Final Reflection on Medical Ethics

Final Reflection on Medical Ethics After taking the course and learning, I have medical ethics and philosophy together. I learned how homeless can cause mental health and how autonomy gives freedom to the patient, but it can either benefit them or be harmful depending on their decision. Also, mental health is joint, and all people facing one problem will at least get one mental illness issue from these problems. It was a complex process initially, but after realizing how those two connected, I saw how it would be straightforward. It was a nice and new learning process that I ever had to communicate medical ethics or health problems. Overall, we know that mental health doesn’t come from anything. There is always a reason why people can get sick and mental health is the same thing. For me, there is always a reason why people have mental health problems. There could be too many reasons, and one of the reasons I thought of during the semester’s study was being homeless. Homelessness is a significant and bad problem for most people and always causes many issues. Also, another idea that comes to mind while taking the course is how autonomy can either make the patient lose their health or be in good health. It depends on their choice and what they want to do because autonomy is based on freedom. The last idea I think of after reading all those stories on the course and how people face difficulty is how if a person faces struggling, it ends up with mental health issues. All of it was pleasant knowledge and new things that I learned in the class that I had never realized before, and it will help me through my life because now I know the connection between medical ethics and philosophy. Homeless people always lose their passion and think ending their lives is way better than living with this issue by figuring out how to pay rent if they cannot afford it. They will be stressed and many other things that the person who is homeless overthink, which makes them start to be anxious, which is a bad thing that person can ever face. That makes the starting point for homeless people. Being homeless increases the overthinking and anxiety of homeless people, creating tension and making them have mental health issues. I notice, too, that many people treat homeless people differently based on their life situation regarding their mental health issues or because they are homeless. This difference in treatment creates or increases anxiety for homeless people and worsens their mental health. However, the starting point is homelessness, which causes them stress, and it's one of the mental health issues. This issue needs the government's help and support to help homeless people decrease their mental health symptoms. For example, government programs could help homeless people find a job or offer some money to help them in their current situation until they can find a job and increase the stability in their lives. Another thing I thought of during the course is one principle we learned about autonomy. Autonomy has two sides for the patient. The first side is that patients can decide and have freedom in their medical choices and the effects of those choices. The doctor will give all the information to the patients and offer their help. Still, at the same time, the doctor will not make any choices for them because autonomy is about patients' choices, no matter if they make the correct or incorrect decision. They will explain everything that patients need to know, whether they want to get treatment or not, which is good and bad at the same time. If the patient makes the right choice, they will have the freedom to make the right choice, but if they make the wrong choice that affects their lives and puts their health in danger, what will be the benefit of having the freedom to affect their health in the wrong way? I think overall autonomy is good at some point, for example, if the person's life is not in danger, because it's nice to give the patient a choice. However, if a patient is in a life-threatening situation, they should not be given a choice because they will harm themselves, and doctors always have more and better knowledge than patients. This knowledge and advice are why we go to the doctor to treat ourselves. Also, patients who are not in good health cannot make good choices because they are in much pain. So autonomy is good in certain situations to give a choice for the patient but not in all situations, such as when patients are in distress because the patient can make the wrong choice and make their life worse than before. For example, some patients don’t believe that medication can help them with their health which is the wrong idea, and it will cause them to make the wrong decision which shows how they could use their autonomy in harmful ways and affect their health. The third idea that caught my attention while learning on the course is how all people get mental health issues. Also, mental health issues have been on the rise since covid started, which shows how people need help to get out of mental health issues. The only thing that took my attention is how each person, for example, faces one problem. Because they pressure themselves, they face mental health issues such as anxiety and depression or lose their passion for life which are hard for the person to meet. If the person doesn't get treatment for that mental health issue, they will get more problems. Thus, it's like one issue in a person's life cause at least one mental health issue; that one thing is a starting point for many more mental illnesses and health issues. For example, suppose a person faces complicated problems, and they don't know how to manage their issue. In that case, it will be so helpful if they talk to someone who can help them and offer them an idea on how they can manage their problems like therapy or friends who can help and many other things that people can do to decrease their mental health problems and have a good life without too much stress. According to all those issues, I discovered that the most common problem is mental health, and the most common cause for mental health is a life issue. However, the person can't stop life issues. People need to find a way that can help them with their problems without getting mental health issues. Learning through courses like this and reading people's stories and what they did with their life issues shows me many things that can make a person okay with their problems. For example, starting to play a sport or going to therapy as a life routine. That way, they can manage their life issues, avoid getting mental health issues and be more confident in their life which makes their life good because not having symptoms with mental health gives us a life without being anxious and worried all the time. In other words, this course helped me understand more about mental illness. How people with mental health issues act and how to apply those stories to real life, or what we can call life issues in philosophy, which is finding the connection between the life issue and applying it to experience and discussing this more with my classmates, makes my brain work more on realizing and analyzing the problem and coming up with solutions. I learn about life issues, like how to prevent myself from mental health issues, and if I face one issue, I will try to get help to manage it. Also, if any person has homeless problems, I know a couple of ideas to prevent that person and help them feel better and support them. According to all this, it is essential how I learn that one thing is a starting point for much more different mental illnesses and health autonomy is a good choice in life, but the person needs to know how to use it right. Overall, it was a good experience throughout the semester, and I learned much new stuff that will help me apply those to my life.