WK 9 Discussion (1) (1)

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Feb 20, 2024

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INTRODUCTION High Crime rates in West Memphis/ Memphis TN and its relation to mental health issues Although I live in West Memphis, which is on the AR state line, within seconds of crossing the Memphis bridge, you are in Memphis TN. I live in West Memphis but spend most of my time in Memphis TN. Both of these areas experience extremely high rates of crime yearly. In AR, West Memphis is rated as the #1 town with the highest crime rate in the entire state and in Tennessee, Memphis is rated as #2 as the most dangerous city in the state. My interest is in discovering if the high crime rates in these connected areas are in any relation to mental health issues among the citizens in each connected area. When starting my Job here in Memphis, I was told at one point that where you find crime, poverty, and violence, that you will also find numerous mental health issues among the individuals interacting in these negative behaviors, and that about 80% of them would be apart the mental health’s facility clientele that I work at. I would like to determine why this is so. PART 1: SCOPE AND CONSEQUENCES High Crime rates in West Memphis/ Memphis TN and its relation to mental health issues After some research, I was able to gather a lot of information on how mental health issues really do have an effect on cities and towns where we see high crime rates. “According to the Memphis Tennessee department of mental health and substance abuse services, in 2020, nearly 65,000 people in Shelby County over the age of 9 were estimated to have a serious mental illness or emotional disturbance (wreg.com).” it was also stated that due to these mental health issues going unnoticed, and individuals not being able to receive the help they needed, is what was leading to the majority of a dysfunctional society of people in one area. These mental health needs that were going unmet were causing higher rates of poverty, substance abuse, and extremely high crime rates. The Shelby County Sheriff’s office went on to make statement saying that this issue boils down to partnerships and the community to take proper training in order to better identify someone who may be in distress, to stop a bad situation before it happens. “The state of Tennessee says that 13.8% of all crisis calls across the state happen within Shelby County and community leaders say the goal is to find more effective ways to get those people the help they need once and for all to make the community great again (wreg.com).” it has been stated that Memphis’ high

poverty rate, and mental health resources are all factors in the cities issue crime. PART 2: SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL MODEL High Crime rates in West Memphis/ Memphis TN and its relation to mental health issues Protective factors regarding this chosen issue would be to get community involved as such as possible to help these individuals suffering from mental health issues, which could potentially help the crime rate. The community support and economic factors, regarding this issue will help ensure better chance of the individuals who are suffering to learn how function better socially, physically and emotionally in areas of their life, and most importantly in their community, which will create positive social change. However, the risk factors might include situation such as where the suffering individuals are reluctant to receive help from others, due to fact of understanding and guard that the individual might have built up receiving help. Risk factors increase the chances of individuals developing mental health issues, and in cases like this it increases the chances of these issues never getting resolved if the suffering individuals refuse help. Risk factors in situations like this can also include biological, family, social and community factors (Connect.org, 2023). Many of the issues, specifically the violence in my community, is related to mental health issues that individuals have had since they were adolescence that the never dealt, with. For example, most people who participate in violence as adults grew up in violent households, leading the individual to experience a learned behavior. Child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) routinely overlook assessing for, and providing treatment to, infants and children living with family violence, despite family violence being declared endemic across the globe (Bunston, Ray, & Tatlow, 2017). Due to issues, such as the one discussed in rh8is last statement, is a reason individuals end up suffering from mental health issues as an adult, leading to community issues when several people like this come together in one area. PART 3: Theories of Intervention High Crime rates in West Memphis/ Memphis TN and its relation to mental health issues A theory that is in relation to this issue of high crime rates and how they related to mental health that I believe would be useful as a prevention theory is the Social Cognitive theory. This theory is one of the most regarded explanations pertaining to the influence of social environments and development. This theory also argues that the environment you grow up in affects almost every aspect of your future lifestyle and choices. This theory is important for this topic, because according to the statistics and research I have done, most of the individuals in Memphis TN that partake in criminal mischief, and the same ones that have mental health disorders, either grew up in the area or grew up in an area similar to

the high crime area like Memphis. Growing up in a high crime area, seeing negative things constantly, and never having any positive influences around are a sure fire way to influences ones future, just as this theory states. Another theory that can be applied to the prevention program of this cause is the Behaviorism Learning Theory. This theory, applied, helps introduce positive reinforcement to put an end to negative behaviors, similar to Skinners Behaviorist theory. Both of these would be beneficial to a prevention program. PART 4: DIVERSITY AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS High Crime rates in West Memphis/ Memphis TN and its relation to mental health issues The research I have done on the high crime rates in West Memphis/Memphis TN has shown that an increasingly large number of individuals involved in the crime rates do in fact suffer from some type of mental health disorder. However, research and data show that in this this population of individuals involved in crime, that also suffer from mental health disorders, the majority of the individuals who tend to stay in the most trouble with the law due to their criminal acts and also have more serious mental health disorders are among African American men. This subgroup of the population tend to commit more crimes yearly, and tend to have greater mental health disorders when evaluated. However, statistics show that this subgroup isn’t the most involved in some of the more violent crimes of the area, but they do take part in crimes more frequently. This subgroup suffers more from mental health disorders due to a broad spectrum of reasons, some being inherent mental health disorders and then some have a lot to do with their environment. Research shows that this subgroup develops most of their mental health issues due to their poor environments and lack of resources to lead a better life. Stats show that in this area of West Memphis that this subgroup is among a population where the poverty rate is at 24.7% and the unemployment rate is at 13.3%. Due to the lack of resources provided to this subgroup, they end up poor environments which leads to poor choices and dangerous acts of survival. This subgroup consists of 65.9% of the population that is involved in the criminal population in the area, meaning that African American men make up over half of the criminally active population in this area. A mechanism that could be used to better help this subgroup is to give them the help they need when taken in to custody. When law enforcement gets called because of these specific individuals time and time again they should be evaluated at some point, and once evaluated and it is made clear that the individual is suffering from mental health issues, this would be a great opportunity to bring in help and the resources the individual needs to lead a better lifestyle once their time, whether short or long is served. Another mechanism to help these individuals would be to offer monthly community events that target this population of criminals to offer them resources to jobs, education, side work, or any basic support they

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