Mental illness is a condition where an individual’s thinking and perceptions are greatly affected. People with mental illnesses tend to make wrong judgments and this greatly affects their relationships with other people. In their article on promoting mental health and preventing mental illness Bhui and Dinos recommend a positive start in life through parenting and youth programs. The mind of a person grows like any other part of the body and if it is not well shaped during growth, there is a high chance that the mind may develop some problems resulting to mental illness (Bhui, & Dinos, 2011).
Using the good parenting and helpful youth programs, a parent or a guardian will get the opportunity to guide his/her child to healthy brain development. Health brain development starts with educating people to make healthier and well informed choices about their health. If an individual is not able to make healthy choices when faced with problem, he will become susceptible to mental illnesses. I think Bhui and Dinos provide a good solution that can help any parent reduce his/her child’s risk to mental illnesses. The method may also be applied on young adults by helping them make better choices in their lives.
The ethical issue relating to this method of mental illness prevention is confidentiality. During the implementation of this method on mental illness prevention, the parent or guardians will be required to share come personal information on the child’s history, background, and general condition. There is the challenge of ensuring that provided information is kept confidential for the sake of the child’s future. All people go through childhood and their minds need to be shaped well to prevent mental illnesses. This makes mental illness prevention a public health issue that requires input from all members of the public.
Parenting and youth programs are long term method of mental illness prevention and this changes the life course of mental illness to a long-term condition that requires early intervention, mainly during childhood.