Impact of Diverse Cultures, Work Environments, and Child Abuse on Mental Health

Mental and Emotional Health: A Multifaceted Impact

Health plays an important role in every person’s life, and having even one health issue can affect many different areas of the body. A big health issue that many people deal with is mental and emotional health. The definition of mental health by Merriam Webster dictionary is “the condition of being sound mentally and emotionally that is characterized by the absence of mental illness and by adequate adjustment especially as reflected in feeling comfortable about oneself, positive feelings about others, and the ability to meet the demands of daily life.”

Mental and emotional health often tie in together with the ability to function in everyday life and how it can affect people. Mental and emotional health often leads people to be physically, socially, and psychologically unhealthy. Some people will cope with this type of health by drinking, smoking, or taking drugs which can lead to poor social choices. Mental health can lead to criminal acts or abuse towards another person. There are many different types of people and situations that can cause mental and emotional health in our society today.

Diverse Cultures

Diverse cultures deal with different mental health problems depending on how much the culture demands of a person and how they see people in each stage of life. For instance, many American cultures see elderly people as not being able to accomplish many things in life, and this leads to treating them as being disabled. It is shown that about twenty percent of people over 55 years of age deal with depression, anxiety, and mood disorders, and as elderly people grow older, it only becomes worse (CDC, 2008). Healthy People 2020 have become aware of this and want to work with doctors on prevention programs to better assist and take care of the elderly (CDC, 2008).

It is important for seniors to have the support they need, exercise, eat healthily, and ability to socialize. Also, there is significance in the healthcare giver being knowledgeable in knowing how to best assist in taking care of a loved one. Healthcare services should take the time to educate people on how to stay healthy and better equip themselves as they get older. When the elderly become more disabled, physically and mentally, they often live in assisted living places or a nursing home which can lead to their mental and emotional state detrition. It is significant to treat the elderly with proper care and respect for their ability to accomplish tasks in life. Another culture that can have mental and emotional problems is people who live in rural areas.

These people often have financial problems, poor living conditions, and a lack of education, and their social environment is often not healthy. There is frequently a lack of healthcare provided, healthy places to eat, a safe environment, school activities, and support/counseling in their schools. Unfortunately, there has not been much research done to help rural communities to help better their lifestyle. Creating the ability for children in rural areas to have proper education and activities and teaching them about health would change their lives for the better. Something every school deals with is bullying; it happens at almost any age. When students are bullied in school, it causes them to have mental and emotional health issues.

They typically have a lack of self-esteem and the ability to properly move forwards through the school years, which can cause certain disorders. Also, kids who are bullied typically start to bully someone younger than them, and it is a constant cycle of bullying. There have been prevention programs that have been successful if continued throughout the school years and required in every grade. There was an online intervention that was tested with some students and ended with good results. The stages were post-pre-intervention, intervention, and follow up-stage, and the best results were during the post-intervention and follow-up stages. After three months, the people started showing signs again of psychological depression and anxiety, which shows that online interventions should be continued long-term and not only temporarily.

Work Environment

Another common situation that causes people mental and emotional health concerns is their work environment. Many people have jobs that pay low wages, have bullying, harassment, safety issues, and boss’s expectations being too high and demanding too much. This can cause people to start drinking, smoking, and eating unhealthy for comfort and to destress (Naveen, 2017). To keep this from happening, businesses should promote good mental health, a positive environment, and support for their employees (Naveen, 2017).

If a company has an unhealthy work environment, this can cost them millions of dollars for the medical needs of their employees and the absence they take from work. This can furthermore lead to an unhappy home life if spouses are bringing home their stress from work. By promoting teamwork, positive attitudes, and hard work, a company will prosper a lot better. Unemployment is similarly another problem when it comes to mental health. If someone is unemployed for a long period, this brings finical stress, emotional stress, and a lack of self-esteem. Not providing for oneself and their family can cause a person to feel as though they are a failure and lacking in their duties.

Child Abuse

One of the top sources of mental and emotional health problems comes from child abuse. Child development is very important from birth, and when children are abused at a young age, this can cause many health issues and is something they have to work through throughout their life. Many survivors of child abuse often make choices based on their abuse experiences and not analyzing the current situation (Nair & Shukla, 2017). It can lead to young adults abusing people younger than them to try and overcome their traumatic experiences.

Research has shown that victims of sexual abuse often have higher rates of stress, personality disorders, and psychological disorders (Nair & Shukla, 2017). Over the years, therapists have found techniques on how to help people who have been abused, such as eye movement desensitization regression to help survivors be free of upsetting images, biofeedback that helps a person to use signals from their own body language in a way that benefits their health-wise, cognitive behavior therapy, journaling, and meditation (Nair Shukla, 2017). Many people have benefited from therapy techniques to help cope with their abuse and how to not let it overcome them.

Conclusion

There are many different areas that cause mental and emotional health in a person. It can happen to the elderly, at work, in communities, in schools, to adults, and children. It would be challenging to have mental or emotional health in any area of a person’s life, but it is important for people to know how to cope with it with support from friends, family, and therapists. It similarly benefits to be healthy in all other areas, such as physical health, social health, spiritual health, community health, and environmental health, if achievable. If a person is lacking health in one area, it would be important to make every other health area stable and healthy. It is essential for healthcare professionals to create ways that people can better their health through the knowledge and understanding of interventions and health programs.

References:

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2008). Depression and Anxiety Among Older Adults: An Overview. CDC Healthy Aging Program. https://www.cdc.gov/aging/pdf/mental_health.pdf
2. Naveen, R. (2017). Mental Health in the Workplace: A Comprehensive Analysis of Causes and Solutions. International Journal of Innovative Research and Development, 6(12), 101-104.
3. Nair, J. M., & Shukla, S. (2017). Child Abuse and Mental Health: A Comprehensive Review. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, 39(5), 606-612. doi:10.4103/0253-7176.217025