, E. A., Craske, M. G., & Graybiel, A. M. (2014). Psychological treatments: A call for

mental-health science. Nature, 511(7509), 287-289. doi:10.1038/511287a

Ogden, T., & Hagen, K. A. (2014). Adolescent mental health : Prevention and intervention Hove,

East Sussex : Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, 2014. Retrieved from http://0-

search.ebscohost.com.lib.utep.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat04704a&AN=nug.b359
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2924&site=eds-live&scope=site; http://0-

ebookcentral.proquest.com.lib.utep.edu/lib/utep/detail.action?docID=1524198

Iles, R., & Docherty, S. M. (2012). Biomedical sciences : Essential laboratory medicine

Chichester, West Sussex, U.K. : John Wiley & Sons, 2012. Retrieved from http://0-

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6385&site=eds-live&scope=site; http://0-

ebookcentral.proquest.com.lib.utep.edu/lib/utep/detail.action?docID=882650

Khasakhala, E., & Galava, P. (2016). Relationship between teachers' perception of causes of
challenging behavior and the choice of management strategies among learners with
autistic spectrum disorders. Journal of Education and Practice, 7(2), 80-87. Retrieved
from http://0-
search.ebscohost.com.lib.utep.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1089784&sit
e=eds-live&scope=site
Lovasi, G. S., Mooney, S. J., Muennig, P., & DiMaggio, C. (2016). Cause and context: Place-

based approaches to investigate how environments affect mental health. Social Psychiatry

and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 51(12), 1571-1579. Retrieved from http://0-

search.ebscohost.com.lib.utep.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cmedm&AN=27787585&

site=eds-live&scope=site

McGrath, J. J. (2017). Vitamin D and mental health - the scrutiny of science delivers a sober

message. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, (3), 183. doi:10.1111/acps.12708

Medicine, biomedical research, mental health : Catalog of resources(1995). Washington, DC :

U.S. G.P.O., 1995?]. Retrieved from http://0-

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69&site=eds-live&scope=site;

http://catalog.gpo.gov/fdlpdir/locate.jsp?ItemNumber=0552-A&SYS=000439269
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Pilgrim, D. (2015). Understanding mental health : A critical realist exploration Abingdon, Oxon :

Routledge, 2015. Retrieved from http://0-

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2633&site=eds-live&scope=site; http://0-

ebookcentral.proquest.com.lib.utep.edu/lib/utep/detail.action?docID=1775362

Bowins, B. (2016). Mental illness defined : Continuums, regulation, and defense New York, NY

: Routledge, 2016. Retrieved from http://0-

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9566&site=eds-live&scope=site;

http://www.utep.eblib.com/EBLWeb/patron/?target=patron&extendedid=P_4741279_0

Zeanah, C. H., & Lieberman, A. (2016). Defining relational pathology in early childhood: The

diagnostic classification of mental health and developmental disorders of infancy and

early childhood dc:0-5 approach. Infant Mental Health Journal, 37(5), 509-520.

doi:10.1002/imhj.21590

http://www.uniteforsight.org/mental-health/module2
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