Mental Health And Mental Illness

The following essay will begin by demonstrating what is understood by the concept of mental health. It will attempt to identify different explanations for the underlying issues causing mental illnesses and it will then centre around a case study focusing specifically on one mental health problem. A description of what the causes and effects of the chosen illness will be given and information on the available treatment will be presented. To round up the assignment a brief explanation of the chosen case study will be included with an attempt to distinguish the common issues identified and how they relate to the literature information provided throughout. In this assignment, the case study chosen will target depression.

Mental health is defined as the state of satisfactory use of mental function, which results in productive activities, interactions, adjustment to change and coping with challenges (Healthy People 2020, 2012). It is fundamental to one's personal well-being, his interpersonal relationships, and fruitful participation in, and contribution to, society in general. Mental illness or mental disorder refers as a whole to all diagnosable disturbances of the mind. These disturbances are characterized by changes in thinking, mood, and/or behavior, which produce pain, discomfort, abnormal functioning or death. Mental illnesses are serious medical conditions, which cannot be overcome by simple will power. They are not caused by personality weakness or intelligence (Healthy People 2020; NAMI, 2012).

As nurses, it extremely important for us to have an understanding of mental health so we can decrease the stigma in the healthcare profession. There shouldn’t be a difference between a “psychiatric nurse” and a “general nurse”. Since over 50% of the population suffers from a mental illness, both professions should be equally educated and sensitive towards health care issues.

Forget all the stereotypes of mental illness. It has no face. It has no particular victim. Mental illness can affect an individual from any background and the black community is no exception. African Americans sometimes experience even more severe forms of mental health conditions because of unmet needs and barriers to treatment. According to the Office of Minority Health, African Americans are 20 percent more likely to experience serious mental health problems than the general population. That’s why UGA third year Majenneh Sengbe is taking action as the co-founder of her upcoming organization Black Minds Daily.

According to Merriam-Webster, mental health illness is described as a broad range of medical conditions (such as major depression, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, or panic disorder) that are marked primarily by sufficient disorganization of personality, mind, or emotions to impair normal psychological functioning and cause noticeable grief or disability and that are usually related with a disruption in standard judgement, feeling, mood, behavior, interpersonal interactions, or daily functioning. Mental health is described as a level of psychological comfort, or the absence of a mental illness. It is the "psychological state of someone who is functioning at a satisfactory level of emotional and behavioral adjustment from the perspective of positive psychology or holism, mental health may include an person 's capability to enjoy life, and produce stability connecting life activities and efforts to achieve psychological resilience. The World Health Organization, suggests mental health illness includes "subjective well-being, perceived self-efficacy, autonomy, competence, inter-generational dependence, and self-actualization of one 's intellectual and emotional potential, among others. The WHO further states that the well-being of an individual is encompassed in the recognition of their capabilities, managing with normal stresses of life, constructive work and involvement to their community. Ethnic differences, prejudiced evaluations, and competing professional

It not easy to determine how many people suffer from mental illness. This is due to the changing definitions of mental illness and problems classifying, diagnosing, and reporting mental disorders. There are social stigmas attached to mental illness, such as being labeled "crazy," being treated as a danger to others, and being denied jobs or health insurance coverage. These negative connotations keep many sufferers from seeking help, and many of those in treatment do not reveal it on surveys. Some patients do not realize that their symptoms are caused by mental disorders. Even though more is being learned about how the brain works a lot of information has still yet to be discovered, thus mental health professionals must continually reevaluate how mental illnesses are defined and diagnosed. The Surgeon General 's report estimated that roughly 20% of the United States population was affected by mental disorders and that 15% use some type of mental health service every year. Community surveys estimate about 30% of the adult population in the United States suffer from mental disorders.

Mental illnesses are generally characterized by changes in mood, thought, or behavior. They can make daily activities difficult and impair a person’s ability to work, interact with family, and fulfill other major life functions (SAMHSA, 2015). Contemplated early on in history, treatments for mental illness looked to cure the reflections of the anger of gods, demonic possession, sorcery, the evil eye, or an angry deity, responded with equally mystical, and brutal treatments (Nash, 2007). Attempts to treat mental illness date back as early as 5000 BCE as verified by the discovery of trephined skulls in regions of ancient world cultures (Porter, 2002, p. 10). Only a few realized that individuals with mental illness should be treated humanely rather than exorcised, punished, or banished. Psychiatry has come a long way since the days patients were shunned from society and shackled in asylums. Experiments and techniques for treating mental illness from ancient times to the turn of the 20th century have paved the way for the treatment plans used today.

Those factors are mostly caused by the lack of knowledge (Agar, Hoise, Lobb, Davidson & Phillips, 2014). Because of this, the future of nursing practice will be impacted. According to Happell & Platania-phung (2004), Nurses in general medicine and acute/sub-acute need to be educated about mental illness and how to assist patient with mental illness efficiently. Gaining knowledge can reduce the fear when looking after patients with mental illnesses (Godwin, 2009). By gaining knowledge, nurses can understand about guideline and safety approaches when they are looking elderly patients with mental illness. Nurses will also able to gain knowledge about factors that activating specific negative believe from patients which will trigger negative responses, such as depression, anxiety, and paranoid. By understanding this, prejudice thoughts from nurses about elderly patients with mental health disorder can be challenged and change positively .Furthermore, increase education about elderlies’ mental illnesses for future nurses can be one way to increase the number of nurses interested in mental health. The same as current nurses, education can help student nurses to gain knowledge about mental health thus reduce fear and prejudice thought about the behaviour of elderly with mental illness. This will assist in positively changing the point of

The ability to help bring a new person into the world seems like a very fulfilling career; however, helping those with mental illnesses seems to interesting, challenging, and fulfilling as well. The primary focus of a nurse should be the advancement of overall health. Patients deserve to be treated with respect. As a nurse, I

Mental health as Pilgrim (2005) stated is used positively to indicate a state of psychological wellbeing and negatively to indicate its opposite, or euphemistically to indicate facilities used by, or imposed upon, people with mental problems (pg 3) although Richards (2002) argued the concept of sanity and insanity are relative and may vary according to individual and social perspectives, and illustrated that an acceptable behaviour at an arts festival may not be perceived similar in a private home and that there are times when every one of us could be considered to be in an abnormal state of mind (pg 13-15) and in that regard dispensed the term ‘madness’ which could have emotive meaning, is neither a medical term nor a diagnosis and could

Nursing students in this study suggested that the psychiatric patients are normal people and innocent persons. This result confirms that nursing students had positive feelings towards psychiatric patients after the mental health nursing practicum. By the end of the course, students could develop sufficient knowledge and skills so that they could efficiently communicate the psychiatric patients. Similar to the findings in this pilot study, the research by Hung et al. (2009) pointed out that after completing the clinical practicum, most students specifically reported having lost the attitude of stigmatizing mental patients and spoke about their efforts to regard them as normal individuals.

Stereotypes are made about groups of people in every class, country and race. The mentally ill are no exception to this fact. Mental illness has no bounds and can affect anyone, whether rich or poor, American or Canadian, black or white, it does not matter. People with a mental illness or disorder are looked at as dysfunctional, violent, unsuccessful, and even foul-smelling individuals. People with extreme cases of mental illness, such as schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder, are often called crazy, insane, and mad when in actuality they are acting in a radical way because of something that these individuals cannot control or express in ways that is understandable to people without these disorders. Throughout history people with mental illness have been misunderstood. Insane asylums were used to imprison people with a mental illness when all they really needed was medical attention. In order to combat this stigma an understanding of symptoms and treatments for the mentally ill is necessary. Once their problems are understood people will find it easier to walk in their shoes and will probably be kinder to those with a mental illness. When this happens the stigma will dissolve and eventually disappear entirely and people with mental illness will finally be treated the way they deserve, with respect. Understanding mental illness is the first step to defeating an ignorant society and ending a terrible stigma.

I feel that in nursing school, we become robots when we perform our skills which makes us forget to actively listen to our patients. We are told that our skills will improve as we practice, but the one thing that we haven’t had considerable exposure to is mental illnesses. I enjoyed this article because I was able to relate to the nurses that felt incompetent in their care for a patient who is experiencing a mental break. The mind is such a powerful tool and if we can’t control what we think, feel or do, it makes us into someone that we’re not. This article gave a great deal of desolate and chilling statistics about how many people suffer with mental illness. It opened my eyes to how much exposure I will have with mental illness, possibly even on a daily basis. I’ve learned that we need to not only go through our daily routines of skills, we also need to constantly assess and be there for our patients in case they experience a mental breakdown. In the hospital, we tend to take care of people when they are at their lowest of lows. If we aren’t there to provide the support and comfort they need, not only will they not trust us, they won’t heal to their full

Mental health and illness is something that unfortunately lacks aid in our world and society. Not only is mental illness something that is difficult to handle for those that are suffering from the symptoms and trying to live with them day in and day out. These people are also stuck dealing with the huge stereotypes and stigmas of mental illness and lack of knowledge by others.

World Health Organization (WHO, 2014) defines Mental health as a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully and is able to make a contribution to his or her community. Whereas Mental illnesses (MI) are characterized by alterations in thinking, mood or behavior associated with significant distress and impaired functioning (Health Canada, 2012). MI affects people of all ages, educational and income levels and cultures. Example of MI includes depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders and addictive behaviors. According to Center for addiction and Mental Health (CAMH, 2009) 2% of the total population in the world are affected by serious MI. Moreover, Public Health Agency Canada (PHAC, 2012) claims that 1 in 5 Canadians will experience a MI in their lifetime and remaining 4 will have a friend, family member or colleague who suffers from mental illness. It is a well-known and accepted statistic 20% of people with mental disorders have a co-occurring substance use problem (PHAC,2012).