Mental Health Awareness

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
 Small group exercise
1. Have a short discussion about how you
would define the term ‘mental illness’.
2. 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.
 How we perceive mental illness

Mental health (wellness)

Mental Ill health

(Illness)
 Tudor (1996)

Health Ill-health

Coping
Stress management
Self concept & identity
Self Esteem
Self Development
Autonomy
Social support
 Ten Elements of Mental Health
Promotion
• Mental Health • Mental Health
Promotion Demotion
• Environmental quality • Emotional deprivation
• Self-Esteem • Emotional abuse
• Emotional processing • Emotional negligence
• Self-management • Stress
skills • Social exclusion
• Social Participation
 Which mental illness is most
common?
• Depression with
anxiety affects 9.2%
of the population
• 1 in 20 experience
severe depression
 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.
 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?
Classification and diagnosis

Three types of functional mental illness

Psychosis Neurosis Personality Disorder

DSM iv / ICD 10
 Psychotic Scale
• Otherwise referred to as severe and
enduring mental illness
• Psychosis
• Bi polar illness
• Severe depression
 Neurotic scale
• Generalized anxiety disorder
• Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
• Post traumatic stress disorder
• Specific phobia
• Agoraphobia
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm
8spZG8dAc&feature=related
 Organic Mental Illness
• Alzheimer's
• Vascular Dementia
• Acquired Brain Injury

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wbYE
K7O14E
 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.
 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
 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
 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.
• 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’.
 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