Discuss Current Issue in Mental Health Nursing
Mental health refers to a health state at which an individual can identify their abilities, work productively, cope with normal life stresses and supportive to their family. Mental health is crucial for its pivotal role in the well-being of an individual and their family through its effect on life quality. Mental health plays role in determining productivity of an individual. Various issues face mental health nursing due to ignorance and marginalization of its mental health and disease prevention. . This paper seeks to discuss the various current issues relating to mental health with their effects on nursing.
Social contexts are crucial determiners of the vulnerability of the various individual. This correlation is due to different social factors relate to mental illness risk factor. Pearson et al. (2015) argues that social determinants in mental health refer to all the aspects within which living takes place. This factor affects particular vulnerable groups in the society and affects people of all ages. Social influence on mental health is based on education, gender, social condition and disability. The above-mentioned social factors relate to mental health on the basis of health equity. Differences in these social factors result to differences in access to health care resulting in disproportionate health among the population. Moreover, the social aspect also relates to the ability people have to counter psychological distress arising from situational exposure and stress.
Social support, self-understanding, coping skills and awareness help in prevention of mental health. Moreover, proper parenting, good social interactions, proper and timely diagnosis customized health facilities for mentally ill individuals and environments that are free from violence are crucial in prevention. Social environment is important in regards to mental health. Rural and urban environments affect factors such as the use of services for mental health and risk factor. Rural residents do not use of mental health services as compared to those in urban. However, urban residents are at more risk of being exposed to mental illness.
Mental health affects people of various ages. However, vulnerability of disadvantaged individual is higher than for the rest of the community despite their age. Risk factors vary with age. For instance, in children these factors include low birth weight, neglect and abuse, hereditary mental disorders, trauma and prenatal damage due to substance exposure. In adolescents, the risk factors include violence exposure, academic stress due to performance and social seclusion. Adults and the old are more prone to being mentally ill if they are subject to stress. Preventive measures can help in reducing vulnerability of individuals to mental illness for all age brackets. For instance, resource access, basic need sufficiency and social networks that are supportive are crucial counteractive factors to vulnerability to mental illness.
Concerning these risk factors, nurses have been subject to the acquisition of proper literacy and preventive controls. For instance, nurses are undergoing TRIAD program that seeks to train for depression screening in adults (Pearson et al., 2015). Nurses have also customized their experience to offer therapy in parent-child relation. Reduction of behaviors that are sexually risky among adolescents and prevention of problems among highly vulnerable individuals has played part in countering social vulnerability to mental illness. Nurses face the challenge of advocating for policy changes. Such changes include support for action plans, prevention and treatment partnerships and the creation of awareness and education for the professionals and the public.
The discussion above reveals that social aspect is crucial influence regarding mental health. Therefore, nurses, being the most numerous providers of health service, need to embrace the social aspect of both prevention and treatment. For instance, nurses can advocate for the education of the public and a customized treatment for the consumers. Nurses also need to undertake research to provide evidence-based information regarding prevention and treatment of mental health. Moreover, partnerships in treatment and prevention need to be established while ensuring education and awareness of the public and professionals as well. Therefore, nurses are crucial to regulation and improvement of mental health.
References
Pearson, G. S., Hines-Martin, V. P., Evans, L. K., York, J. A., Kane, C. F., & Yearwood, E. L. (2015). Addressing Gaps in Mental Health Needs of Diverse, At-Risk, Underserved, and Disenfranchised Populations: A Call for Nursing Action. Archives of psychiatric nursing, 29(1), 14-18.
