Mental Health and Mental Illness: Understanding the Basics

Mental Health and Mental Illness

• Mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual realizes their own abilities, can cope with normal stresses of life, and is able to make a contribution to their community.
• Capacity to think, feel, and act in ways that enhance our ability to enjoy life, deal with challenges.

Mental Health Problems

• Alterations in thinking, mood, or behavior associated with significant distress and impaired functioning over an extended period of time.
• Diminished capacities (cognitive, emotional, behavioral) and interactions with society and environment.

Mental Illness

• A wide range of conditions that affect a person's thinking, feeling, mood, behavior, or relationships.

Factors Causing Mental Illness

• Biological factors:
  • Genetic cause
  • Biochemical alterations
  • Infections
  • Intoxication
• Psychological factors:
  • Maternal separation
  • Abnormal parental relationship
  • Marriage problems
  • Peer relationship
  • Brain damage
  • Stress
  • Vascular causes
  • Perinatal causes
  • Low self-esteem
  • Unemployment
  • Religions
  • Traditions
  • Early marriages
  • Increased population
  • Lack of resources

Cultural Aspects of Mental Illness

• People related to the individual or from the same cultural group are less likely to label an individual's behavior as mentally ill.
• Highly educated individuals are more likely to recognize mental illness behaviors.
• Women are more likely than men to recognize symptoms of mental illness and seek assistance.
• Greater cultural distance from mainstream society leads to a greater likelihood of negative response to mental illness.

Psychiatry

• A branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental illness.

History of Psychiatry

• Primitive beliefs regarding mental illness:
  • Possession by evil spirits
  • Soul loss
  • Broken taboo or sin
• History of psychiatry in Pakistan:
  • Roots in ancient healing practices
  • First mental hospital, Fountain House, established in Lahore in 1963
  • Establishment of psychiatric units and training of mental health professionals
  • Mental Health Ordinance introduced in 2001 to address stigma and promote mental health awareness

Psychiatric Nursing

• Deals with the promotion of mental health, prevention of mental illness, care, and rehabilitation of mentally ill individuals.
• Specialized area of nursing practice employing theories of human behavior, as an art and science.

History of Psychiatric Nursing

• Prior to 1860, psychiatric treatment was by custodial care.
• Florence Nightingale's philosophy of treating a patient as a member of the family and part of society laid the foundation of psychiatric nursing.

Mental Health Ordinance 2001, Pakistan

• Article 25 of the constitution states that all persons, including mentally ill people, are equal before the law.
• Key features:
  • Voluntary and involuntary admissions
  • Rights of persons with mental disorders
  • Treatment and rehabilitation standards
  • Protection of property rights
  • Legal procedures and safeguards