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Dealing with Mental Health

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Introduction

The duty of a nurse is to primarily provide care to their patients. Some of the nurses are

trained to deal with psychiatric stress but all the nurses have a way of treating psychological

distress among their patients. Mental disorders are numerous and they range from anxiety to

depression. According to (Mental health | Clinical | Royal College of Nursing, 2021), some of

the most common mental disorders include anxiety, eating disorders, psychosis, personality

disorder, addiction, post-traumatic stress, obsessive-compulsive, and depression. There are

several ways to support people undergoing mental disorders. Some of the ways involve nurse-to-

patient interactions such that change comes from the patient’s initiative. It is important to note

that these disorders may be lifelong and needs a clear intervention of a nurse and clear

participation or intuition of the patient. The preferences of the patient are doctored to come up

with the best suitable ways to solve the mental health problem.

Search Strategy and Results

My search strategy was from a general point of view to specifics for instance I searched

“what mental Health Nurses do to bring their make their patient feel their recovery is a self-

initiative” I then narrowed it down to specific mental health problems that are experienced like

drug abuse, depression, stress, among others. some of my search databases included “the

National Institute of Health, the National Library of Medicine, the Center of Disease Control, the

Royal College of Nursing, Google schooler.

The keywords I was searching for include:

“how nurses help manage mental health problems”

“the professional helping role of the mental health nurse in promoting and supporting a person's

recovery”

“The professional helping role of the mental health nurse in enabling patients to have more

involvement and management of their condition”

“How to deal with mental health issues

“research of evidence-based practice in mental health nursing”

“The consequences of treating mental health patients centering on their knowledge” (Harnois and

Gabriel, 2000).

“The hardships mental health nurses undergo while doing mental health services”

Some of the results included “How to care for Patients with Mental Health Problems”,

“what is a mental health nurse” (Happell and Cleary, 2012), “treatment engagement of

individuals experiencing mental illness” “promoting mental health” (Holland, 2000). some of the

keywords in my research were “mental care, mental nursing, self-centered mental care (Mental

health | Clinical | Royal College of Nursing, 2021). Some of the search results were general

others were specific, I used the specific one for intext citations while the general was used to

enhance my knowledge in mental healthcare services and the use of a patient-centered

intervention (Halcomb, McInnes, Patterson and Moxham, 2018).

Mental Nurse Activities

The first step towards solving a mental health disorder is engagement, getting the patient

to engage may be very difficult particularly when dealing with a hard population. According to

Stewart's theory, the quality of relationships between the treatment process and the treatment
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providers creates an atmosphere for successful engagement. Nurses need to see that their

relationships promote understanding and respect, they need to engage the patients and get to their

core disturbing issues. It is through engagement that the best solutions and strategies towards

creating a better improvement plan can be achieved. By this, nurses need to create an alliance

between them and the patients to help in solving the problem. If there is an alliance between the

nurse and the patient, then the patient will most probably stay in treatment for a long time

(Halcomb, McInnes, Patterson, and Moxham, 2018). To create a bound alliance, clinicians need

to focus on the recovery of the patient. The recovery plan creates trust and stability. The patient

can easily drop out because of other social issues; however, if the plan is not working, they will

drop out.

To achieve engagement, when a nurse receives a patient, the first most important thing is

to access the mental state of the patient. Then the mental health nurse creates a friendly

atmosphere with the patients, which is good communication. The patient is allowed to talk out

and the nurse listens to what they may or may not be saying. The nurse inters builds a good

relationship with the patient and allows the patient to trust them (Happel and Cleary, 2012). The

nurses should not judge any patient because of their behavior, the patients have experienced

trauma, or had the effects of a chronic illness, and judging them based on that is not fair and

convenient for their good recovery. Allowing them to share their feelings makes them trust the

nurse and know that at least someone is understanding their conditions. Mental health comes in

different varieties and it is difficult to relate them from patient to patient. It is their fore necessary

to treat each patient independently.

The other consideration is the choice of words when handling such patients, the nurse

needs to use terms that allow the patient to realize their position for themselves and give
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themselves a diagnosis. This type of care is sensitive patient-centered care where the treatment is

initiated by the patient but under the guidance of the nurse so that the patient does not get out of

line. Addressing an individual’s immediate self needs brings the treatment plan closer to the

patient and increases their chances of engagement. If a nurse talks about issues like housing, the

finances of the individual, and specific issues like relationships, then the individual is more likely

to benefit from the intervention directly or indirectly (Harnois and Gabriel, 2000).

The other way to appeal to the patient is by sharing the experiences of one with another,

for example sharing the feeling is a collaborative act that creates an atmosphere that the people to

interact, they speak at an equal level, this is effective to both the patients who are deeply into

mental health disorders or those who are likely to be, bringing the world closer to them acts as a

gateway towards understanding themselves (Colizzi, Lasalvia, and Ruggeri, 2020). Engagement,

understanding, and self-diagnosis is the key to treating mental health issues like stress,

depression, and substance abuse. Talking about it is as important as the treatment of it.

The mental health nurse is mostly hidden from the public, unlike the other nurses who

work on the Radar (Harnois and Gabriel, 2000). They can work at the home of the patient, and

they study the patient closely so that the involvement of the patient comes from the initiative of

that patient. They encourage the patient to take therapies, to participate in activities that keep

them active like art, drama, or games (Herrman, Saxena, and Moodie, 2006). This is usually the

initiative of the patient. For instance, if the patient is old and suffering from anxiety, the type of

care afforded to the patient will depend on the personality of the patient and the nature or extent

of the anxiety disorder the patient is experiencing.

When it comes to the core solution in mental health nursing, Person-centered care is one

of the most effective ways nurses can use to get to the heart of solving especially serious mental
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illness. Let the patient be the drive towards his or her recovery, that way it is easier to come out

of the illness and stay out of the illness. Looking into their families, hope, dreams, spirituality,

and culture serves the purpose of getting them to talk about the issues that are affecting them,

these issues can then be utilized to make them see a direction to which they are heading and turn

them to their most desired direction. It is wrong for a nurse to make a judgment for the patient

regardless of the mental issue they are undergoing. Tailoring the treatment plan, so that all the

issues are addressed considering the desire and needs of the patient, creates a free zone.

According to Yolanda Smith (2021), people dealing with mental health issues are usually

difficult to get to and treat. If a nurse poorly engages these people, then they can drop out of the

treatment plan, get a serious relapse, or even be hospitalized on the same. The handling of these

patents affects the rate at which they fall back and this brings the issues back to mental health

nurses. The nurses need to create a therapeutic alliance between the patient and themselves and

to fully understand their subject so that offering medical intervention or therapeutic interventions

becomes easy (How to Care for Patients With Mental Health Problems, 2021).

Most nurses in mental health keep their questions to allow the patients to talk about their

feelings and experiences instead of giving them a diagnosis. Mental health nurses do not

diagnose the patients but allow them to talk so that they identify the issues that they are

struggling with. It is important to note that this treatment addresses the goal of the patient. Each

patient has unique goals that they want to achieve and sharing these with the mental health nurse

gives the nurse a chance to understand their patients better.

The second step towards self-centered treatment is the use of recovery-oriented care.

According to (Dixon, Holoshitz, and Nossel, 2016) Recovery-oriented care is one of the effective

methods to handle issues involving mental health. This type of care supports the basic care
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principles such as respect to the patient receiving care. The other way to essentially handle these

patients is to keep the decision coming from them, the model of person-centered care keeps the

patient in the loop and makes them keep talking to find ways to suitably solve or recover from

the mental health disorder.

People come from different backgrounds and managing these people historically has been

a problem. Those people from the streets and homeless have different problems as the old and

the young in mental health issues, and so are those who abuse a substance. Others are psychotic

and their treatment models cannot be the same some recovery-oriented treatments function better

than others in the case of The nurse’s tent to talk about the well-being of the patients and try to

keep their questions open-ended. The nurses also listen to what the patients say and be in a

position where they tend to understand the patient. The nurses listen without making any

judgment to or about the patient.

The feeling of being involved comes when the nurses ask the patients what would help

the patients through the crisis. The nurses usually provide the patients with unique special

treatment to get rid of the disorder, by reducing the episodes in the disorder. According to

(Dixon, Holoshitz, and Nossel, 2016) These nurses look at the cultural background of the patient,

the social and physical analysis of the patient gives way to understanding the patient and coming

with an amicable solution. The treatment is complex and multidirectional. However, with the

best nurse’s treatment of even the most serious mental health illness can be achieved.

Mental disorder is a serious illness and according to the National Alliance on Mental

Illness (NAMI), about 18.5% of the American population experience the disorder (Dixon,

Holoshitz, and Nossel, 2016). This makes about 20% of the adult population. The need to look

into the ways of handling these patients is key towards keeping a sane community. Nurses are

the best caregivers to handle such cases, according to Dixon, Holoshitz, and Nossel (2016),

evidence-based practice shows that those nurses that center their care on the patients always get

the right diagnosis and so is the treatment, mental illness needs a special level of attention from

the caregivers and understanding of the art.

Mental health illness is a serious issue, according to National Comorbidity Survey data

about half of the patients experiencing serious mental health illness, were as a result of poor

nursing and this can be led to rehospitalization of the patient or not fully utilizing the benefits of

the treatment. This treatment or functionality of nurses can be a result of several factors such as

utility, practical reasons, or even attitude. It is difficult to point to one reason and classify it as

the main one as it varies from one person to another (Halcomb, McInnes, Patterson, and

Moxham, 2018). It was therefore necessary according to the Epidemiologic Catchment Area

survey, to tailor the treatment engagement to carter for all these possibilities and remove the

roadblocks that stand in the way of effective medical care for the mentally ill (Harnois and

Gabriel, 2000).

The recovery of the patients needs to be in such as way that they live a self-directed life

without the possibility of being directed in any form of pretense which can later escalate the

situation. they should live and strive to reach their full potential. According to the Freedom

commission report, mental health should be recovery-oriented, consumer-oriented, and being

driven by the family of the patient. Meaning the main focus in matters of mental health should be

the patient. Their main focus was dealing with the consistent shift in attitude. The optimal goal

was to ensure that all the patients are set on a purpose such that they can get out of the mental

health illness and keep out meaning they could find a reason to stay sane.

Recovery-oriented care focuses on the individual and empowers the person making them

feel respected in the cause of treatment, unlike the old conventional ways giving the mentally ill

a purpose can get them out of the depression or anxiety and they live a comfortable life without

worry or fear. There are those populations that are thought to be difficult to Engauge and that
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getting to the core issues can be a problem, these methods have worked effectively with them

(How to Care for Patients With Mental Health Problems, 2021).

Conclusion

Going by the evolution of evidence-based practices in the medical field, it is compelling

to see why nursing needs to cooperate carefully particularly when dealing with mental health.

Mental health nurses need to look into their patients individually without consideration of other

previous patients. The part where mental health borrows from evidence-based practice is the fact

that individual patients need to be viewed as an individual. The patient must feel engaged for the

process to work, the strategy of looking into the issues needs the medical practitioners to have an

open mind and be flexible in their decision making in cooperating less of their experience and

allowing the patients to diagnose themselves. This involvement should include not only the

nurses in mental health but other nurses and medical practitioners.

As much as the clinicians cite issues like resources, time management, increasing

oversight, it is considerable for the nurses to point the patients in the right direction and take

action towards self-recovery instead of using clinical methods that make them fall back to their

mental issues. For the change to be effective, nurses need to see past the fear of implementing

change. When evidence-based practice is incorporated in mental health nursing, there is a chance

the disorder may be handled. This comes with motivational techniques, treatment participation

techniques. The other factor that can improve mental health is community participation. Nurses

must look into the factors that go into challenging the growth and reduction of mental health and

look to help save the lives of their patients independently.

References

Colizzi, M., Lasalvia, A. and Ruggeri, M., 2020. Prevention and early intervention in youth

mental health: is it time for a multidisciplinary and trans-diagnostic model for

care? International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 14(1).

Conrad, D. and White, A., n.d. Promoting men's mental health.

Delaney, K. and Shattell, M., 2010. Special Edition: Inpatient Psychiatric Treatment: Moving the

Science Forward Final. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 31(3), pp.158-159.

Dixon, L., Holoshitz, Y. and Nossel, I., 2016. Treatment engagement of individuals experiencing

mental illness: review and update. World Psychiatry, 15(1), pp.13-20.

Eliot, G. and O'Brien, T., 2020. The Mill on The Floss. La Vergne: New Central Book Agency.

Foy, J., n.d. Promoting mental health in children and adolescents.

Halcomb, E., McInnes, S., Patterson, C. and Moxham, L., 2018. Nurse-delivered interventions

for mental health in primary care: a systematic review of randomized controlled

trials. Family Practice, 36(1), pp.64-71.

Happell, B. and Cleary, M., 2012. Promoting health and preventing illness: promoting mental

health in community nursing practice. Contemporary Nurse, pp.2648-2653.

Harnois, G. and Gabriel, P., 2000. Mental health and work. Genève: Organization mondiale de la

santé.

Herrman, H., Saxena, S. and Moodie, R., 2006. Promoting mental health. Geneva: World Health

Organization.
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Holland, S., 2000. Promoting mental health. Community Practitioners' & Health Visitors'

Association.

A-State Online. 2021. How to Care for Patients With Mental Health Problems. [online]

Available at: <https://degree.astate.edu/articles/nursing/caring-for-mental-health-

patients.aspx> [Accessed 17 November 2021].

The Royal College of Nursing. 2021. Mental health | Clinical | Royal College of Nursing.

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17 November 2021].

Shattell, M., 2010. “Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing” or “Psychiatric-Mental Health

Nursing”?. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 31(9), pp.614-615.

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<https://www.news-medical.net/health/Mental-Health-Nursing.aspx> [Accessed 17

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