MH Notes.docx - MENTAL HEALTH NURSING Chapter One: Mental...

MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
Chapter One: Mental Health and Mental Illness
 WHO definition of mental health: state of well-being in which each individual is able to realize
their own potential, cope with normal stresses of life, work productively, and make a
contribution to the community
 Examples of mental health traits include – rational thinking, appropriate communication,
effective coping, meaningful relationships, self-control and self-awareness, positive self-concept,
learning and productivity, emotional growth
 According to the DSM-5, a manual that classifies 175 separate mental health disorders, there is
evidence that suggests that the symptoms and causes of many disorders are influenced by
cultural and ethnic factors
o No set standard measure for mental health, it is culturally defined and based on
interpretations of effective functioning according to societal norms
o Differentiate what is acceptable in other cultures
o Example is that of “hysteria” – only affected women, and caused them to be irrational
and emotional, and was from sexual deprivation
o Suicide – honorable in Japan and Middle East, but seen as mental illness in U.S.
 Diathesis-Stress Model
o Diathesis (biological predisposition)
o Stress (environmental stress or trauma)
o A nature + nurture argument that asserts most psychiatric disorders result from a
genetic vulnerability and negative environmental stressors
o Most accepted explanation for mental illness
 Until the 1980s, when mental illness sufferers and their families formed the National Alliance on
Mental Illness, many doctors took over the persons care without their input, dictated how the
person would receive treatment
o Very demoralizing, so NAMI worked to resist this traditional arrangement and focus on
recovery
o Recovery: people are able to live, work, learn, and participate fully in their communities
 People become self-directed, health and wellness improve, and reach their full
potential
 10 Principles of Recovery:
 self-directed – consumers lead, control, exercise choice, and determine
their own path of recovery
 individual and person-centered – recovery is based on unique strengths,
as well as needs, preferences, and experiences, and cultural background
 empowering – consumers have the authority to choose from a range of
options, participate in all decisions that will affect their lives, and be
educated and supported in doing so
 holistic – recovery encompasses an individual’s whole life, including
mind, body, spirit, and community
 nonlinear – recovery is based on continual growth, occasional setbacks,
and learning from experience
 strengths-based – recovery is focused on valuing and building on the
multiple capacities, resiliencies, talents, coping ability and inherent
worth of individuals

 peer-supported – consumers encourage and engage each other in
recovery and provide a sense of belonging, supportive relationships,
valued roles, and community
 respect – community, systems, and societal acceptance and appreciation