Progress Leads to Success Essay -- Health, Mental Illness

Henry Ford stated, â€Å"Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is a progress, working together is success,† Ford’s quote applies to everything and everyone coming together in the beginning to make progress that leads into success, just like we need to do to help the mentally ill. Things need to change so that mentally ill individuals don’t hurt themselves or the people that surround them in society. The law and psychology need to work together to make stricter guidelines to prevent mentally stable people from manipulating the right’s we are giving to mentally ill people, also they need to treat mentally ill before crime happens, and lastly, the mentally ill should not be placed into prisons because of the more severe effects that will hurt them worse in the long run. Making a tougher mental capacity test would reduce the amount of liars that just rely on the insanity defense to get a lesser sentence. The law has already showed a good beginning in trying to stop perfectly stable people mentally from manipulating the right of the insanity offense the law has given to mentally ill who actually need it, â€Å"About one-fourth of the states have established a separate verdict of ‘Guilty but Mentally Ill’ (GBMI)†¦ The consequence of receiving GBMI is that the individual is convicted and given a criminal sentence. It is a verdict available to the jury when the conclusion is that the defendant committed the act charged but suffers from a mental disorder, however, not at the level necessary to meet the insanity offense,† (Torry 259-260) the law as a whole has clearly started to make little changes by making the GBMI but they still need to make more progress so people do not manipulate the system. For example, 35-year-old Terry Sturgis... ...uncertainty about life after prison, and inadequate health services† (187), by placing these types of people into prisons is doing nothing but make things worse. In conclusion the law and psychology need to do a better job working together so we can make the best outcome for everyone. Being mentally ill is not a bad thing, it is just a bad thing when you cannot control your urges: â€Å"It is a disorder that impairs the human mind and prevents distinguishing between actions that are right and wrong†¦They are brain disorders resulting in a diminishined capacity for coping with the demands of life† (Torry 255). By coming together we can make progress and make a success out of making stricter guildlines, treating mentally ill before crime happens, and placing them into institutions, not prisons. This success can be an overall positive thing for the individual and society.