Mental Health Awareness

1. Mental Health Awareness

2. By the end of the session students will be able to…. • Describe the different categories of mental disorder • Outlines a few strategies to promote mental health • Discuss competing perspectives on the cause of mental distress

3. Small group exercise • Have a short discussion about how you would define the term ‘mental illness’. • What you feel to be the causes of psychological distress. You may wish to think about a client you’ve worked with or even a family member. Make list of your findings.

4. How we perceive mental illness Mental health (wellness) Mental Ill health (Illness)

5. Tudor (1996) Health Ill-health Coping Stress management Self concept & identity Self Esteem Self Development Autonomy Social support

6. Mental Health Promotion Environmental quality Self-Esteem Emotional processing Self-management skills Social Participation Mental Health Demotion Emotional deprivation Emotional abuse Emotional negligence Stress Social exclusion Ten Elements of Mental Health Promotion

7. Which mental illness is most common? • Depression with anxiety affects 9.2% of the population • 1 in 20 experience severe depression

8. How common are mental health problems? • One in four people will experience mental health problems in their lifetime • In every year 300 people per 1000 experience a mental health problem.

9. Group exercise • Write down five factors that help you cope with the stress of life. • How might you feel if you couldn’t rely on these strategies?

10. Classification and diagnosis DSM iv / ICD 10

11. Psychotic Scale • Otherwise referred to as severe and enduring mental illness • Psychosis • Bi polar illness • Severe depression

12. Neurotic scale • Generalized anxiety disorder • Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) • Post traumatic stress disorder • Specific phobia • Agoraphobia • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm8spZG8dAc&feature=related

13. Organic Mental Illness • Alzheimer's • Vascular Dementia • Acquired Brain Injury • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wbYEK7O14E

14. Violence and Mental Health • In 1996 – 46% of all national press coverage linked mental health to violence and criminality • In fact only 8% of homicides are committed by people with mental illness • 100 times more likely to kill themselves than another person. • The link is constantly being made between mental illness and dangerous or unpredictable behaviour.

15. Stigma and mental health • 2/3 of organisations setting up facilities said they faced resistance from the community • Concerns were: • 1. Fear for children’s safety • 2. Fear of violence • Concerns usually dissipate once services are up and running

16. Victimisation • Kelly & McKenna (1997) – surveyed one hundred people with mental health problems: • 15 had stones thrown at windows • 14 were verbally abused • 5 had offensive graffiti ( ‘peodo’, pervert) • 12 harassed outside home

17. Socio cultural differences • South Asian – lower rates of psychiatric morbidity, men identified feelings of powerlessness, women isolation. • Chinese – report a degree of stigma attached to mental health services • Vietnamese – research terms culturally inadequate.

18. Notable disparities between ethnic minority groups and majority populations in the rates of mental ill health, service experience and service outcome. • ‘provision for patients from minority ethnic communities remains basic, insensitive and piecemeal, leading to patients feeling alienated and isolated’.

19. References • ‘The art and science of mental health nursing’, Norman I and Ryman I. • www.mind.org • www.ucel.ac.uk/medsoc/smh • www.psychology.org • www.rcpsych.org • www.nimhe.org.uk • www.lho.org.uk