Person for Mental Illness the Thesis

, 2001). (Corrigan, Watson, Byrne & Davis, 2005, p. 363)

Individuals who then enter the system and attempt treatment are taking a leap of faith that doing so will improve rather than continue to degrade their life and their options in it. Though HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) attempts to resolve issues of confidentiality, creating strict rules for who when and how communications about one's health can be communicated between individuals attempts to aide all health care clients they are specifically helpful with regard to mental health clients. Possible barriers they create with regard to the sharing of information between clinicians can also be specifically troubling in the mental health arena as the individual must be shown to be giving consent in some way to these communications and they also bar clinicians from sharing information with the individual's support network, such as family, unless permission has been granted to do so or the individual is under the age of 18. For this reason the clinician is banned from discussing progress and goals with the support network unless it is expressly allowed by the individual. There are many forms of mental illness that by their very nature exacerbate secrecy and paranoia and might even seriously stifle the ability of all to work together to help treat a patient.

Prior to HIPPA some of these issues were minimized by the ability of the individual clinician to communicate by overriding the individual as a result of his or her compromised mental state, yet this is no longer the case. In an ideal situation the clinician, very early in the process of treatment would ascertain from the individual a list of trusted support members, while the individual is capable of doing so that the clinician may contact for emergencies and to communicate about the individual's needs and desires for care and progress. Yet, this is stifled significantly by HIPPA as HIPPA specifically restricts communication only to other health care professionals and only for the direct purpose of providing improved health care. Additionally, this ideal is not always easily obtainable and knowing who will aide and who will hinder progress in ones life is not discretionary.

References

Suicide. (2007). In the Columbia Encyclopedia (6th ed.). New York: Columbia University Press.

Corrigan, P.W., Watson, a.C., Byrne, P., & Davis, K.E. (2005). Mental Illness Stigma: Problem of Public Health or Social Justice?. Social Work, 50(4), 363.

Heeringen, K. (Ed.). (2001). Understanding Suicidal Behaviour: The Suicidal Process Approach to Research, Treatment, and Prevention. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Seaburn, D.B., Lorenz, a.D., Gunn, W.B., Gawinski, B.A., & Mauksch, L.B. (1996). Models of Collaboration: A Guide for Mental Health…