UNIT 4 AOS2 Flashcards
Wellbeing
The individual is mentally, physically and socially healthy.
Mental Wellbeing
Individuals’ psychological state and their ability to think, process information and regulate emotions.
Ways of Considering Mental Wellbeing
- Levels of functioning
- Resilience
- Social / emotional wellbeing
Levels of Functioning
The degree to which individuals can complete day to day tasks independently and effectively.
High Levels of Functioning
- Fulfilling daily basic tasks
- Productive
- Setting goals
- Being independent
- Adapting to change
Low Levels of Functioning
- Lack of direction
- Struggle to carry out daily tasks
- Feeling lazy / unproductive
- Unable to cope with change
Resilience
Ability to cope and manage change/uncertainty.
Bouncing back.
Respond effectively to stressors, overcome them and adapt them.
High Levels of Resilience
- Seeking solutions to problems
- Appropriate coping strategies
- Flexible in changing environments
- Being optimistic and having hope
Low Levels of Resilience
- Enduring feelings of being overwhelmed by problems
- Unhealthy coping strategies
- Unable to adapt to change
- Lack of optimism and hope
Social Wellbeing
Form and maintain meaningful bonds with others and adapt to social situations.
High Levels of Social Wellbeing
- Ability to communicate effectively
- Strong support network
- Form + maintain meaningful relationships
Low Levels of Social Wellbeing
- Isolated / lack of support
- Difficulty forming relationships
- Struggle to communicate effectively
Emotional Wellbeing
Appropriately control and express emotions in an adaptive way, and understand the emotions of others.
- Express both positive and negative emotions appropriately, eg. Grief at a funeral
High Levels of Emotional Wellbeing
- Aware of own and other’s emotional state
- Experience a wide range of emotions
- Appropriately express emotions
Low Levels of Emotional Wellbeing
- Unable to understand emotions
- Unable to experience certain emotions
- Inappropriately express emotions, eg. happiness at a funeral
Social and Emotional Well-Being Framework (SEWB)
Includes all elements of being and well-being for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders Peoples
- 7 domains
- Holistic, all domains influence the others
SWEB’s Domains
- Connection to body
- Connection to mind and emotions
- Connection to family and kinship
- Connection to community
- Connection to culture
- Connection to country
- Connection to spirituality and ancestors
Body and Behaviours
Physical health, feeling strong and healthy, being able to participate in life
Eg. A healthy diet
Poor representation: poor diet, destroying body
Mind and Emotions
Mental health, the ability to manage thoughts and feelings
Eg. Self esteem
Poor representation: racism
Family and Kinship
Connection to immediate and wider family group/community
Eg. Quality time
Poor representation: stolen generation
Community
Connection to wide social systems; support and connect
Eg. community services
Poor representation: lack of social services
Culture
Provides continuity (connection) with the past and helps with finding a strong identity
Eg. speak the local language
Poor representation: lost languages
Country
Connection to country helps find identity and gives a sense of belonging.
Geographic
Eg. only taking what one needs from the land
Poor representation: refrained from country
Spirituality and Ancestors
Provides a sense of purpose and meaning. Connecting all things, beliefs and behaviours to guide knowledge
Eg. guide and protect families
Poor representation: absence of connection
The Determinants (SEWB)
- Social
- Historical
- Political
Social Determinants
Circumstances people grow, live and work in and the systems put in place to deal with illness
Eg. unemployment
Historical Determinants
Ongoing influence of events, policies and trauma on groups of people
Eg. colonisation
Political Determinants
Shape the process of disturbing resources and power to individuals and communities to create or reinforce social + health inequalities
Eg. unresolved issues on land
Mental Well-being as a Continuum
An individual’s psychological state and the ability to think, process information and regulate emotions.
- Tracks fluctuating mental well-being
- It is constantly changing
- Not-fixed
- Can shift
High Levels of Mental Well-being (Continuum)
- Functions independently
- Cope with everyday demands
- Excessive level of distress and dysfunction
- Ability to cope with stress, sadness and anger
Medium Levels of Mental Well-being (Continuum)
—> Less severe, more temporary
- Not functioning at an optimal level
- Moderate impact on mental wellbeing
- Amplified emotions and high levels of stress
- Difficulty concentrating
- Irrational thought patterns
Low Levels of Mental Well-being (Continuum)
- High levels of distress
- Unable to be independent
- Impacted for an extended period of time
- May be diagnosed
Factors Influencing Mental Health
Internal:
Factors that arise from within the individual. Thoughts, diet, illness, rumination, chronic sleep deprivation
External:
Environmental factors
Social Eg. loss of a loved one, jobless, stigma
Stress
About a known stimulus
A response to a threat in a situation, is in the present
- Psychological / physiological
Anxiety
About a perceived threat
Stimulus isn’t known
What might occur in the future, is a thought pattern to what might happen
Reaction to stress
- Psychological / physiological
Specific Phobia
Is an anxiety disorder of excessive fear when encountering a particular stimulus
Characteristics of Specific Phobia
- Is excessive
- Known stimulus
- Persistent
- Avoidance for the phobia stimulus
- Sympathetic nervous system
- Distressing for individual and irrational
Predisposing
Increases vulnerability to mental illness
- Gaba dysfunction
Precipitating
Trigger for a mental health problem
- Classical conditioning, LTP, specific environment triggers
Perpetuating
Maintains a mental health illness
- Operant conditioning, Stigma
Protective
Reduces likelihood of mental health illness
BioPsychoSocial
- Biological
- Psychological
- Social
Biological
Factors that result in phobia because of a physiological factor in an individuals brain or body
- Internal factors
- Physical health or illness
Eg. sleep, gut health, diet
Biological Approach to Phobia / Risk Factors
- GABA Dysfunction
- LTP
GABA Dysfunction - Biological
Predisposing
Low levels of GABA (not being able to bind to receptors), heightens arousal increasing the likelihood of a stress response. Leads to anxiety / phobia development.
GABA is inhibitory and is responsible for calming, lack of that results in fight / flight response being more likely
LTP - Biological
Perpetuating
Long Term Potentiation strengthens synaptic connections or more efficient transmission of message along neural pathway.
Classical conditioning, stimulus and fear is stored via neural pathways. The repeated use of pathways leads to LTP creating more efficient pathways, therefore more likely to experience fear when exposed to phobic stimulus
Biological Phobia Interventions
- Benzodiazepines
- Relaxation Techniques
Benzodiazepines (Drug) - Biological
Bind to and enhance effects of GABA, improves action of GABA not replace it.
Increases GABA efficiency —> post synaptic neuron is inhibited (less likely to fire)
Physiological arousal is decreased, less likely to experience a stress response
Relaxation Techniques - Biological
Reduces stress response, induces parasympathetic nervous system resulting in restoring homeostasis
Eg. Breathing retraining to prevent or reduce hyperventilation, is done when calm or before exposed to stimulus
Teaching long deep breaths
Imbalance of O2 and CO2 in blood, therefore causing feelings of anxiety
Biological Protective —> Defends Against Mental Health Problems
- Adequate Diet
- Adequate Hydration
- Adequate Sleep
Adequate Diet - Biological
Unprocessed foods high in nutrients reduce the risk of mental health disorders
GUT-BRAIN AXIS:
- Healthy microbiota supported by a high diversity of nutrients
- Reduces stress
Nutrients used to produce neurochemicals, improves physical Health
Adequate Hydration - Biological
60% to 70% of body made of water, in blood that transports nutrients and oxygen
- Makes neurotransmitters
- Water required to make and transport neurochemicals
- Dehydration decreases mood and congnition (poorer concerntartion)
Adequate Sleep - Biological
nREM required to replenish muscles and tissues.
REM required to replenish mind.
Insufficient sleep causes affective, cognitive and behavioural functions.
Eg. reduce concentration, affect mood, increase in risk taking, causing a reduce in mental wellbeing
Psychological
Thoughts and mental processes that contribute to the development of specific phobia
Psychological Approach to Phobia / Risk Factors
- Classical conditioning
- Cognitive bias (memory bias and catastrophic thinking)
- Operant conditioning
Classical Conditioning - Psychological
Precipitating
Phobias can be learned through classical conditioning, with repeated association with phobia stimulus to produce a fear response
Eg.
NS (Magpie) –> no response.
UCS(Swooping) –> UCR(fear).
NS(magpie) is repeatedly associated with UCS(Swooping) –> UCR(fear).
NS now becomes CS to produce the CR with the absence of UCS
CS(Magpie) –> CR(Fear).
Operant Conditioning - Psychological
Perpetuating
Avoiding the phobic stimulus perpetuates/maintains fear. Avoidance behaviours can be operantly conditioned.
Negative reinforcement, something unpleasant is removed (avoiding stimulus)
- Likely to be repeated, strengthens/maintains response
Cognitive Bias - Psychological
Process information in a certain way, causing errors in judgement and thoughts.
Contributes to phobia because you deem something more scary then it is.
- Memory bias
- Catastrophic thinking
Memory Bias - Psychological
- Inaccurate / exaggerated memory
- Worse then what it was
- Imagining the spider was a lot bigger then it actually was
- Past thinking
Catastrophic Thinking - Psychological
- Futuristic thinking
- Negative thinking of what might happen
- Imagining the worst scenario
Psychological Phobia Interventions
- Cognitive behavioural therapy
- Systematic desensitisation
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy - Psychological
Replacing unhealthy thoughts with healthy ones
Notice and challenge thoughts and behaviours
1) Aware of thoughts / behaviours
2) Change thought to more positive, change behaviour to exposure rather than avoidance
Systematic Desensitisation - Psychological
Deliberate exposure over time
- Creates a new association between stimulus and calm
Step 1: Teach/learn breathing techniques
Step 2: Create fear hierarchy. Ranking anxiety-inducing experiences related to phobia from easiest to confront, to most difficult
Step 3: Gradual exposure using fear hierarchy. Paired with breathing retraining
Step 4: Continue exposure until stimulus produces a relaxation response without fear
Psychological Protective —> Defends Against Mental Health Problems
- Attention
- Acceptance
- Cognitive behavioural strategies (CBS)
- Meditation / mindfulness
Attention - Psychological
Focused on thoughts / feelings / sensations in the present moment
Acceptance - Psychological
Experiencing feelings, thoughts and behaviours without judgement
Accepting these emotions
Cognitive Behavioural Strategies- Psychological
Identification and challenge of negative thoughts lead to more positive behaviours, and vice versa
Behaviour –> Thoughts –> Feelings
<———————————————-
LTP becomes more strengthened
Meditation / Mindfulness - Psychological
Reduces activity of amygdala and increases activity in the prefrontal cortex (associated with decision making)
Social
Contributing factors to phobia which involve interaction with the environment and other people
Social Approach to Phobia / Risk Factors
- Specific environment triggers
- Stigma around seeking treatment
Specific Environment Triggers - Social
Stimulus’ or experiences in a persons environment that promote phobia
- Direct confrontation, traumatic event (personally experienced)
- Observing traumatic event (watching another person)
- Learned traumatic event (hearing / reading / watching)
Stigma Around Seeking Treatment - Social
- Sense of shame about getting professional help for phobia
- Way we perceive expectations
Social Phobia Interventions
- Psychoeducation
Psychoeducation - Social
For families and supporters
Educate family and friends of phobic patient
Learn how to:
- Challenge cognitive bias, unrealistic or anxious thoughts
- Challenge avoidance behaviours
Social Protective —> Defends Against Mental Health Problems
- Authentic
- Energising
Authentic - Social
- Comfortable relationships
- Honest conversation and feedback to reduce stress
- Uses legitimate and effective advice
Energising - Social
Focuses on creating a positive environment
Cultural Determinants
Factors that influence wellbeing on cultural levels
- Cultural continuity
- Self-determination
Cultural Continuity
- Carrying on historical traditions of cultures
- Can be disrupted or destroyed if cultural practices are not allowed to continue
- Values are generation to generation
Self-Determination
- Right of people to shape their own lives
