Identifies an area of specialty within the health setting
Mental health issues are often the health care adversities which are neglected in the healthcare scenario (Chisholm et al. 2016). Among the various mental adversities depression is the most commonly reported mental health condition and in most cases a majority of people that are suffering from depression go unnoticed or without any diagnosis. As per the statistical report by the World Health Organization, depression also has the highest percent on the population across the world and more than 300 million people are living with depression either diagnosed on underdiagnosed (who.int 2019). Hence, the area of concern chosen for this assignment is depression.
Depression is a public health priority and it affects all age groups with varied intensity. Depression can be described as a health disorder which is characterized by persistent low mood or lack of any interest in any activity, causing a significant amount of impairment and the daily life for the individual suffering from the disorder (Shapero et al. 2018). The negative impact of untreated depressive disorders can lead to severe consequences such as balance personality disorder and even suicidal attempts. Regardless of the deleterious impact of the disease the onset of depression can be very difficult to recognize without skilled expertise. It has to be understood that depression has mild clinical symptoms which cannot be recognized Even by the victim until the disease has manifested to a considerable point. Many researchers have pointed at the fact that under diagnosis or misdiagnosis of depression is one of the most contributed factors leading to severe depression unrelated fatalities (Devenish, Berk and Lewis 2016). Although the lack of awareness and understanding of the exact symptoms of onset of depression is the major contributor in factor to the lesser help seeking behavior and resultant misdiagnosis or under diagnosis of depression across many age groups. The onset of depression occurs in different stages and after the clinical manifestation often very unclear and difficult to pinpoint (Royuela-Colomer and Calvete 2016).
The lack of awareness and understanding among the general population regarding the symptoms and how it can be recognized among depression victims mostly the adolescents and young adults, leads to uncontrolled misdiagnoses. Similarly, the lack of awareness among the society also leads to stigmatization discrimination and bullying which further decreases the help seeking behavior among the individuals. The lack of awareness among the mass also if they contribute in fact of the lack of female is supposed to the young generation that are going through depression and similar disorders. Researchers are of the opinion that the impact of family support and guidance in the journey of recovery. Due to the lack of awareness the depression victims often do not get the support that is usually provided to the patients for any other physical health disorders. The gap in the scenario of depression is the lack of awareness among the society regarding the concept symptoms of depression and how it is to be recognized for receiving treatment as any other health disorder (Chang et al. 2015).
Relevant research of a high level is used to identify an educational gap within this specialty area
The next section of the assignment requires to discuss the impact of education gap that has been identified in the assignment. The lack of education and awareness among the society leads to a massive lack of severity around the disease and the need for treatment (Quittner et al. 2016). It has to be mentioned that adolescents and young adults are often seen to be affected by early onset depressive disorders. The lack of ability to participate in discussing the issues or challenges faced by the depression and the societal stigmatization faced by the depression patients (Schleider and Weisz 2016). The lack of the support of assistance from family and friends can provide as a massive support network has a huge detrimental impact on the psyche and the help seeking behavior of the target population. Similarly, the lack of support from family and friends also leads to a loss of sense of purpose and worthiness that further pushes them to the dark and self harming thoughts associated with depressive disorders. According to Kroning and Kroning (2016), teen suicide is a major cause to the burden of death across the globe and the lack of support provided to the depressed teens is a major contributing factor to the enhanced suicidal tendencies: and the lack of awareness regarding the disease and its symptoms is the main cause to it.
The target population of a project needs to be clearly identified and selected in order to attain successful implementation. In this case, the lack of awareness and education impacts the adolescents and young adults most crucially and as a result the detrimental impact is also the most enhanced for this target population (Romero 2014). Hence, the target population in this case identified is the adolescents and young adults belonging to the age group of 15-25.
The educational tool has the impact to change the mindset of the target population and can also alter the perception of the target population drastically and in turn also facilitate positive outcomes. In this case, the educational gap identified is the lack of awareness and understanding among the patients and their family members regarding depression symptoms and the behavioral manifestations (Mojtabai, Olfson and Han 2016). Hence, the educational tool to be implemented is family based health promotion and educational campaign to enhance the knowledge and awareness regarding depression. The target children from schools, colleges and universities will be randomly selected through semi structured interviews and their families will be included in the programs. The campaign will last for 6 months with one session per month provided to the target patients and their family members, especially the parents or partners. Each session will be based on strength based counseling and family oriented care and each will entertain different areas of lack of knowledge and idea, which will help in developing a sustainable strategy for depression (Ford-Paz et al. 2015). The families will also be educated on different coping strategies and how to approach the care facilities when the child is struggling with onset of depression. This exercise will be completed with a final seminar, where the impact of depression in the health of young generation will be discussed to enhance help seeking behavior and design treatment modalities for onset of depression in the children dealing with depression (Edlund et al. 2015).
References:
Chang, F.C., Chiu, C.H., Miao, N.F., Chen, P.H., Lee, C.M., Chiang, J.T. and Pan, Y.C., 2015. The relationship between parental mediation and Internet addiction among adolescents, and the association with cyberbullying and depression. Comprehensive psychiatry, 57, pp.21-28.
Chisholm, D., Sweeny, K., Sheehan, P., Rasmussen, B., Smit, F., Cuijpers, P. and Saxena, S., 2016. Scaling-up treatment of depression and anxiety: a global return on investment analysis. The Lancet Psychiatry, 3(5), pp.415-424.
Devenish, B., Berk, L. and Lewis, A.J., 2016. The treatment of suicidality in adolescents by psychosocial interventions for depression: a systematic literature review. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 50(8), pp.726-740.
Edlund, M.J., Forman-Hoffman, V.L., Winder, C.R., Heller, D.C., Kroutil, L.A., Lipari, R.N. and Colpe, L.J., 2015. Opioid abuse and depression in adolescents: results from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Drug and alcohol dependence, 152, pp.131-138.
Ford-Paz, R.E., Kuebbeler, A., Contreras, R., Garduño, M. and Sánchez, B., 2015. Training community opinion leaders to raise awareness and promote early intervention for depressed Latino adolescents. Progress in community health partnerships: research, education, and action, 9(2), pp.191-201.
Kroning, M. and Kroning, K., 2016. Teen depression and suicide: a silent crisis. Journal of Christian nursing, 33(2), pp.78-86.
Mojtabai, R., Olfson, M. and Han, B., 2016. National trends in the prevalence and treatment of depression in adolescents and young adults. Pediatrics, p.e20161878.
Quittner, A.L., Abbott, J., Georgiopoulos, A.M., Goldbeck, L., Smith, B., Hempstead, S.E., Marshall, B., Sabadosa, K.A. and Elborn, S., 2016. International committee on mental health in cystic fibrosis: Cystic fibrosis foundation and european cystic fibrosis society consensus statements for screening and treating depression and anxiety. Thorax, 71(1), pp.26-34.
Romero, A.J., 2014. Preventing adolescent depression and suicide among Latinas. Springer,
Royuela-Colomer, E. and Calvete, E., 2016. Mindfulness facets and depression in adolescents: Rumination as a mediator. Mindfulness, 7(5), pp.1092-1102.
Schleider, J.L. and Weisz, J.R., 2016. Reducing risk for anxiety and depression in adolescents: Effects of a single-session intervention teaching that personality can change. Behaviour research and therapy, 87, pp.170-181.
Shapero, B.G., Gibb, B.E., Archibald, A., Wilens, T.E., Fava, M. and Hirshfeld-Becker, D.R., 2018. Risk Factors for Depression in Adolescents With ADHD: The Impact of Cognitive Biases and Stress. Journal of attention disorders, p.1087054718797447.
Who.int 2019, Depression. Accessed on 12 January 2019, retrieved from https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/depression