Mental Illness/Health Deserves Attention

For my issues paper, I am choosing to address the globalization topic of mental illness/health. I want to focus my studies not only on the prevalence of mental diseases in our society today, but the fact that many people harbor prejudices and misinformed judgments on the idea of “mental illness.” I want to help raise awareness of diseases such as depression, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, etc. There is a strong global stigma against these disorders, and as a result, less than half of the people who suffer from such illnesses do not seek diagnosis or the proper treatment that they need.

I plan on narrowing my topic by breaking it into subcategories and really focusing on answering the question of “what exists.” Although mental illness is an issue all across the world—not just in the United Sates—in order to narrow my topic, I plan on focusing my research and most of my examples on situations within the United States. Then, after establishing the position of the U.S. on mental illness and treatment, I will describe a few of the situations in other countries involving their response and treatment of mental disorders in order to help my audience understand that mental disorders are an issue that needs to be addressed on a global scale.

My target audience will cover all citizens of society because everyone needs to be aware of the rising issue regarding social stigma and the need to end it. I will keep it specific to this audience by addressing just that—the negative effects of stigma. In addition, a portion of my target audience will include those who are personally affected by mental illness, including those who are diagnosed with a disorder as well as family and friends of those diagnosed, or those even those who have not officially been diagnosed. I will keep my paper focused on them by giving encouragement to end the fear that accompanies the label “mental illness.” I plan on giving examples of things that individuals can do in order to create a lifestyle for these individuals that is as “normal” as one would expect an individual to live without a disorder. I want to help these people understand that having a mental illness diagnosis is totally normal, and that treatment for said diseases should become an integral part of society.