Mental Health and its Challenges-Free-Samples-Myassignementhelp

Question: Discuss about the Mental Health and its Challenges. Answer: Introduction to mental health: Mental health refers to emotional, psychological and social well-being where a person has the capacity to relate to others, work productively, cope with different life stress and contribute to the community (Caplan, 2013). Mental health is highly linked to physical health too as different factors like family history of disease, health related behavior, lifestyle, life circumstances and exposure to environmental toxicants, level of social and health care support and coping skills of an individual affect the physical and mental well-being of a person (World Health Organization, 2014). The perspective about mental health also differs on the basis of culture, own personal values and behavior. The scope of this essay is to discuss about different challenges related to mental health and Christian world view about mental health. It also provides personal practice framework as a counselor to describe personal knowledge, skills, attitudes and behavior to respond to mental health challenges as a mental health counselor. Understanding of mental health and its challenges: Several psychological theories of mental health mainly imply that one of the important components of good mental health is having a closed contact with reality. In addition, the biomedical model defines mental disorder as a brain disease relying mostly on pharmacological treatment to treat abnormalities. According to neurobiological perspective, the mental health disorder is mainly characterized by chemical imbalances in the brain causing brain disease and the use of psychiatric medicine is regarded as a treatment option as they address chemical imbalances by means of disease specific drugs (Deacon, 2013). However, despite the great potential of neuroscience in revolutionizing mental health practice, the biomedical era is criticized for lack of clinical innovation and poor mental health outcomes. Although neurobiological understanding of the disease has increased development of psychological treatment, it has neglected treatment process and values of patients in the recovery process. The criticism regarding biomedical model of mental disorder was also raised because of etiological accounts. Shefer et al., (2014) has argued that that the biomedical approach is very simplistic model that is scientifically inadequate for complete recovery of mentally ill patients. It is mainly lacking in human sense and many treatment processes are very dehumanizing for patients too. Mental health challenges stems mainly from sudden changes in mood, fears and feelings of anxiety and inability to cope with life stress. The role of psychiatrist and other mental health professionals is has also become complex because of general health systems and inappropriate attitude towards the mental health patients. To reduce the sufferings of patient during the mental illness, there is a need for changes in attitude and system design too. Due to such limitation in current mental health practice, the neurobiological component of mental health has become an active area of research and there is a fo cus on combining both neuroscience and psychology. Mental disorders are highly linkers to the psychology of the human as different beliefs and thinking pattern also affects the mood and feelings of people on a daily basis. Christian world view about mental health issues: From the point of view of Christianity, the perspective of mental illness and the medications related to psychiatry is very challenging. Many Christian people have doubts regarding the effectiveness of psychiatric medications. This view and attitude about psychiatric medication and treatment option is not unique for Christianity only, several medical professionals are also going against the use of medication for psychiatry. Many Christian psychologist deny the existence of many mental illness (Clements Koenig, 2014). The Christian psychology regarding poor preference for psychiatric medication arises mainly because of the Christian perception of the human nature. They have the feeling that mood disorder or other forms of mental illness occurs due to guilt feeling and people adapt different means to reconcile with God (Stuber et al., 2014).. Hence, they do not set the problem of sin in line with other problems to define neurosis or mental health challenges. Many Christian counselors also lack the medical licensing to authorize the use of medications. Due to their different perspective about mental illness, they must be given special training to seek patients permission while ordering or stopping medications for patients. However, they often deliver treatment on the basis of their own perception about mental illness. This is ethically and legally not right and they must be given training to deal with people with mental illness. Hence, the main challenges in the mental health care system due to the Christian world view are that Christian people regard mental health as a consequence of doing sin. They also believe that care without following physical remedies is the manner in which Jesus health the patients (Stuber et al., 2014). Christian believes psychiatry is formed by wrong beliefs and notion which is not applicable to teach people with mental illness. Certain sections also believe that mental illness can be addressed by means of praye rs and rituals instead of medical interventions (Agorastos, Demiralay Huber, 2014). Hence, they adapt certain elements of psychiatry but leave major parts in order to adapt the correct approach to well-being of patients. Ethical and legal issues and post modern perspective of mental health: In the post modern world, psychiatry became the subspecialty of medicine for treating mental health issues and challenges faced by patient. Modern psychogy defined mental illness by means of different psychological theories. Some example of modern psychology theories that influenced mental health practice includes behavioral, cognitive and social theories. The field of psychiatry embraced this theory as this medical specialty mainly incorporated social science and humanities to cure people with mental illness (McNally et al., 2015). Although the psychiatric process and counseling is regarded as defensive procedure in the beginning, however it eventually results in recovery of patient. The psychological theories is also more readily accepted by people as it is least restricted and favors liberty of people instead of enslavement or separation methods to promote recovery of patients. It is also more humanistic approach to treatment where patients values and preference is respected and f ull autonomy is provided to patient or their family members regarding treatment choices (Rogers Pilgrim, 2014). Hence, the final consequence of modern approach to psychology is that it can address the limitation present in past models and make practice more favorable for mental health care professionals as it the treatment process mainly revolves around patient concerns. In the modern era, the strategies that medical school training program can take is that new staffs should be trained regarding cultural competency training to safely handle diverse group of patient and addressing the barrier in delivering care to mentally ill patient. Apart from the challenges is mental health practice due to different cultural and religious views about mental illness, there are many ethical and legal challenges in delivering care to patients too. The risk to professional liability for psychiatrist is high when the patients display suicidal behavior and any psychopharmacological issues arise. In such situation, ethical values and principles of bioethics such as beneficence, autonomy, justice, fidelity and veracity is violated. In case of voluntary or involuntary admission, taking patients consent during the treatment procedure also brings many challenges. To address such dilemma, it is necessary that patients remain informed about different ethical and legal requirements related to care of patients with mental illness. Some important patients right includes right to treatment, right to refuse treatment and right to informed consent (Dennis Monahan, 2013). Mental health professionals must have the maturity to respond to ethical ch allenges during the care process. They must be trained regarding taking the right action regarding seclusion, restraint and taking patients right related decision for patients. P roper understanding of the DSM V criteria for mental health disorder is also necessary to understand the severity and types of mental health disorder diagnosed in patient. My practice framework: You: (Who are you as the helping professional?) The above discussion has mainly given idea regarding the Christian world view about mental illness and the ethical and legal issues surrounding mental health practice that has challenged mental health care practitioner. As a mental health counselor, I also do not have very positive thoughts about the use of psychiatric medication. I feel that mental health and well-being is a spiritual concept where the thought pattern and inadequate beliefs of people needs to be changed to address mental illness. I have favored my religious thoughts about human nature, however do not totally ignore the contribution of psychiatry in the cure of people. Hence, as a counselor so far, I have focused mainly on psychoanalytic and behavioral interventions for patients so that their thought patterns could be changed and modified instead of changing their behavior through psychosis medication. There are many hazards of antipsychotic treatment too such as evidence has shown increase in symptoms of confusion a nd delirium as a result of antipsychotic medication use (Inouye, Marcantonio, Metzger, 2014). Theory: (What you need to know?) So far in my experience as a counselor, I have followed the recovery oriented model of mental illness and considered the fact that unresolved trauma in patient is seen due to poor thought pattern and social issues in life. Hence, I have applied cognitive behavioral theory (CBT) during counseling session. It has helped me to enhance positive outcome for patient as the theory focuses on how people think (cognition), how they feel (emotion) and how they act. Inquiry regarding these three areas in the counseling session has helped me to understand negative and unrealistic thought of patient and develop alternative ways of thinking in patient to address psychological distress and other symptoms (Kendall Hollon, 2013).However, as different people have different views about mental illness due to different cultural and religious beliefs, I also need to learn about several social and psychological theories too. This will help me to understand the complexity of thought patterns and cause of m ental problems in patient. In addition, my values and attitude as a mental health professional is related to promoting fairness, justice, well-being and relational harmony of patient. I focus on empowering patients so that they redevelop the skills to cope with life stress. The values of well being and being fair to patient will also help to minimize ethical and legal consequences in the care process. Practice: What you need to be able to do? As a competent practitioner, I must also be able to handle people coming from different culture. I also want to effectively adapt recovery oriented framework so that I can build a therapeutic relation with mental illness client and they develop the trust level to disclose their life issues to me during the counseling session. My practice framework is also incorporates practice knowledge, theoretical knowledge and factual knowledge for the delivery of care. Practical knowledge is related to lived experience of mental health professionals, whereas theoretical knowledge is related to appropriate models and theoretical approaches to be applied during treatment. Factual knowledge is related to following all professional standards and competency required for a mental health professional to practice. I want to integrate my gospel knowledge and give preference to client need during treatment planning. Context: On the ground, I have found several limitations in counselor training. The limitation for individual counselor increases on the basis of years serviced in counseling sessions. Some of the common challenges in counseling include issues in maintaining confidentiality of patient, taking informed consent from patient, imposing values and preserving patients right during care (Erford, 2017). This has influenced me to as many patients are not capable to engage in shared decision making due to mental illness and it increases the ethical dilemma for us. I aim to use my professional practice standards and the evidence based strategies to handle these issues in the future. My plan for the future is to engage in proper assessment process to improve my decision making skills. This will be enhanced mainly by the use of recovery oriented service delivery as it will support me to provide evidence-informed treatment and provide psychological support in way that brings best outcome well being of pati ent (Slade et al., 2014). References Agorastos, A., Demiralay, C., Huber, C. G. (2014). Influence of religious aspects and personal beliefs on psychological behavior: focus on anxiety disorders.Psychology research and behavior management,7, 93. Caplan, G. (2013).An approach to community mental health(Vol. 3). Routledge. Clements, W. M., Koenig, H. G. 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