MENTAL HEALTH DISCUSSION TOPICS

Discussion Topics, Mohr-Chapter 1, Introduction to Psychiatric–Mental Health Nursing 1. After learning about mental illnesses in class, a classmate expresses her fear of developing a mental illness. She says to you, “I see a little bit of myself in every mental illness diagnosis we talk about. I am so afraid I may develop one of these diseases one day.” What are the elements of mental health? In what way do you meet these elements? The elements of mental health: Self-governance- by acting independently, dependent, interdependently when needed without losing autonomy. Progress toward growth or self-realization: being prepared to move forward to maximize your capabilities. Tolerance of the unknown- facing the unpredictability of life and death with faith and hope. Self-esteem- knowing and being accepting of personal abilities and limitations through lifelong self-reflection and feedback from others. Reality orientation distinguishing fact from fantasy and behaving accordingly. Mastery of environment- competency, effectively, and creatively with and influencing environmental context. Stress management- experiencing congruent emotions in delay life and tolerating stress. These elements can be meet by feeling good about ourselves, being respectful or others. and showing compassion to others. Maintaining a positive outlook on life also helps, and to show value and respect in diversity. MENTAL HEALTH DISCUSSION TOPICS Mental Health Discussion Topics What are the influences on mental health? Which mental health influences can be controlled, and which ones cannot? The influence of mental health are biologic, psychological, sociocultural factors. The mental health influences that can be controlled are nutrition, emotional development, economic, valves’ and beliefs. The influences which can’t be controlled are neonatal events family stability, ethnicity. Jane, a 43-year-old mother of two, was admitted to a mental health facility after a suicide attempt and was diagnosed with severe depression. After several weeks of antidepressant therapy, Jane’s mood greatly improved. Jane’s friend, who was unaware of her suicide attempt and diagnosis, noticed the difference in Jane. When asked about what caused the difference in her mood, Jane said she was just feeling a little down, but she was feeling better now. Jane was ashamed to tell her friend about her suicide attempt and her mental health diagnosis. What are the similarities and differences associated with the stigma of a physical illness and that of mental illness? The stigma is between mental illness and physical illness is greatly influenced by the misconception of patients that suffer from mental illness and physical illness has lead to discrimination intolerance of mental illness. More money is spent for physical illness than it is spent for mental illness. What stigmas about those with mental health conditions exist in society? The stigma’s about mental health conditions in society are discrimination and isolation towards clients that suffer from mental health disorders which cause the clients to have interpersonal, financial and employment social barriers. Sarah has been working the past 5 years on a telemetry unit. After several experiences with patients suffering from mental health conditions, Sarah becomes interested in mental health nursing and is considering looking for a job as a psychiatric nurse. Mental Health Discussion Topics Describe the levels of practice for the psychiatric–mental health nurse. There are two levels of practice for psychiatric mental health nurse. There is a basic and advanced level at the basic level the nurse completes nursing school and passes the nursing boards at the advance level the nurse receives their masters’ degree and can practice at a higher level as a clinical nurse or a nurse practitioner. Basic psychiatric mental health nurse: Promotes and encourages maintenance of health and prevention. Serve as case mangers. Educate clients on self -care, medication and symptom management. Educate clients families on treatment. Advanced-psychiatric- mental health: Deliver comprehensive primary mental health services. Provide teaching and screening to clients and perform preventive interventions. Evaluate and mange care. Formulate diagnoses ordering and interpreting laboratory test. Prescribing and managing medications. Discuss the guiding principles or beliefs on which psychiatric–mental health nursing is built. Every person is worthy of dignity and respect. Every person has potential to change and grow. All people share basic human needs. All behaviors are meaningful and can be understood from the person’s perspectives People have the right to participate in decisions affecting their health and treatment Through the therapeutic use of self; via therapeutic relationships and communication nurses help people adapt, change and grow. Your instructor mentions Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General in class. You are curious and decide to read the report at: findings with the class. Mental Health Discussion Topics How does stigma affect individuals with mental illness? How can nurses seek to combat stigma in mental health care? Stigma’s reduces clients access resources and opportunities, such as employment finding housing and opportunities, such as employment finding housing and socializing. A nurse can help combat stigma’s through advocacy teaching and education on mental health care. What are the risk factors in children, adults, and older adults that increase the development of a mental illness? Stressful life situations, such as financial problems, a loved one's death or a divorce. Having a blood relative, such as a parent or sibling, with a mental illness. Having few friends or few healthy relationships. Use of alcohol and other recreational drugs. Being abused or neglected as a child. Ongoing chronic medical condition. Traumatic brain injury. A previous mental illness. What issues associated with confidentiality does the report reveal? What do you believe could be done about these issues? Health care increasingly is delivered and paid for by for-profit corporations with business in many states. This shift has several relevant consequences. First, individual health care information may be held and disseminated far beyond the office of the practitioner providing care. Second, cost containment concerns have resulted in the emergence of a variety of techniques that depend on thirdparty review of a practitioner’ s judgment that an individual should receive care, reviews that have resulted in increased demands for patient-specific information before care is approved. In addition. private health care information may be distributed for marketing commercial products, such as pharmaceuticals, a growing business that many believe constitutes an improper use of such information. Finally, private health information is used to create much larger databases, for various purposes including treatment and research, thereby increasing the number of people with access to such information. They should not be able to buy are medical information for their profit at all, that is against everything the healthcare department tells patient that their medical information is private. But really, it’s not. It has all come to money for this country. Discussion Topics, Mohr-Chapter 2, Neuroscience: Biology and Behavior Mental Health Discussion Topics Mary is a 40-year-old woman who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Mary’s 20-yearold daughter, Maria, expresses concern that her mother’s mental health disorder is genetic. What is the relationship between genetics and environment in the development of psychiatric disorders? Certain genes may increase your risk of developing a mental illness, and your life situation may trigger it. Environmental exposures before birth. Exposure to environmental stressors, inflammatory conditions, toxins, alcohol or drugs while in the womb can sometimes be linked to mental illness. psychiatric disorders like all disorders depends on a complex interaction of genetic and environmental factors, which also effect brain development and subsequent function. There are “second hit” factors found in the environment that can be related to psychiatric disorders such as toxins physical abuse neglect and infections, and prenatal exposure to alcohol. What deficiencies are associated with Mendel’s theory? Failure of mendelian inheritance assumptions involves the transmission of schizophrenia. In twins (monozygotic) share the same in utero environment and in most cases other environments after birth studies have shown that their concordance rate at which the second twin will have a disorder if the first one has it for schizophrenia is approximately 50%. Dyslexia has shown that if one twin has the disorder the other twin has a 90% chance of also having dyslexia falls to 30%. If identical twins share the same genes and those genes and those genes are programed toward the development of an illness, then why wouldn’t the concordance rate be 100% for schizophrenia. James and Susan have just had their first child. James tells the nurse that he and his wife want to ensure that their new baby’s brain develops to its fullest potential. What determines brain development in infancy and childhood? During infancy and childhood, the human brain develops rapidly acquiring an entire set of capabilities. The brain modifies and changes itself in response to new events, with neurons and neuronal connections. Visual learning in children causes neurons to develop and neuronal Mental Health Discussion Topics connections to form in the visual pathways. But without such stimuli visual development may cease. The capacity and desire for emotional relationship is related to the organization and functioning of specific system of human brain which develop during the first years of life. This capacity peaks during childhood, making children far more malleable and receptive to environmental stimuli than adults. Experiences during this vulnerable period can have critical influences on abilities for initiate and healthy relationships. By the age of 3 years old the brain is 90% of its adult’s size and the emotional, behavioral, cognitive and social foundations in place for the rest of life. Children use dependent brains mirror the pattern timing, nature frequency and quality of their experience. For optimal brain development children should be exposed to appropriate sensory information. What would you include in a teaching plan for these parents to promote their child’s brain development? The teaching plan to promote their Childs’s brain development would be: Goals Give children an opportunity to respond Be responsive to child verbal behavior Follow the child’s lead Give simple clear instructions Decrease negative verbal responses Praise child often Talk at the child’s target level Use milieu teaching procedures Expand child utterances Rationale Encourage child-initiated utterances. Meaningful related responses encourage child communication and provide context-specific language models. Engaging with the child in preferred activities provides opportunities to opportunities to model meaningful language in a context. Mental Health Discussion Topics Children respond best if the instruction command is at their language level and requests only one response. Giving instructions only for ‘Important’ behaviors increase child compliance and increase child communication. Negative behavior by parent model’s negative behavior for child and creates negative affect in the interaction. Children learn from positive consequences and praise makes interactions affectively more positive. Specific language modeling in context. Prompting production of language in conversation teaches functional skills. Children learn new forms when more elaborate models build on their own utterances and immediate context. You and a friend are discussing mental health disorders at lunch one day. Your friend says, “I think people should be able to control any type of mental problems; they just need to have the will to feel better.” How would you respond to someone who believes that mental illness is related to a lack of willpower? I would respond by saying that mental illness is not a choose. It is a health condition marked by alterations in thinking, mood or behavior that cause distress, impair ability to function, or both. How are neurotransmitters involved in mental illness? Psychiatric medications work to increase or decrease neurotransmitter levels in the brain. Too much neurotransmitter activity can lead to symptoms such as a panic attack. Your friend Marcia has been suffering from symptoms such as staring spells, confusion, and uncontrollable jerking of the arms and legs. Her general physician wants to perform an electroencephalogram (EEG). Mental Health Discussion Topics Describe to Marcia the use and purpose of an EEG. An Electroencephalogram(EEG) test is used to find problems related to electrical activity of the brain. It monitors and records brain wave patterns. During the procedure small metal discs with thin wires (electrodes are placed on the scalp and then results. EEG’s are performed to confirm or rule out various conditions such as seizure disorder head injury, encephalitis brain tumor, encephalopathy, memory problems, sleep disorders, strokes and dementia. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this neuroimaging technique? The disadvantage of neuroimaging technique: Involve injection of radioactive tracer into client’s blood stream. Dye is injected into the client’s blood stream. It is expensive. The advantages of neuroimaging: Noninvasive. Highly precise and reliable. Can monitor response to treatment. Can detect metabolic changes that may precursors to disease. Quantitative and objective bias subjects can’t mislead the observer. Discussion Topics, Mohr-Chapter 3, Conceptual Frameworks and Theories You and a fellow nursing student are discussing the different psychological theories. You find that you have differing opinions on which theories are the most accurate. Select a theory that seems to be the most compatible with your personal beliefs. What were your reasons for selecting this theory? The theory I believe is most compatible with my personal beliefs is the Erik Erikson theory psychosocial stages of development. I believe in the Erikson theory; every person has his/her own unique identity. I can relate to his theory because trust, guilt and competency are learned based upon our life experiences and the support we receive as we grow and develop.