MENTAL HEALTH NURSING

Mental health has been a topic that people shy away from but has gained a lot of popularity especially in the 21^st century. The quarantine period associated with the Corona virus has brought to light the need to address the issues of mental health. This paper will review the article by Daniel Newman and others titled, “Mental Health Service Users’ Experiences of Mental Health Care: An Intergrative Literature Review.” This article gives an interesting look into mental health by illustrating the experiences of the people living with mental health challenges towards the services they receive for recovery. The article is an eye opener as it moves away from the commonly treaded path of looking at mental health in terms of the causes, classification, types of treatment, impact and ways to deal with people with living with mental health challenges. Instead, the authors take a business-like approach by looking at people with mental health challenges as service users or consumers in need of services from health professionals. From this analysis, the authors hope to shed light on the improvement of mental health services that will be fit for the service users.

The article proposes a recovery model for people living with mental challenges that is person-centered. The themes of acknowledgement of a mental health problem so as to seek help, participation and building relationships during the care process and promoting the continuity of care were brought out in the article as aspects that better the experiences of the people seeking help with mental health(Newman et. al, 2015). The articles identifies the nurse as the service provider of mental health service and the importance of the service user and the provider having a working rapport becomes key to the recovery of those seeking mental health service(Hickie et al., 2019).

The article based its findings on a robust search through different databases like the Cochrane Database, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES and the UK and Ireland Reference Centre for any data published on the topic for a period of five years from 2008-2012. The papers retrieved from this databases was passed through data extraction, quality and thematic analysis to reduce the initial 272,609 articles collected to 34 articles that dealt directly with the themes identified for the studies(Newman et. al, 2015). Since the study in the article was a qualitative study from the review of previous articles, the main finding was that though people may express satisfaction with mental health services, there is need to improve on the three themes identified by the study to provide wholesome care to the people living with mental issues. The present articles that were reviewed lacked the demonstration of the user involvement and the empowerment of the user to engage and make decisions for their recovery process(Newman et. al, 2015).

The evidence of the article can be incorporated into the nursing practice. The nurse may not make the decision for the person with mental health issues to acknowledge their condition and seek help, but once that stage is passed, the nurse should be able to create an environment where a relationship is built between the patient and the service provider in a way that not only ensures continuous treatment but also empowers the patient with tools to help with the recovery of the mental health conditions. This calls for probable retraining of constant training of medical professionals dealing with mental health to gain skills on creating a rapport with their patients for recovery of such patients(Oranye et al., 2016).

I would recommend the article to a colleague as it gives a new perspective to the study of the treatment of mental health issues. The central part of the patient in the recommended model is something that needs to be taken up by health professionals globally. Breaking down how to implement this model into three themes is also recommendable as it makes it easy to implement in practice. However, the statistical part of the findings is lacking which limits the reliability of the study in the academic and scientific sector. The first theme of the model which is the acknowledgement that a person has a mental health problem and that they should sick help is not always practical and reduces the realist nature of the study. In some instances, it is not evident to the person that they may be having mental health issues. Additionally, the stigma that is associated with mental health discourages people from seeking mental health(Henderson et al., 2013). I would recommend that the study reforms this theme with the ability for mental health professionals and especially nurses to identify people suffering mental health challenges in the society and encourage them to seek help.

Conclusion

The concerns raised by medical professionals in relation to mental health cannot be ignored. It is time for medical professionals and especially nurses, who are largely the first stop in healthcare, to relook mental health care in a way that prioritizes the need and experience of the patient for better outcomes. The need for change in the approach to healthcare is justified by the diverse nature of mental health that means that the one-size-fits-all in mental health cannot be sufficient to help in the recovery of mental health patients(Jobes&Chalker, 2019). It is also important for more research in this area that focuses on statistics that will add validity to the findings of this research.

References

Henderson, C., Evans-Lacko, S., &Thornicroft, G. (2013).Mental Illness Stigma, Help Seeking, and Public Health Programs. American Journal Of Public Health, 103(5), 777-780. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2012.301056

Hickie, I., Scott, E., Cross, S., Iorfino, F., Davenport, T., &Guastella, A. et al. (2019). Right care, first time: a highly personalised and measurement‐based care model to manage youth mental health. Medical Journal Of Australia, 211(S9). https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.50383

Newman, D., O’Reilly, P., Lee, S., & Kennedy, C. (2015). Mental health service users’ experiences of mental health care: an integrative literature review. Journal Of Psychiatric And Mental Health Nursing, 22(3), 171-182. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpm.12202

Jobes, D., &Chalker, S. (2019). One Size Does Not Fit All: A Comprehensive Clinical Approach to Reducing Suicidal Ideation, Attempts, and Deaths. International Journal Of Environmental Research And Public Health, 16(19), 3606. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16193606

Oranye, N., Arumugam, U., Ahmad, N., &Arumugam, M. (2016).Perceived training needs of nurses working with mentally ill patients. Contemporary Nurse, 52(5), 555-566. https://doi.org/10.1080/10376178.2016.1194726