Mental Health in the Community

1. What is the definition of mental health in the community?

The definition of mental health in the community means the care and support that a person receives in order to assist him manage problems relating to mental health as he/she lives in the community. The community mental health care is set up to help individuals and hence reduces costs they pay for the inpatient mental health care received in hospitals. The community mental health care is more accessible than the hospital care because of the various settings of the community as compared to aggregation and isolation of patients in hospitals.

2. What is the history of community mental health nursing?

Community mental health nursing started in the year 1954 in Croydon, Warlingham Park Hospital (Gournay, 2014) as ward-based nurses were going out to check on the outpatients that were receiving treatment of Schizophrenia. These nurses had the task of administering medicines to the outpatients; hence, they were checking the progress of their patients. Ever since, community mental nursing spread rapidly, and training courses were set up in the 1070s. By the year 1997, the profession of the community mental nurses became widespread in some parts of England and Wales. They come to work in an exclusive manner with the mentally ill elderly and people with schizophrenia; thus, their roles and work were linked to the consultant psychiatrists working at the Victorian mental hospital. In the early 1980s, the community mental health practices begun to change. General hospitals were established, and changes in the management structure of the national health services were implemented making them more independent. Due to many referrals to general hospitals, the community mental nursing did not deal with the patients with schizophrenia. In the 1990s, the community mental nurses would give patients counseling like therapy; hence, patients benefited from following ups on clinical, social, and economic measures.

3. Identified and mention some epidemiological mental health factors in your community.

The aim of epidemiology is understanding and controlling disease epidemic. It involves empirical investigation, analyzing the exposure to the agents that cause mental illness and the variation in how individuals resist to these diseases and their association. In my community, the epidemiological mental health factors involve genetic or heredity, infections, prenatal damage, and substance abuse (Kessler, 2009).

Genetics

Families pass mental illness to the next generations through genes. People with family members having mental illness tend to carry genes with mental abnormalities; hence, in the reproduction period these genes are passed to their siblings.

Infections

There are some people who get mental illness due to the infections that cause brain damage, for example, the streptococcus bacteria that cause and develop obsessive-compulsive mental disorder in children. Another condition linked to the mental illness in the community is the brain defects or injuries that arise from accidents.

Prenatal Damage

At birth time, trauma and disruption of the fetus’ brain cause mental illness of the child. For example, when a child lacks oxygen in the brain, he/she develops mental conditions like autism.

Substance Abuse

Substances abuse is a major factor in the epidemiology of mental illness. This is common among the young generation due to peer pressure, depression, and curiosity to try substantive drugs like heroin or marijuana. Excessive intake of these drugs leads to brain damage that causes to mental disorder.

4. What are some of the conceptual frameworks for psychiatric-mental health nursing?

According to the US National Library of Medicine (2014), the conceptual frameworks in the psychiatric mental health nursing help in giving the directions for the course. The frameworks in the mental health nursing are the social systems and development theory. These frameworks help in the assessment of individuals. More so, there is the concept of communication theory based on the intervention of individuals; hence, change in the self-esteem is an evaluation measure. Finally, the nurse therapist should consider a framework that evolves the model of intersystem.