Exploring Mental Health Nursing Discussion Paper
Exploring Mental Health Nursing: A Critical Analysis Of A Case Study
Mental Health And Mental Illness
Georgia is a 22 year old university student who is feeling unable to cope with the stresses in her life at the moment. She is currently in her third year studying Psychology but has had to change from full-time to part-time this semester as she feels overwhelmed by the workload. She describes difficulty concentrating on her study and finds it very difficult to complete assignments on time. Whenever she has exams or assignments due she feels panicky and worries that she will fail the assessment. She describes feeling short of breath, can feel her heart pounding in her chest, and has a sense of impending doom.
Georgia lives alone in a small flat near to the university because she does not drive a car. She has attempted to get her driver’s licence in the past but found the driving test too stressful and when she almost had an accident during her second test, she decided not to try for it again. Exploring Mental Health Nursing Discussion Paper
Georgia describes feeling tense and anxious a lot of the time and lately she has had problems sleeping. Sometimes she lies awake for hours after going to bed and wakes feeling exhausted. Because she has been feeling so tired, she has not been going out for her usual walks in the early evening. Describes herself as quite fit usually. Weighs 59kg and is 168cm tall. HR 86; RR 22; B/P 110/75; T 36.7C.
Georgia’s parents live in the country about four hours away so she does not see them very often although she describes having a good relationship with both parents. She talks to her Mum by telephone most days. She has a 27 year old brother who is working as an executive in a large company in London. She has a few friends from high school who she meets up with from time to time although she has not seen them for three or four weeks because she has declined invitations to go out.
Georgia has not had a relationship for more than two years. She does not smoke or use illicit drugs. She occasionally drinks alcohol when she goes out with her friends. She describes feeling stressed and anxious for the past six months and her distress has become increasingly worse. She worries that she will become anxious and unable to cope “just like my mother”.
You are required to explore and critically analyse the information provided in the case study materials and address the following discussion points, linking them specifically to the chosen person:
- A sound understanding of mental health and mental illness.
- The nexus/relationship between mental health and physical health.
- A comprehensive understanding of personal recovery and what this means for the person in the chosen case study.
- Recognising and responding to the mental health needs of the identified person – what does the literature tell you about best treatments for someone with these symptoms?
- What are the implications for the practice of health professionals (when working with someone with this illness).
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Mental Health And Mental Illness
The report brings out the discussion on the mental health nursing and the related aspects and concepts, it describes the rationale for the purpose of implementation of the nursing interventions to treat mental health issues. Mental health refers to the cognitive, behavioural, and emotional wellbeing and everyone aspires for a good mental health, as a goal of his or her life. Good mental health does not refer to the absence of mental illness only; rather it represents the person’s ability to deal with the stress of life. Mental health of an individual affects a number of aspects such as daily life, physical, and emotional health affecting the life’s activities. Mental illness refers to a number of issues affecting mental health of the individual. The case study of Georgia-anxiety has been used for describing as the case study, which describes these aspects. Thus, report in the later part discusses about the relationship between mental and physical health and implications of practice of health professionals and other aspects (Rogers and Pilgrim, 2014).
Mental health refers to the state of psychological wellbeing of a person, depicting absence of illness or mental health disorder. It represents the state of the health of an individual in which the body functions at satisfactory level of emotional and behavioural adjustment. Mental health is a positive concept and results in the successful performance of mental function, which leads to productive activities, developing healthy, and fulfilling relationships with people, and strong capacity to deal with the change and normal stresses of life (Mereish and Poteat, 2015).
Mental health illness is a major concern in today’s scenario especially amongst adolescents, and older-aged adults. It includes a wide range of conditions affecting how a person feels, think, act, and behave in a particular situation. Mental health affects the physical health of the person, and may lead to higher risks of diseases and illness in the later years of life. In context to the case, Georgia suffered from the problems of mental health illness, suffered from the anxiety disorder as the symptoms in the case depicted shows her stress level, also she had panic attacks. . Treatment or cure for mental health illness varies from person to person and nature of diseases and the associated problems. Identification of the effects or consequences of mental illness on the person may state about the feeling of hopelessness, or homelessness, or the occurrence of situation of poverty leading to long-term illness. Thus, mental health and mental illness are the terms, used interchangeably therefore, indicate a strong relationship between each other (Stein and Sareen, 2015).
The Relationship Between Mental And Physical Health
Mental health and physical health are interrelated and exert an influence largely on health of the individual. Mental health and physical health has found playing a significant role in healthcare settings. With context to the given case study, Georgia a 22-year old girl, is unable to cope with the different stress of life and diagnosed with number of problems such as difficulty in focusing on her studies, short of breath, sleeplessness, fatigue, stress and mother anxiety. Aspects of mental and physical health fundamentally linked to each other affecting the person in numerous ways. Therefore, poor physical and mental state may affect the quality of life and may cause long-term illness in later years of her life. Thus, the relationship between the physical and mental health of the Georgia can be analysed in a number of ways given below (Kessler et al., 2015).
- Poor mental health of a person found to be detrimental to physical chronic conditions of health. People with poor mental health are incapable to receive appropriate healthcare services, thus causing physical health issues.
- Mental distress and problems related found to be responsible to disturb the homeostasis balance of an individual.
- In addition, poor physical health leads to problems of mental health of the individual. The relationship between these terms exemplified as people with major mental problems or self-related distress, is likely, to die with cancer. The rates of such patients are found to be around 32%, thus, it can be determined that the mental health problems, affect the person physically (Mental health Foundation, 2018).
There are some of the factors that may affect the health condition of Georgia including income, inadequate access to healthcare services, therefore preventive measures must be taken to improve their health condition. Involving person in physical activities, access to nutritious food and healthcare services will help prevent her chronic condition. Poor mental health also affects the person’s decision-making ability and affects their work-life as well. They must be encouraged and provided social support, and sufficient opportunities to sustain basic standard of life. Lifestyle choice is other factors, which affects the person’s mental and physical conditions such as alcohol consumption, smoking, and other habits. As with the case, these negative forces found to be absent with Georgia’s health condition, but her health deteriorated leading to stress, facing difficulty in learning and remembering things easily. Thus she may face critical problems, if not improved timely therefore there is a description of personal recovery in health illness (Slade et al., 2014).
Discussing about the aspects and the issues associated with mental and physical illness, and their relationship it has been analysed that it is essential to ensure proper treatment to the person facilitating sound mental health of the individual. Thus, concept of recovery has been crucial to gain an understanding of the ways to ensure best treatment and wellbeing of the patient/individual. In the perspective of mental and physical health illness, recovery defines as gaining or retaining the hope for the recovery towards improvement in the present health condition of an individual. Personal recovery also emphasizes on understanding one’s own abilities, desires and disabilities, personal autonomy and being active with the life-processes. The process of personal recovery focus on the individual improves their health, living a self-directed life and striving to exploit their potential to attain personal goals (Baer, 2015).
Factors Affecting The Health Condition Of Georgia
A paradigm shift in the concept of recovery at health care settings has observed, as involving patient in personal recovery is important. Anxiety disorder refers to a number of different situations, panic disorder, social disorder, social anxiety disorder and several others. Georgia in the case also represented these symptoms, disorganised thinking, lack of confidence, understanding, and depressive moods. Personal recovery is effective in ensuring her health and state of wellbeing (Jacob, 2015).
Personal recovery process is unique to every individual, relating to their personal experiences and the health problems. The concept of clinical recovery in mental illness focuses on ensuring the presence of fewer or no symptoms, whereas personal recovery is a broader term. Recovery of every individual is unique, as the problems faced by the person is also unique, thus the process is deeply personal (Mayo-Wilson et al., 2014).
Personal recovery is important as it enhances the purpose of meaningful life, and helps the person in achieving their goals of life. It helps the individual to gain confidence, enhance self-esteem, and ability to develop healthy relationships with everyone. In relation to Georgia’s case, she will be able to develop health relationship with people, and attain self-esteem through personal recovery, and will overcome the issues of anxiety and stress (Spitzer, Endicott, and Franchi, 2018).
Discussing the applicability of the personal recovery process with case study of Georgia, it can be analysed that the personal recovery will help her gain confidence over the anxiety or fear in her life. In addition, she will overcome from the anxiety of her mother, which caused her mental distress. Symptoms identified with the mental condition of Georgia, found that she represented the problem of anxiety disorder found to be the cause of her problem. Personal recovery for Georgia means that she has to recover from the stigma of anxiety incorporated into her very being, so that she could ensure her effective mental health (Clement et al., 2015).
Recovery largely from the negative effects of treatment, crushed dreams and others; involvement in activities which would help her regain hope, self-confidence will promote her health and facilitate recovery from her mental illness. It will help her in acquiring a positive and healthy state of mind. Developing trust in the medical procedure, recreational activities, and identifying new opportunities are essentials of this process. Hence, the aim of personal recovery process focuses on attaining and ensuring sound health and wellbeing of Georgia (Silove et al., 2015).
Personal Recovery Process
With context to the patient, in the case Georgia identifying her mental health needs is the necessary step towards ensuring an effective treatment to her mental illness. Patients’ needs with stress or anxiety disorder may differ in various stages of this disorder, as they have different origins. Exploring Mental Health Nursing Discussion Paper She faced number of problems, which influenced her mental, social, and psychological wellbeing. The disorder, also known as maniac depression, causes severe problems of low and high moods. In addition, problems such as changes in the sleeping and thinking pattern and behavioural issues in the individual. Georgia experienced extreme moods of hopelessness, or sadness in her life. It also highlights the person’s impulsive behaviour towards life and the work processes. Helps regarding welfare benefits, information related to the treatment and the need for company and social life is found commonly to be unmet needs of the patients with mental disorders.
The first and foremost need of Georgia in this case is to get rid of the symptoms, and receive proper treatment. Georgia might want to recover from disorder, so that she could concentrate in her studies, and regain her learning power. During the stage of depression, Georgia might expect early recognition of depression and want to seek advice for effective therapy or treatment. These are determined as utmost health needs of the person, which must be considered for mental health orders (Reinhold and Rickels, 2015).
Mental health disorders should be diagnosed and treated well timely to reduce severe impacts on the health of an individual. Treatment must consider the needs, expectations, and the health issues of the person from past years. Recovery from mental health disorders may include several therapies, and other procedures (Meichenbaum, 2017).
Medications are the most common method to treat any illness, which in this case includes mood stabilizers, citalopram, antipsychotic medications, use of antidepressants and beta-blockers. Counselling of the patients, with such problems will help in understanding the person in a better way. Georgia’s health can be improved treating with the combined efforts of medications therapy, and counselling sessions. In addition, use of appropriate self-management strategies and educating for controlling her mood and behaviour will help in this situation. Recommended medications and changes in the lifestyle of Georgia and her parents will serve the purpose of ensuring effective health (Sharf, 2015).
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Recovery and treatment of the patients with mental health disorders are crucial to gain an understanding of the implication of the practices of the healthcare professionals in the hospitals. Mental health in primary care has identified to be present in very rare cases, therefore integrating mental health in healthcare settings considered to be of top priority at both local and national level. The process is termed as mainstreaming, which focused on increasing the accessibility of the health services for those especially, who were experiencing mental health issues. During the process of mainstreaming, while treating these patients, doctors or nurses must consider the maintaining contact with people associated with mental health care. This shows the drastic changes in the nursing practices, as nurses in healthcare also reported about the problems while dealing with such patients. Difficulties faced by nurses in the form of lack of interest and motivation, as patients become reluctant to changes even, harm themselves because of anxiety disorders or other mental health problems (Banerjee et al., 2016).
Applicability Of Personal Recovery With Georgia’s Case Study
Conclusion
To conclude the above discussion, on mental health and the issues associated it has been analysed that there are number of factors, which leads to illness. The report mentioned about the connection and impact of the mental and physical health on the individual’s life. Thus, it is clearly defines that for every individual effective mental health is essential to sustain a fulfilling life and achieve personal goals. Role of personal recovery has been well defined and found significant to treat patients with the mental health disorders. Mental health leads to the greater risk to severe health impacts causing physical health of the person. The issues may range from mild depression to serious impacts in the longer term. Hence, every healthcare must ensure effective treatment to their patients so that they can recover from such problems and prevent occurrence of such issues further in their lives.
References
Baer, R.A. (2015) Mindfulness-based treatment approaches: Clinician’s guide to evidence base and applications.United States: Elsevier.
Banerjee, S.C., Manna, R., Coyle, N., Shen, M.J., Pehrson, C., Zaider, T., Hammonds, S., Krueger, C.A., Parker, P.A. and Bylund, C.L. (2016) Oncology nurses’ communication challenges with patients and families: a qualitative study. Nurse education in practice, 16(1), pp. 193-201.
Clement, S., Schauman, O., Graham, T., Maggioni, F., Evans-Lacko, S., Bezborodovs, N., Morgan, C., Rüsch, N., Brown, J.S.L. and Thornicroft, G. (2015) What is the impact of mental health-related stigma on help-seeking? A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative studies. Psychological medicine, 45(1), pp. 11-27.
Jacob, K. S. (2015). Recovery model of mental illness: A complementary approach to psychiatric care. Indian journal of psychological medicine, 37(2), p. 117.
Kessler, R.C., Sampson, N.A., Berglund, P., Gruber, M.J., Al-Hamzawi, A., Andrade, L., Bunting, B., Demyttenaere, K., Florescu, S., De Girolamo, G. and Gureje, O. (2015) Anxious and non-anxious major depressive disorder in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys. Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences, 24(3), pp. 210-226.
Mayo-Wilson, E., Dias, S., Mavranezouli, I., Kew, K., Clark, D.M., Ades, A.E. and Pilling, S. (2014) Psychological and pharmacological interventions for social anxiety disorder in adults: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. The Lancet Psychiatry, 1(5), pp. 368-376.
Meichenbaum, D. (2017) Stress Inoculation Training: A preventative and treatment approach. In The Evolution of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (pp. 117-140). United Kindom: Routledge.
Mental health Foundation (2018) Physical health and mental health. [online] Available from: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/p/physical-health-and-mental-health [Accessed 26/09/18]. Exploring Mental Health Nursing Discussion Paper
