Intro to Mental Health

Question 1

Pedagogy of Discomfort

Answer 1

Collective Witnessing - understood in relation to others

• becoming aware of own histories and positionalities
• consider what lies beneath the surface (identities, disadvantages, inequities)
• inhabit a “morally ambiguous self”, a way to look at the world that is more accurate, complex, multilayered and truthful

Question 2

Medical Diagnosis

Answer 2

Considers a number of factors but largely takes symptoms into account and not specifically culture, SES, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.

Question 3

What is the consequence of focusing on diagnosis?

Answer 3

• barrier to knowing
• “sick” can mean bad, lazy, different or poor
• leads to victim-blaming

Question 4

Psychiatric Nursing

Answer 4

…extension of psychiatry’s social control mechanisms for policing, containment and correction of already-marginalized people..

..based on misrepresentations of ‘human problems of being’

Question 5

Mental Health Nursing

Answer 5

..working alongside people with mental health problems, helping to find ways of coping with the here and now, to find meaning to experience and to explore opportunities for recovery, reclamation and personal growth

..through medium of the therapeutic relationship

Question 6

Milieu Therapy

Answer 6

Establish the environment so that all aspects of client’s hospital experience are considered therapeutic

Focus on social environment

Client learns adaptive coping, interaction and relationship skills to achieve autonomy in other aspects of their life

Question 7

Milieu therapy counteracts negative effects of institutionalization including..

Answer 7

• ability to think and act independently
• adoption of institutional values and attitudes
• loss of commitments in the outside world

Question 8

Mental Health

Answer 8

A state of well-being in which the 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 her or his own community

Question 9

Worldwide incidence of mental illness

Answer 9

Depression (400 mil)
Anxiety (272 mil)
Substance Use Disorder (140 mil)
ADHD/conduct Disorders (80 mil)
Bipolar (59 mil)
Schizophrenia (24 mil)

Question 10

Mental Illness in Canada

Answer 10

1 in 5 Canadian will experience MI in lifetime

By age 40, 50% of population would have had a MI

Question 11

Substance use and mental health in young people

Answer 11

Between age 15 and 24:

• 3 times more likely to have SU problem
• more likely to experience mood disorder (depression and anxiety)
• 9.5% experience depression before age 19

Most first epi of psyhosis occur between age 15 to 34

Question 12

Substance use and aging adults

Answer 12

• 10-25% experience mental health disorder
• cognitive changes and neurological disorders
• by age 80, 1 in 3 people develop dementia
• high risk of MI and substance abuse

Question 13

Goals of Recovery

Answer 13

• enhance protective factors
• diminish risk factors
• reduce prevalence and delay onset
• reduce symptoms and disability
• support in recovery

Question 14

Protective Factors

Answer 14

• sense of belonging, self-esteem
• strong relationships
• physical health
• possessing good problem solving skills
• access to support
• feeling in control

Question 15

Risk Factors

Answer 15

• trauma
• social isolation
• loss/life crisis
• substance use problems
• having a parent who lives with MI
• social determinants: housing or income instability, discrimination

Question 16

Objective vs Subjective Recovery

Answer 16

Objective - symptoms and level of functioning, defined by prognosis

Subjective - QoL, support

*higher levels of subjective recovery were related to higher social support and lower loneliness