When Ailments Are Not Shown by Avery

When Ailments Are Not Shown by Avery - May 2019 Scholarship Essay

In the small community of Garrett County, heroin and opioid addictions are unfortunately too common to avoid. As a junior in high school who has witnessed first hand the effects of addiction, I have decided to turn my future career into changing the view on drug addictions and mental health, as well as providing the essential treatments for those in needs. This includes rehab facilities, in-patient hospitals facilities, therapy for children personally affected, and the use of advocating the effects for young adults that are more vulnerable to trying these harmful drugs for the first time. Ten thousands dollars for my community would be the beginning of changing the raising amounts in addictions, as well as providing the emotional and therapeutic treatment that would help each patient slowly losing themselves. Personally, I would love to begin seeing a change in the presentations to high school students. I would use a grant, such as this one given, to find the best resources in showing the real and raw effects of drugs. I do not believe the presentations I have encountered as extremely persuasive enough to prevent one’s choice of trying drugs for the first time. I believe adequate drug tested should also be funded for students in high school classes with regulations as needed. Our county also needs better rehabilitation services. In this county, people being charged with driving under the influence (DUI), are only asked to attend an Alcoholics Anonymous service to keep themselves out of trouble. However, this does not help the people who truly want to get help and are not forced to. With more funding, I would try and persuade the county officials to provide better services specifically for those who have received drunk driving charges, as well as very educated social workers to hold the events. On the mental health side, I would love to personally increase funding to our current lighthouse and provide more less-expensive options to those experiencing a mental illness. I have witnessed many individuals who could not receive help due to financial issues, and ultimately lost their lives. Providing local individuals with less-expensive services for psychiatric help may be the beginning of limiting suicides. Lastly, within my high school I would personally love to fund mental health services and presentations. I have known and heard of many young people my age or younger personally affected by suicidal and suicidal attempts. I believe many of this is due to lack of education, help, and resources. Although presentations in high schools may not always be influential, I believe they will make a drastic change in this lives of my friends, younger cousins, and other younger individuals as suicide in children is becoming more common. A grant with this amount of money would give me many options, but I would push it to my future career in mental health advocacy. I would love to focus on the emotional factors of one’s health and change the stigma in the community.