Understanding
Mental Health
& Mental Illness
What is
Mental Health??
Mental health refers to the maintenance of successful
mental activity.
What is
Mental Health??
Mental health refers to the maintenance of successful
mental activity.
This includes maintaining productive daily activities and
maintaining fulfilling relationships with others.
It also includes maintaining the abilities to
adapt to change and to cope with stresses.
W.H.O.'s definition of Health:
"A state of complete physical, mental
and social well-being and not merely
the absence of disease or infirmity."
Mental Health is defined as
A state of well-being in which every
individual realizes his or her own potential,
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.
Mental Illness is defined as
Mental illness can be seen in purely sociological
terms, as a deviation from socially approved
standards of interpersonal behaviour, or as an
inability to perform ones sanctioned social roles.
In social science literature it is generally agreed
that the mental illness refers to dysfunctional
interpersonal
behaviour,
judged
to
be
dysfunctional in terms of the norms and values
held
by
the
observer
(International
Encyclopedia of Psychiatry, Psychology,
Psychoanalysis & Neurology, 1992).
Mental Illness (Cont.)
An illness with psychological or behavioral
manifestation and/or impairment in functioning,
due to social, psychological, genetic, physical or
biological
disturbances.
(American
Psychiatric Association).
Mentally ill person means a person who is in
need of treatment by reason of any mental
disorder other than mental retardation(Indian
Mental Health Act, 1987).
Mental health, Mental Ill-health and
Mental Illness
It is a commonplace to view the
relationship between health
and illness and, therefore,
mental health and mental
illness as two ends of the
same
Trent (1992),
The
Canadian Ministry of
National Health and Welfare
(MNHW),1988
Downie et al (1990)
Groder, (1977)
History
In the mid-19th century, William Sweetzer was the first
to clearly define the term "mental hygiene", which can
be seen as the precursor to contemporary approaches
to work on promoting positive mental health
An important figure to "mental hygiene", would be
Dorothea Dix (18021887), a school teacher, who had
campaigned her whole life in order to help those
suffering of a mental illness, and to bring to light the
deplorable conditions which they were put it in. This
was known as the "mental hygiene movement".
At the beginning of the 20th century, Clifford Beers
founded the National Committee for Mental Hygiene
and opened the first outpatient mental health clinic in
the United States of America.
Significance
Evidence from the World Health Organization
suggests that nearly half the world's population is
affected by mental illness with an impact on their
self-esteem, relationships and ability to function in
everyday life.
There is growing evidence that is showing
emotional abilities are associated with prosocial
behaviors such as stress management and
physical health (Richards, Campania, & MuseBurke (2010).
The importance of maintaining good mental
health is crucial to living a long and healthy life.
It is definitely NOT easy being
a teenager!
Sometimes its tough to avoid
feeling stressed, and pressure can
build up in many areas of life
(socially, in school, at home, and
while making big life decisions)
Worrying about these
pressures is NORMAL.
But feeling VERY sad,
hopeless or worthless might
be a sign of a mental health
problem.
Mental illness can occur when the brain
(or part of the brain) is not working well
or is working in the wrong way.
When the brain is not working properly,
one or more of its 6
functions will be disrupted
Behavior
Thinking
Perception
Physical
Emotion
Signaling
Symptoms can include
Thinking difficulties
or problems
focusing attention
Extreme emotional
highs and lows
Sleep problems
When these symptoms
significantly disrupt a persons life,
we say that the person has a
mental disorder
or a mental illness .
So, what are the
CAUSES
of mental illness??
Well, the causes of mental illness are
COMPLICATED!!
+
Genetics
Environment
Brain Disorder
What do we know about the
causes of mental illness?
The symptoms of mental
illness are a result of
abnormal brain functioning.
Mental illness is a brain
disorder.
Mental illness is rarely if
ever caused by stress alone
What do we know about the
causes of mental illness?
It is not the consequence of poor
parenting or bad behavior.
It is not the result of personal
weakness or deficits in personality.
It is not the manifestation of
malevolent spiritual intent.
Only in exceptional cases is it caused
by nutritional factors.
It is not caused by poverty.
Many mental illnesses begin
during childhood and
persist into adolescence.
Some of these include:
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD)
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD
BUT some illnesses begin
during adolescence.
The illnesses that most often
begin during adolescence
include:
Major Depression (MD)
Schizophrenia
Bipolar Disorder (BD)
Panic disorder
Social Anxiety Disorder
Eating Disorders
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Addictions
What do we know about
people with mental
illnesses?
Most people with mental disorders live
productive and positive lives while receiving
treatments for their mental illness.
Some people have severe and persistent mental
disorders which respond poorly to current
treatments (as in all other illnesses)
Mental illness does not respect any boundaries
of race, class or geography.
The majority of people have a friend,
acquaintance or family member who has or has
had a mental disorder.
Mental health problems can be treated!
If you feel VERY sad, stressed or worried, it might help to
talk to someone about how you are feeling.
Do you ever
Often feel very angry or very worried?
Do reckless things that could harm you or others?
Feel grief for a long time after a loss or a death?
Think your mind is controlled or out of control?
Use alcohol or drugs?
Exercise, diet and/or binge-eat obsessively?
Hurt other people or destroy property?
Do you ever
Often feel very angry or very worried?
Do reckless things that could harm you or others?
Feel grief for a long time after a loss or a death?
Think your mind is controlled or out of control?
Use alcohol or drugs?
Exercise, diet and/or binge-eat obsessively?
Hurt other people or destroy property?
If you feel any of these
things, it might help to talk
to a parent, teacher, school
counselor or physician.
Perspectives
Sense of Responsibility
Sense of Self-reliance
Sense of Direction
A Set of Personal Values
Sense of Individuality
Mental Well-Being
Lack of a mental disorder
Cultural and religious considerations
Maria Jahoda (1963) proposed
following six characteristics of
mentally healthy individual
Environmental mastery
Undistorted perception of
reality
Integration
Autonomy
Growth, self-development
and self-actualization
Attitude towards Self
the
the
Models
Illness
of
Mental
Spiritual Model
Moral Character Model
The Statistical Model
The Disease/ Medical/ Biological Model
Genetics
Neuroimaging
Neurobiology
Psychological Models
Psychodynamic Model
The Behavioural Model
The Cognitivebehavioural Model
Existential / Humanistic Model
The Social Model
Psychosocial Model
The Social Learning Model
Family Therapy Model
Biopsychosocial Model
Thinking
Processes
Learned
Behaviours
Emotional
Processes
Biological
Processes
Spiritual Model
The first and oldest explanatory system for mental illness is
spiritual. From a traditional spiritual perspective, consciousness is
seen as resulting from or deeply connected to some supernatural
force. Usually, there is a religious narrative that explains that
there are good and bad forces in the world, and that suffering is a
function of either being possessed by the bad, or through the idea
that the afflicted have fallen out of favor with the good. This
generally occurs because of sin or related concept of immoral
behavior that leads to some form of badness or contamination.
Moral Character
Model
The second explanatory system for mental illness is moral
character. In a nutshell, the position of moral character is
that there are virtues which one must learn, such as
courage and fortitude, honesty and integrity, compassion
and grace that enable on to live the admirable life.
The Statistical Model
Derived more from mathematics than from psychology, the
statistical model concentrates on the definition of
abnormality. According to this approach, abnormality is any
substantial deviation from a statistically calculated average.
Those who fall within the Golden mean i.e. in short, those
who do what most people do, are normal, while those whose
behaviour differs from those of the majority are abnormal.
The Medical Model
The medical model attributes mental
abnormalities
to
physiological,
biochemical, or genetic causes and
attempts to treat these abnormalities by
way of medically grounded procedures
such
as
psychopharmacology
(drug
therapy), electroconvulsive therapy (ECT),
or psychosurgery (brain surgery).
Genetics
Genetic models of mental disorder
suggest that psychopathology is inherited
from parents, and there is certainly
evidence for the familial transmission of
The Medical Model (Cont.)
Neuroimaging
This system explains causation of mental illness in
terms of structural changes in different parts of
brain. It suggest that in various mental illness
certain ventricular atrophy, volumetric changes,
reduction in cortical volume can be seen which
may be one of the various contributory factors
behind the causation of illness.
The Medical Model (Cont.)
Neurobiology
Here the belief is that the human is
an organism that consists of natural
functions designed by nature (i.e.,
natural selection operating on
genetics) and mental illness is the
breakdown of such functions. Thus,
just as a heart attack is a biological
disease
characterized
by
the
breakdown of the functioning of the
circulatory system, mental illness
stems
from
malfunctioning
neurophysiological processes.
Psychological Models
An important explanatory system for
mental illness is psychological in
nature. The general model here is
that the individual develops along a
path and attempts to adapt to their
environment. However, if the
individual fails to learn certain
crucial elements or learns the wrong
responses to new situations or
adopts short term solutions that
have long term maladaptive
consequences, then suffering and
dysfunction result.
Psychodynamic Model
The Behavioural Model
The Cognitive-behavioural Model
Psychodynamic Model
The core assumption of this approach is that
the
roots
of
mental
disorders
are
psychological. They lie in the unconscious
mind and are the result the failure of defence
mechanisms to protect the self (or ego) from
anxiety. Problems are determined by the
history of a persons prior emotional
experiences, especially the childhood ones or
to be more specific, the negative childhood
experiences.
The Behavioural
Model
This system believes that, only the study of directly
observable behavior, the stimuli and reinforcing conditions
that control it could serve as a basis for understanding human,
behaviour, normal or abnormal. The behavioural perspective
is organized around a central theme: the role of learning in
human behaviour.
The Cognitive-behavioural Model
The cognitive model understands mental disorder as being a
result of errors or biases in thinking. It explains how thoughts
and information processing can become distorted and leads to
maladaptive emotions and behaviour. Our view of the world is
determined by our thinking, and dysfunctional thinking can
lead to mental disorder. Therefore to correct mental disorder,
what is necessary is a change in thinking.
Humanistic / Existential
Model
The humanistic model sees mental health problems as a
signal that an individual is failing to reach his or her
potential and that psychological growth has stopped.The
humanistic perspective views human nature as basically
good. It emphasizes present conscious processes paying
less attention to unconscious processes and past causes
and places strong emphasis on each persons inherent
capacity for responsible self-direction. Its emphasis is thus
on growth and self-actualizing rather than on curing
diseases or alleviating disorders. The humanistic model
does not believe in labeling people by diagnosing them as
having specific mental disorders.
The Social Model
The social model suggests that the ways in which societies are
organized, not just biological and psychological characteristics of
individuals, must be considered as causal factors in mental illness. It
does not argue that people should not be held responsible for their
behaviour because they are victims of society, but they do
suggest that social structure imposes restrictions on behaviour as
surely as biological inheritance and that the effects of social
conditions on mental illness need to be understood, to explain both
individual distress and how that distress might be related to larger
forces. The social model regards social forces as the most important
determinants of mental disorder.
Psychosocial Model
This model explains the causation of mental illness due to
the effect of interaction of psychological and social factors.
Psychosocial factors are those developmental influences
that may handicap a person psychologically, making him or
her less resourceful in coping with social events.
Psychosocial Model (Cont.)
There are four basic categories of psychosocial
causal factors:
Early deprivation or trauma
Inadequate parenting styles
Marital discord and divorce
Maladaptive peer relationship
The Social Learning Model:
Family Therapy Model
Laing & Esterson (1964) were among the first British writers to express the
view that individuals with mental illness were the victims of a pathological
family process. Family therapy usually begins by an approach that encourages
all members of the family to work together in resolving the conflict. The
process is designed to identify and change relationships where necessary.
Attention is paid to family interactions, especially to alignments and discord
and the engagement and disengagement of the different group members.
Double Bind
Schisms and Skewed Families
Pseudomutual and Pseudohostile Families
Expressed Emotion
Biopsychosocial Model
Integration of:
Biological
Social
Psychological (Esp. cognitive & behavioral)
Abnormality caused by:
Interaction of these factors no one cause
Relative importance of each factor depends on
individual and environment
Biopsychosocial Model
Feedback Loops
Biological
Emphasis on
psychological
factors, such as early
childhood
experience and selfconcept
Emphasis on
biological
processes (e.g.,
genetics)
Feedback Loops
Psychological
Social
Emphasis on
interpersonal
relationships and
social environment
Feedback Loops
Biopsychosocial Model
(Cont.)
Explanations of mental illness:
Diathesis / Stress
Physiological, sociocultural or genetic
predisposition to develop disorder
Stressor that triggers manifestation of
disorder
MODELS OF ABNORMALITY
Behavioura
l processes
Learning
of
behaviou
r
Thinking & emotional processes
Conscious
Unconscious
Biological
processes
Faulty thinking
& perception
Repressed
memories
& emotions
Genetics
Structural
damage
Chemicals
Conclusio
n
Current trends in delivery of care emphasize a
collaborative team approach
The diverse explanations provide a range of
models that influence and direct current
approaches
in
the
treatment
and
management of people with mental health
problems. The dominance of the biomedical
model is increasingly being challenged by
other professional groups.
