Rising Concern for Inmates with Mental Illnesses

     Mental health issues surround us on a daily basis and are more common than most people perceive them to be. Suicide seems to be a common thing in society, I think that depression, and some other types of mood disorders usually cause it. According to Stats Canada 60% of suicides are due to major depression.(Navaneelan,2012) There are several factors to take into consideration when it comes to suicide, such as age, gender and mental illness. “Studies indicate that more than 90 percent of suicide victims have a diagnosable psychiatric illness” (Canadian Mental Health Association, March 2006). However, statistics differ when it comes to specific groups of people, “For example the suicide rate for Inuit peoples living in northern Canada is between 60 and 75 for every 100,000  people.”(Canadian Mental Health Association, March 2006). Gender also plays a significant role in suicide statistics, “while men commit suicide 4 times more than woman, woman make 3-4 more attempts at committing suicide than men do.”(Canadian Mental Health Association, March 2006). 

    Now what happens when you consider all those different situations and put them into a prison?  You get prison guards that treat people living with a mental illness as a security issue instead of treating their mental illness first. (Tonda MacCharles, 2012). You get mentally ill individuals hurting themselves more and more to the point where they commit suicide.(Tonda MacCharles, 2012) “Canada’s Prison system has adopted the wrong approach to mentally ill inmates: it has built its first padded federal cell”(Tonda MacCharles,2012). Therefore, it seems to me that the guards working in the federal Regional Psychiatric Center in Saskatoon are uneducated and instead of receiving the proper education to treat mentally ill patients, they put them into a padded cell where they are supposed to be safe. “if you put someone in a padded cell they will find a way to do themselves harm says Sapers”(Tonday MacCharles,2012). So my question is why would you put someone into a padded cell if you know that they are still going to hurt themselves, why not find out what is causing them to harm themselves and work on a way to fix it, it’s not like mentally ill individuals want to be mentally ill, but that’s just my opinion.

    In the article “Mental Health: Combating Negative Thoughts”” they talk about a new program called “Living Life to the Full” a course that has eight little books designed for 1.5-hour sessions. It is supposed to allow people experiencing depression or anxiety face and overcome the problems they are facing” (Canadian Mental Health Association Kelowna, 2012). The Canadian Mental Health Association: British Columbia branch has adapted to “Living Life to the Full” so why can’t every province in Canada take the same approach and not only use it in prisons but outside prisons as well. I truly think that a program like this would be a great help to not only the inmates in prison but to the guards as well. I feel like there would be a little less tension between the inmates and the guards. In addition, the guards might actually be able to treat the inmates as humans not as a security concern, because I mean after all they do have feeling and emotions and the way the guards treat them could have an effect on their mental illness.

    Now to bring in the ideologies, I have specifically chosen to focus on one in particular that one being the neoconservative/ neo-liberal ideology. The neoconservative ideology states “they value freedom, inequality and individualism”.(Hick,2007) I entirely disagree with this without equality individuals will not receive the treatment needed this is shown in the article “Mental Health Problems Treated as a Security issue”. The guards treat inmates as a security concern instead of human beings. It also states, “Social welfare is limited to the very needy”. However, who are they to determine who they very needy are and what classifies them to be very needy. I personally think that every individual in society is going to need some sort of support from the government in some way so who are they to determine who gets it. I feel that by saying only the very needy get the help of social welfare that the neoconservatives are targeting what might be considered the less fortunate people in society.

    Overall, I think there is a lot the government of Canada needs to take into consideration there are inmates suffering in prison with no help and are being punished by guards that do not understand them. There are individuals in our society that have a mental illness but might not be able to access the necessary form of treatment because it is unavailable to them. I think society and the government needs to do their part in providing the necessary services required for individuals living with a mental illness.

References

MacCharles, T. (2012, October 23). Mental Health Problems Treated as a Security Issue in Federal Prisons. Retrieved November 1, 2012, from TheStar.com: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1276250--mental-health-problems-treated-as-security-issue-in-federal-prisons-report-says
Makin, K. (2011, January 21). Why Canada's prisons can't cope with flood of mentally ill inmates. Retrieved December 14, 2012, from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/why-canadas-prisons-cant-cope-with-flood-of-mentally-ill-inmates/article563604/?page=all

News, K. C. (2012, October 2011). Mental Health: Combating Negative Thoughts. Retrieved November 1, 2012, from Canadian Mental Health Association: http://kelowna.cmha.bc.ca/get-informed/e-news/article-121011-capital-news-article-mental-health-combatting-negative-thoughts-0

Suicide Statistics. (2006, March). Retrieved November 1, 2012, from Canadian Mental Health Association: http://www.ontario.cmha.ca/fact_sheets.asp?cID=3965\
Suicide Rates. (2012, July). Retrieved December 14, 2012, from Statistics Canada
            http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/82-624-x/2012001/article/11696-eng.htm

~Karlie