Lecture 17 Flashcards
What is the definition of mental health?
Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand:
the capacity to feel, think and act in ways that enhance our ability to enjoy life and respond to challenges we face. it is a positive sense of emotional and spiritual wellbeing that respects the importance of culture, equity, social justice and personal dignity
What is the Legal Definition of Mental Illness?
Mental disorder is legally defined in the Mental Health (compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 1992 (the Act) as:
“an abnormal state of mind (whether of a continuous or intermittent nature). characterised by delusions, or by disorders of mood or perception or volition or cognition, of such a degree that it -
Poses a serious danger to the health or safety that person or of others; or
-Seriously diminishes the capacity of that person to take care of himself or herself
How do you measure abnormality?
deviation from the ‘norm’ criterion
Statistical criterion
Seven elements of abnormality criterion
What are the seven elements of abnormality?
Rosenhan & Seligman 1989
- Suffering
- Maladaptiveness
- Irrationality
- Loss of Control
- Unconventionality
- Observer discomfort
- Violation of moral standars
Which 3x groups of people decide whether or not something is an abnormality?
- Health professionals - usually using current clinical criteria (DC5) in diagnostic tools (GP, psychiatrists, psychologists)
- Friends, family and others in our social networks - interactions, observations, intuition, clinical criteria/internet etc.
- Self - experiences, thoughts, interactions, intuition, clinical criteria
Should Health professionals be decided whether or not something is an abnormality?
Diagnosis by a health profession is potentially useful for identifying risks and treatment options
-but diagnosis is tricky and the labels stick and aren’t always useful for identifying treatments
Should Friends, family and others in our social networks be decided whether or not something is an abnormality?
Diagnosis by friends, family and other might eventually lead to them being properly diagnoses, and/or could help us to understand the person better
-BUT lay people are not good at diagnosing and the labels are potentially very ahrmful
Should Health your own self be decided whether or not something is an abnormality?
Self-diagnosis might also eventually lead to a proper diagnosis, could result in a better understanding of self, and could also result in seeking effective self-help strategies
-BUT self-diagnosis is also prone to more error than professional diagnosis and even internal labelling can be harmful
What are 5x myths about mental illness?
There are many false expectations or misconceptions that people have about people with a mental illness, including:
- Most people do not have a mental health problem in their lifetime
- People with mental health problems are often violent and unpredictable
- Schizophrenia is where somebody has multiple personalities
- Depression is always caused by stress or traumatic events
- There is nothing we can do to help someone with a mental health problem
What are some elements of “On being Sane in Insane Places”?
Study conducted by Rosenhan in 1973
Involved 8 pseudo-patients entering 12 psychiatric hospitals 5 states in the USA
Reported hearing the words “empty”, “hollow” and “thud” in an unknown voice
All except one diagnosed with schizophrenia
Stopped reporting ‘symptoms’ upon admissions
Fellow patients detected them as imposters
Length of stay from 7-52 days (average = 19)
Discharged as “in remission”
What are 5x conclusions about the “On being Sane in Insane Places” study?
- Diagnoses made were often not reliable (Artefact) - a culture of doctors being quick to diagnose but reluctant to admit error (cultural behavioural)
- A mental illness label was associated with a variety of negative consequences (Social Selection)
- Environment of the psychiatric hospitals was counter therapeutic for the patients (Material/structural)
- Within psychiatric hospitals it was easy to misunderstand ‘normal’ behaviour (Artefact)
- The results of this and related studies changed our approach to mental illness - in BOTH good and bad ways
What is the relationship between Mental and Physical Health?
People with mental helath problems are at higher risk for a whole ranfe of phsycial health probles:
CVD, respiratory disease, cnacer, diabters, HIV etc
Caused by: MEdications, stress, diet, phsycial inactivity, smoking, substance abude
What are the 6x Determinants of mental health?
- Social Participation and inclusion
- Freedom from violence and discrimination
- Access to economic resources
- Enhancing control and increasing resilience
- Facilitating participation
- Access to community assets
What are the 6x MoH programmes?
- Suicide prevention
- National Depression Initiative
- Generic Mental Health Promotion
- Like Minds, Like Mine
- Problem Gambling
- Violence Prevention
What are the 3x conclusions about mental health?
- Understanding the cause and effect role of mental health in explaining health inequalities is not easy
- All explanations are relevant, including the artefact explanation
- Interventions that target any of the explanations are likely to have an effect
