Helen Keller, Deaf and Blind Spokesperson and Activist

Helen Keller, Deaf and Blind Spokesperson and Activist Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880–June 1, 1968) was a groundbreaking exemplar and advocate for the blind and deaf communities. Blind and deaf from a nearly fatal illness at 19 months old, Helen Keller made a dramatic breakthrough at the age of 6 when she learned to communicate with the help of her teacher, Annie Sullivan. Keller went on to live an illustrious public life, inspiring people with disabilities and fundraising, giving speeches, and writing as a humanitarian activist. Fast Facts: Helen Keller Known For:  Blind and deaf from infancy, Helen Keller is known for her emergence from isolation, with the help of her teacher Annie Sullivan, and for a career of public service and humanitarian activism.Born:  June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, AlabamaParents: Captain Arthur Keller and Kate Adams KellerDied:  June 1, 1968 in Easton ConnecticutEducation: Home tutoring with Annie Sullivan, Perkins Institute for the Blind, Wright-Humason School for the Deaf, studies with Sarah Fuller  at the  Horace Mann School for the Deaf, The Cambridge School for Young Ladies, Radcliffe College  of  Harvard UniversityPublished Works: The Story of My Life,  The World I Live In,  Out of the Dark, My Religion,  Light in My Darkness, Midstream: My Later LifeAwards and Honors:  Theodore Roosevelt  Distinguished Service Medal in 1936, Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964, election to the Womens Hall of Fame in 1965, an honorary Academy Award in 1955 (as the inspiration for the documentary about her life), countless honorary degreesNotable Quote: The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, nor touched ... but are felt in the heart. Early Childhood Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama to Captain Arthur Keller and Kate Adams Keller. Captain Keller was a cotton farmer and newspaper editor and had served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Kate Keller, 20 years his junior, had been born in the South, but had roots in Massachusetts and was related to founding father John Adams. Helen was a healthy child until she became seriously ill at 19 months. Stricken with an illness that her doctor called brain fever, Helen was not expected to survive. The crisis was over after several days, to the great relief of the Kellers. However, they soon learned that Helen had not emerged from the illness unscathed. She was left blind and deaf. Historians believe that Helen had contracted either scarlet fever or meningitis. The Wild Childhood Years Frustrated by her inability to express herself, Helen Keller frequently threw tantrums that included breaking dishes and even slapping and biting family members. When Helen, at age 6, tipped over the cradle holding her baby sister, Helens parents knew something had to be done. Well-meaning friends suggested that she be institutionalized, but Helens mother resisted that notion. Soon after the incident with the cradle, Kate Keller read a book by Charles Dickens about the education of Laura Bridgman. Laura was a deaf-blind girl who had been taught to communicate by the director of the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston. For the first time, the Kellers felt hopeful that Helen could be helped as well. The Guidance of Alexander Graham Bell During a visit to a Baltimore eye doctor in 1886, the Kellers received the same verdict they had heard before. Nothing could be done to restore Helens eyesight. The doctor, however, advised the Kellers that Helen might benefit from a visit with the famous inventor Alexander Graham Bell in Washington, D.C. Bells mother and wife were deaf and he had devoted himself to improving life for the deaf, inventing several assistive devices for them. Bell and Helen Keller got along very well and would later develop a lifelong friendship. Bell suggested that the Kellers write to the director of the Perkins Institute for the Blind, where Laura Bridgman, now an adult, still resided. The director wrote the Kellers back, with the name of a teacher for Helen: Annie Sullivan. Annie Sullivan Arrives Helen Kellers new teacher had also lived through difficult times. Annie Sullivan had lost her mother to tuberculosis when she was 8. Unable to care for his children, her father sent Annie and her younger brother Jimmie to live in the poorhouse in 1876. They shared quarters with criminals, prostitutes, and the mentally ill. Young Jimmie died of a weak hip ailment only three months after their arrival, leaving Annie grief-stricken. Adding to her misery, Annie was gradually losing her vision to trachoma, an eye disease. Although not completely blind, Annie had very poor vision and would be plagued with eye problems for the rest of her life. When she was 14, Annie begged visiting officials to send her to school. She was lucky, for they agreed to take her out of the poorhouse and send her to the Perkins Institute. Annie had a lot of catching up to do. She learned to read and write, then later learned braille and the manual alphabet (a system of hand signs used by the deaf). After graduating first in her class, Annie was given the job that would determine the course of her life: teacher to Helen Keller. Without any formal training to teach a deaf-blind child, 20-year-old Annie Sullivan arrived at the Keller home on March 3, 1887. It was a day that Helen Keller later referred to as my souls birthday. A Battle of Wills Teacher and pupil were both very strong-willed and frequently clashed. One of the first of these battles revolved around Helens behavior at the dinner table, where she roamed freely and grabbed food from the plates of others. Dismissing the family from the room, Annie locked herself in with Helen. Hours of struggle ensued, during which Annie insisted Helen eat with a spoon and sit in her chair. In order to distance Helen from her parents, who gave in to her every demand, Annie proposed that she and Helen move out of the house temporarily. They spent about two weeks in the annex, a small house on the Keller property. Annie knew that if she could teach Helen self-control, Helen would be more receptive to learning. Helen fought Annie on every front, from getting dressed and eating to going to bed at night. Eventually, Helen resigned herself to the situation, becoming calmer and more cooperative. Now the teaching could begin. Annie constantly spelled words into Helens hand, using the manual alphabet to name the items she handed to Helen. Helen seemed intrigued but did not yet realize that what they were doing was more than a game. Helen Kellers Breakthrough On the morning of April 5, 1887, Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller were outside at the water pump, filling a mug with water. Annie pumped the water over Helens hand while repeatedly spelling â€Å"w-a-t-e-r† into her hand. Helen suddenly dropped the mug. As Annie later described it, a new light came into her face. She understood. All the way back to the house, Helen touched objects and Annie spelled their names into her hand. Before the day was over, Helen had learned 30 new words. It was just the beginning of a very long process, but a door had been opened for Helen. Annie also taught her how to write and how to read braille. By the end of that summer, Helen had learned more than 600 words.   Annie Sullivan sent regular reports on Helen Kellers progress to the director of the Perkins Institute. On a visit to the Perkins Institute in 1888, Helen met other blind children for the first time. She returned to Perkins the following year and stayed for several months of study. High School Years Helen Keller dreamed of attending college and was determined to get into Radcliffe, a womens university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. However, she would first need to complete high school. Helen attended a high school for the deaf in New York City, then later transferred to a school in Cambridge. She had her tuition and living expenses paid for by wealthy benefactors. Keeping up with school work challenged both Helen and Annie. Copies of books in braille were rarely available, requiring that Annie read the books, then spell them into Helens hand. Helen would then type out notes using her braille typewriter. It was a grueling process. Helen withdrew from the school after two years, completing her studies with a private tutor. She gained admission to Radcliffe in 1900, making her the first deaf-blind person to attend college. Life as a Coed College was somewhat disappointing for Helen Keller. She was unable to form friendships both because of her limitations and the fact that she lived off campus, which further isolated her. The rigorous routine continued, in which Annie worked at least as much as Helen. As a result, Annie suffered severe eyestrain. Helen found the courses very difficult and struggled to keep up with her workload. Although she detested math, Helen did enjoy English classes and received praise for her writing. Before long, she would be doing plenty of writing. Editors from Ladies Home Journal offered Helen $3,000, an enormous sum at the time, to write a series of articles about her life. Overwhelmed by the task of writing the articles, Helen admitted she needed help. Friends introduced her to John Macy, an editor and English teacher at Harvard. Macy quickly learned the manual alphabet and began to work with Helen on editing her work. Certain that Helens articles could successfully be turned into a book, Macy negotiated a deal with a publisher and The Story of My Life was published in 1903 when Helen was only 22 years old. Helen graduated from Radcliffe with honors in June 1904. Annie Sullivan Marries John Macy John Macy remained friends with Helen and Annie after the books publication. He found himself falling in love with Annie Sullivan, although she was 11 years his senior. Annie had feelings for him as well, but wouldnt accept his proposal until he assured her that Helen would always have a place in their home. They were married in May 1905 and the trio moved into a farmhouse in Massachusetts. The pleasant farmhouse was reminiscent of the home Helen had grown up in. Macy arranged a system of ropes out in the yard so that Helen could safely take walks by herself. Soon, Helen was at work on her second memoir, The World I Live In, with John Macy as her editor. By all accounts, although Helen and Macy were close in age and spent a lot of time together, they were never more than friends. An active member of the Socialist Party, John Macy encouraged Helen to read books on socialist and communist theory. Helen joined the Socialist Party in 1909 and she also supported the womens suffrage movement. Helens third book, a series of essays defending her political views, did poorly. Worried about their dwindling funds, Helen and Annie decided to go on a lecture tour. Helen and Annie Go on the Road Helen had taken speaking lessons over the years and had made some progress, but only those closest to her could understand her speech. Annie would need to interpret Helens speech for the audience. Another concern was Helens appearance. She was very attractive and always well dressed, but her eyes were obviously abnormal. Unbeknownst to the public, Helen had her eyes surgically removed and replaced by prosthetic ones prior to the start of the tour in 1913. Prior to this, Annie made certain that the photographs were always taken of Helens right profile because her left eye protruded and was obviously blind, whereas Helen appeared almost normal on the right side. The tour appearances consisted of a well-scripted routine. Annie spoke about her years with Helen and then Helen spoke, only to have Annie interpret what she had said. At the end, they took questions from the audience. The tour was successful, but exhausting for Annie. After taking a break, they went back on tour two more times. Annies marriage suffered from the strain as well. She and John Macy separated permanently in 1914. Helen and Annie hired a new assistant, Polly Thomson, in 1915, in an effort to relieve Annie of some of her duties. Helen Finds Love In 1916, the women hired Peter Fagan as a secretary to accompany them on their tour while Polly was out of town. After the tour, Annie became seriously ill and was diagnosed with tuberculosis. While Polly took Annie to a rest home in Lake Placid, plans were made for Helen to join her mother and sister Mildred in Alabama. For a brief time, Helen and Peter were alone together at the farmhouse, where Peter confessed his love for Helen and asked her to marry him. The couple tried to keep their plans a secret, but when they traveled to Boston to obtain a marriage license, the press obtained a copy of the license and published a story about Helens engagement. Kate Keller was furious and brought Helen back to Alabama with her. Although Helen was 36 years old at the time, her family was very protective of her and disapproved of any romantic relationship. Several times, Peter attempted to reunite with Helen, but her family would not let him near her. At one point, Mildreds husband threatened Peter with a gun if he did not get off his property. Helen and Peter were never together again. Later in life, Helen described the relationship as her little island of joy surrounded by dark waters. The World of Showbiz Annie recovered from her illness, which had been misdiagnosed as tuberculosis, and returned home. With their financial difficulties mounting, Helen, Annie, and Polly sold their house and moved to Forest Hills, New York in 1917. Helen received an offer to star in a film about her life, which she readily accepted. The 1920 movie, Deliverance, was absurdly melodramatic and did poorly at the box office. In dire need of a steady income, Helen and Annie, now 40 and 54 respectively, next turned to vaudeville. They reprised their act from the lecture tour, but this time they did it in glitzy costumes and full stage makeup, alongside various dancers and comedians. Helen enjoyed the theater, but Annie found it vulgar. The money, however, was very good and they stayed in vaudeville until 1924. American Foundation for the Blind That same year, Helen became involved with an organization that would employ her for much of the rest of her life. The newly-formed American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) sought a spokesperson and Helen seemed the perfect candidate. Helen Keller drew crowds whenever she spoke in public and became very successful at raising money for the organization. Helen also convinced Congress to approve more funding for books printed in braille. Taking time off from her duties at the AFB in 1927, Helen began work on another memoir, Midstream, which she completed with the help of an editor. Losing Teacher and Polly Annie Sullivans health deteriorated over several years time. She became completely blind and could no longer travel, leaving both women entirely reliant on Polly. Annie Sullivan died in October 1936 at the age of 70. Helen was devastated to have lost the woman whom she had known only as Teacher, and who had given so much to her. After the funeral, Helen and Polly took a trip to Scotland to visit Pollys family. Returning home to a life without Annie was difficult for Helen. Life was made easier when Helen learned that she would be taken care of financially for life by the AFB, which built a new home for her in Connecticut. Helen continued her travels around the world through the 1940s and 1950s accompanied by Polly, but the women, now in their 70s, began to tire of travel. In 1957, Polly suffered a severe stroke. She survived, but had brain damage and could no longer function as Helens assistant. Two caretakers were hired to come and live with Helen and Polly. In 1960, after spending 46 years of her life with Helen, Polly Thomson died. Later Years Helen Keller settled into a quieter life, enjoying visits from friends and her daily martini before dinner. In 1960, she was intrigued to learn of a new play on Broadway that told the dramatic story of her early days with Annie Sullivan. The Miracle Worker was a smash hit and was made into an equally popular movie in 1962. Death Strong and healthy all of her life, Helen became frail in her 80s. She suffered a stroke in 1961 and developed diabetes. On June 1, 1968, Helen Keller died in her home at the age of 87 following a heart attack. Her funeral service, held at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., was attended by 1,200 mourners. Legacy Helen Keller was a groundbreaker in her personal and public lives. Becoming a writer and lecturer with Annie while blind and deaf was an enormous accomplishment. Helen Keller was the first deaf-blind individual to earn a college degree. She was an advocate for communities of people with disabilities in many ways, raising awareness through her lecture circuits and books and raising funds for the American Foundation for the Blind. Her political work included helping to found the American Civil Liberties Union and advocacy for increased funding for braille books and for womens suffrage. She met with every U.S. president from  Grover Cleveland to Lyndon Johnson. While she was still alive, in 1964, Helen received the highest honor awarded to a U.S. citizen, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from President Lyndon Johnson. Helen Keller remains a source of inspiration to all people for her enormous courage overcoming the obstacles of being both deaf and blind and for her ensuing life of humanitarian selfless service. Sources: Herrmann, Dorothy. Helen Keller: A Life. University of Chicago Press, 1998. Keller, Helen. Midstream: My Later Life. Nabu Press, 2011.

Childhood-Onset Schizophrenia Essay Sample

Childhood-Onset Schizophrenia Essay Sample Childhood Childhood The problem of schizophrenia remains one of the most important psychosomatic problems in the modern psychiatry and requires more multidisciplinary research. Schizophrenia is a brain disorder, which manifests in abnormal mental functions and behavior. Schizophrenia is characterized by the severe psychotic symptoms, such as various forms of nonsense (false beliefs), hallucinations (false perception), frustration of thinking, extremely disorganized behavior, a catatonia (motor dysfunctions: from over excitation to a full immovability), the extremely inadequate or poor emotional reactions (flat affect), and also considerable deteriorations or social functioning violations. Childhood-onset schizophrenia (COS) is similar to regular schizophrenia, however it appears at early age. It is one of the most severe forms of schizophrenia, but is not an independent disease. At present, the psychosis, which begins in children up to 10 year old, is defined as COS. Moreover, the psychosis is divided i nto the subgroups according to the age of a child accepted in pediatrics, such as the early childhood until 3 years old, pre-preschool age from 3 to 5 years and preschool from 5 to 7 years (Addington Rapoport, 2009, p. 156; Bartlett, 2014, p. 736). The given research paper describes the prevalence rates and risk factors of COS, its diagnostic criteria, clinical characteristics, as well as prevention of the disease. COS Prevalence Rates According to Bartlett (2014), the prevalence rates variate in different regions of the globe. The COS prevalence rates, extremely rarely found among children up to 12, increase in teenage years and reach its critical point at the age of 20-25: The prevalence of COS makes from 0.14 to 1.0 cases per 10 000 children; Schizophrenia occurs among the adults 100 times more often than among children; COS at earlier age (2-4 years) in boys happens twice more often than in girls. However, the specified distinctions between genders disappear at teenage years (Bartlett, 2014, p. 742). The general risk of the disease is 0.4 0.6% (4-6 cases per 1000 people). Boys and girls get sick equally, however, the prevalence of the disease in boys is explained by the general biological vulnerability of males to the neurological disorders, or different etiology (origin) of the processes in boys and girls. In adulthood, schizophrenia is met more often among the representatives of the lowest social and economic segments of the population. The symptoms in children with COS occur in the representatives of various cultures, ethnos and racial groups (Naguy Al-Mutairi, 2015). COS Risk Factors The biological conditions, family, social and cultural factors as well as drug use and alcoholism are among the risk factors of COS. At the early stage of the neuronal development, including during pregnancy, the causal factors can increase the risk of the future development of the disease. In this regard, the COS risk is dependent on a birth season, indicating that the disorder is more often observed in children born in winter and spring. Moreover, the prenatal infections increase risk, thus confirming the direct connection of the disease with the developmental disorders. Childhood-onset schizophrenia is a hereditary (familial) disease. However, the fact that not both monogerminal twins become sick in all schizophrenia cases says that not only genetic factors affect the probability of the development of schizophrenia in children. The non-genetic factors, including infections, toxins, trauma and stress during prenatal and post-natal development, also play a role in causing schizophrenia, apparently, having more mediated impact on the neurologic development (Bartlett, 2014, p. 735; Starling Feijo, 2012, p. 2). The modern views on the causes of COS are based on the vulnerability stress model, which focuses on the role of the interaction between a child’s predisposition and stressful and protective factors. The predisposition factors include a genetic risk, defects of the central nervous system, lack of the conditions necessary for training or pathological forms of family relations. The events increasing the probability of schizophrenic episodes, such as a death of a close relative, or sources of a chronic stress, such as ill-treatment of a child in a family, belong to stressors. The protective factors include the conditions reducing the probability of schizophrenic episodes in children belonging to a risk group. These factors include a highly developed intelligence, social skills or a favorable situation in a family (Addington Rapoport, 2009, p. 157). The vulnerability stress model emphasizes the role of the neuropathology in developing schizophrenia at early age. Moreover, it is confirmed by the data, which proves that psychotic symptoms expressed in motor and cognitive deficiencies and disorders of a social interaction are found in babies and children earlier than the psychosomatic symptoms, expressed in the motor and cognitive deficits and violations of the social interconnections. The neuropsychological researchers testify that attention and information processing deficiency found in the adults with schizophrenia are characteristic for the children with COS. Moreover, the record of the brain activity during the performance of such tasks testifies to the existence of the limited ability to process cognitively the information (Starling Feijo, 2012, p. 4). There is a strong influence of the genetic factors on the COS probability, which even exceeds the probability of a disease at mature age. In particular, the quantity of COS cases among the relatives of sick children approximately twice exceeds the number of the cases affecting the relatives of the adults sick with schizophrenia. This data in general confirms that COS is the most severe form of schizophrenia (Addington Rapoport, 2009, p. 158). Among the social factors, there is a stable correlation between the COS risk and the urbanization degree. The social factors include a low social status, including poverty, migration caused by social disparities, racial discrimination, problematic families, a high level of unemployment and bad living conditions. The mockeries and injuring experiences in the childhood also promote the future development of schizophrenia. The parental education does not pose a risk of COS, but the broken relationship characterized by a lack of support can make its contribution. In addition, loneliness is one of the social factors of COS (Naguy Al-Mutairi, 2015). COS occurs in all cultural, social and economic classes. There is a larger number of children with schizophrenia in lower social and economic sectors of society. This fact is explained by the downward drift hypothesis, according to which sick people either move to the lower classes, or cannot get into the higher due to the disease. The stresses endured by the representatives of the lower class are the factors promoting the development of schizophrenia. Thus, that social stresses have an impact on the development of COS (Naguy Al-Mutairi, 2015). Immigration, industrialization and tolerance to abnormal behavior existing in certain sectors of society have an impact on the etiology of schizophrenia. The high prevalence of COS among recent immigrants can cause the change of the cultural features, which, being a stressful factor contributes to the development of the disease. In addition, the spread of schizophrenia in the developing countries is caused by the interaction with more advanced equipment and culture. Some types of culture can be more or less prone to schizophrenia depending on how a patient mentally perceives stress, what his role is or what social protection system is, and how complex social communications are. Schizophrenia has more favorable forecast in less developed nations. COS and drug addiction are connected, and do not allow to trace the relationships of cause and effect with ease. There is an evidence that certain drugs are capable to cause the disease in some teenagers or to provoke the next attack. Amphetamines and alcohol stimulate the emission of dopamine, and the excess of a dopaminergic activity causes the psychotic symptomatology in schizophrenia. In addition, the excessive use of hallucinogenic and excitants can provoke COS (Starling Feijo, 2012, p. 8). COS Diagnostic Criteria and Clinical Characteristics The initial stages of COS can be manifested in a child’s inability to concentrate his/her attention, a sleep disorder, difficulty to study and avoidance of communication. The development of disease can be characterized by the incoherent speech; besides, a child can start seeing or hearing what people around cannot. After the progressing periods, may appear severest recurrence characterized by the incoherent thinking when a child starts jumping from one thought to another one without any logical communication. During the psychotic phases of COS, children can be convinced that they possess superhuman abilities or that some people constantly watch them. During a psychotic attack, a patient can start behaving in an unpredictable way, sometimes tending to aggression or a suicide (Naguy Al-Mutairi, 2015). The clinical manifestations of the disease at the age of 1- 3 are mainly presented by the monotonous excitement, circle walking, impulsiveness, unmotivated laughter and tears, run in the uncertain direction, etc. At late preschool age, the thinking disorders in the form of the nonsense-like imagination can appear. After the age of 12, schizophrenia is characterized with hallucinatory and crazy manifestations, though these symptoms can appear at the earlier age. The most severe form of COS is characterized by the alternation of the periods of motive excitement and immobility with the disintegration of the speech (a catatonic form). At teenage years, the hebephrenic form of the disorder is characterized by emotional emasculation, silliness, ridiculous â€Å"clownish† behavior and incoherent speech (Starling Feijo, 2012, p. 6). The lack of emotions when voice and look do not change in the situations assuming the emotional response is another manifestation of COS. The events, which force a healthy person to laugh or cry, do not cause any reaction in children with COS. The defective intelligence, characteristic to children, whose schizophrenic process arose at the stages of the formation of informative abilities during the first years of life, is the most severe complication of COS. The signs of the disorder should be observed continuously, for at least 6 months. In addition, after the emergence of the frustration signs in a child such symptoms as an essential lowering of the level of functioning in one or several areas, or inability to achieve the expected level of results in the interpersonal, educational or professional sphere are observed. The explanation of the observed disorders with mood, schizoaffective disorder, the use of any preparations or chemicals, and the general state of health should be excluded. In the presence of the diagnosis of autism or other severe diseases caused by developmental disorders, the additional diagnosis of schizophrenia can be made only if nonsense or hallucinations continue to occur for a month. The use of the general diagnostic criteria of schizophrenia for children and adults facilitates the comparison of COS and the schizophrenia at mature age and allows defining the cases in which the continuous course of disease throughout the entire period of individual development takes place. However, schizophrenia can be revealed differently depending on age. In particular, nonsense, hallucinations and formal thinking disorders occur extremely rarely and, thus, are unable to diagnose the disease up to the age of 7 (Starling Feijo, 2012, p. 6). The rejection of age distinctions when using the diagnostic criteria of schizophrenia can lead to the incorrect diagnosis of COS in children. However, the full form of disease does not develop until a more mature age. The other factors connected with the individual development can also matter, when making the diagnosis of schizophrenia. In particular, it is sometimes difficult to draw the line between such pathological symptoms as the nonsense and usual imaginations caused by the phantasies characteristic to many young children. In addition, it is necessary to consider the fact that unlike adults, young children do not feel discomfort and disorganizing character of the psychotic symptoms. Therefore, if they emerge at early stages of development, children may not distinguish them from the normal experiences. COS Prevention The modern prevention of mental diseases includes the concepts of primary and secondary prevention. The primary prevention of children’s schizophrenia as an endogenous disease is quite problematic. Nevertheless, the modern data on the genetic risk of COS allow giving the relevant advice on the prevention or interruption of pregnancy. Another prerequisite of the COS primary prevention includes the data of many children’s psychiatrists on the frequency of exogenous harm in the early anamnesis of the COS patients (pre-natal, perinatal and early post-natal harm). Therefore, the measures connected with health protection of pregnant women, obstetric aid improvement, and also strengthening of the health of newborns and children of early age can be conditionally related to the primary prevention of COS (Naguy Al-Mutairi, 2015; DeVylder, 2015). The COS’s psychogenesis includes the dependence of this disease on the surrounding microsocial environment, emotional deprivation, common accommodation with COS patients, etc. The measures directed on the improvement of environment and the prevention of the psychologically difficult and stressful situations are related to the COS secondary prevention (DeVylder, 2015). At present, there are no reliable markers capable to predict the development of schizophrenia. However, there are the researches estimating the possibility of the future diagnosis through the combination of genetic factors and the psychosis-like experiences. The children belonging to the high-risk group, which assumes the existence of the transit or the self-checked psychotic experiences against the family history of schizophrenia, are diagnosed with COS within a year with the probability of 20-40% chance. Various methods of psychotherapy and medicines are capable to reduce the COS development among the children of a high-risk group (Naguy Al-Mutairi, 2015). The diagnosis of COS is an area of scientific knowledge much discussed in the middle 20th century. The given research paper showed that the symptoms of the subsequent development of schizophrenia can be revealed at early stages of a child’s development. The process started in the first critical period leads to the profound changes in the ontogenesis of a child. Thus, the development of COS depends on the nature of interaction of the enduring psychobiological vulnerabilities, environmental and biological stressors, protective factors caused by the nature of a child’s development and favorable family conditions. Despite the genetic predisposition to schizophrenia, the probability of the schizophrenic episodes is high only when a person is also exposed to rather strong influence of the stressful factors, and has no sufficient resources to resist the disease.

Give your own,, Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Give your own,, - Essay Example For this purpose the steps will be as follows; Step-1: Some of the erstwhile support staff will accompany Bridget to her new home and if possible try spending couple of hours or a day together with her in her new home. This will not only make her comfortable in the new environment, but will also assure her about the availability of easy help when she requires it in future. Step-2: While revisiting Bridget on the third day, an effort would be made to take note of her experience in the new surroundings, some of the problems that she faced or what made her happy in the new environment. It is worthwhile here to mention that these elaborations must be elicited from her in an informal manner, without letting her be conscious about the feedback. The support plan in this case must take into account the history of Bridget, her preferences etc. Bridget has suffered quite a lot in the past and she has many more years ahead for her. Therefore, the support plan must take a long term perspective of the issues with her. While reservations have been expressed about her coming to terms with the alcoholic abuse problem, the fact that she is being allowed to move back to her flat is an indication enough of her becoming a reformed citizen. Key aspects for her support plan are; Often people make use of alcoholic to get rid of tension, isolation and depressing tendencies. A schedule of activities like routine exercises, visit to market, phone call to the social worker, visit to the hostel etc. must be planned out for Bridget. This will keep her busy enough to take recourse to liquor. Purpose of such a schedule is to make sure that Bridget doesn’t come across circumstances like mood swings, involving periods of excessive euphoria or bouts of intense depression. Efforts must also be planned out to locate the whereabouts of her two kids, so that she gets to lead a normal life in times to come.