Research update

A week has passed since I wrapped up the introductory portion of my research and moved on to create my survey. Since the first day, I have given it out to 40 people but I'm planning to have it completed by 20-30 more individuals. Since I made it an anonymous survey, I can't really distinguish which gender, age or social class had the most successful results. Up until now, 33 out of 40 people personally know someone with a mental illness whether it be mild or severe. Around 12 out of the 40 have taken some time to reach out to this person and try to understand and learn more about the disease. I was absolutely shocked to see that such a low percentage of people care about others with these issues and that they're giving this field such a negative stigma. There were 8 out of 40 that admitted they have talked about the way mental illness is being treated in society with their families or friends. Finally, a whopping 2 out of the 40 know and are aware of how to treat mentally ill people and of the resources they can call in any given situation.
The majority of this survey has shown that people know absolutely nothing about mental illnesses. I wrote a tip at the bottom of the page telling everyone that mental diseases are increasing dramatically because of the condition of our society. I hope they all change their views and appreciate that these issues can be solved with a little more help, open mindedness and appreciation.

My Plan for Research

Mental illnesses are so extremely common not only in the United States but you may also find it surprising how many people are affected by it in our own Bergen County, New Jersey. There is a very high chance each and every one of you know personally or have heard of someone else dealing with mental health issues of their own. I have decided as a part of my research, to create an anonymous survey on paper with 15 questions about this topic that people will have to simply answer Yes or No to. In these questions I will target every aspect about society and about the topic in general to see how many people even know about the severity of the issue, understand it and know how to go forward and give help. I will be giving the survey to people ages 17 to around 60, both men and women, and they will probably be a part of the middle and a minor part will be of the upper class. My prediction for this survey is that mental illness is present in everyone's lives and that the majority are afraid of it and have no idea how to cope with the stresses it brings. I'm very excited to see what my survey will help me discover and hopefully I will come to satisfying conclusions.