1) The community mental health nurse is a professional who works in collaboration

with an interdisciplinary clinical team to provide specialized support to families and

clients who are experiencing mental health challenges, some of which can include
anxiety, depression, personality, and eating disorders, addiction to drugs or alcohol,
and host of other mental health challenges. They practice in a range of behavioral
health care settings, including residential and nursing homes, community mental
health centers.
2) Therapeutic communication is defined as the face-to-face process of interacting
that focuses on advancing the physical and emotional well-being of a patient.

Therapeutic communication techniques nurses can practice :

 Using Silence
Deliberate silence can give both nurses and patients an opportunity to think
through and process what comes next in the conversation.
 Giving Recognition
Recognition acknowledges a patient’s behavior and highlights it without giving an
overt compliment. 
 Offering Self
when nurses offer their time, it shows they value patients and that someone is
willing to give them time and attention.
 Active Listening
By using nonverbal and verbal cues such as nodding and saying “I see,” nurses
can encourage patients to continue talking. 
 Giving Broad Openings
Therapeutic communication is often most effective when patients direct the flow
of conversation and decide what to talk about. giving patients a broad opening
such as “What’s on your mind today?”
 Summarizing
summarize what patients have said after the fact. This demonstrates to patients
that the nurse was listening and allows the nurse to document conversations. 
 Reflecting
 Patients often ask nurses for advice about what they should do about particular
problems or in specific situations. Nurses can ask patients what they think they
should do, 
 Focusing
Sometimes during a conversation, patients mention something particularly
important. When this happens, nurses can focus on their statement, prompting
patients to discuss it further. 

3) the Philippine Mental Health Act protects the rights of patients as follows: ‘a right to
freedom from discrimination, right to protection from torture, cruel, inhumane, and
degrading treatment; right to aftercare and rehabilitation; right to be adequately
informed about psychosocial and clinical assessments; right to participate in the
treatment plan to be implemented; right to evidence-based or informed consent; right
to confidentiality; and right to counsel, among others’.