Psychiatric Health Nursing

• 8 Components of Complete Wellness

  • Spiritual Wellness
  • Intellectual Wellness
  • Physical Wellness
  • Environmental Wellness
  • Financial Wellness
  • Occupational Wellness
  • Social Wellness
  • Emotional Wellness
• Spiritual Wellness


  Expanding our sense of purpose and meaning in life
• Intellectual Wellness


  Recognizing creative abilities and finding ways to expand knowledge and skills
• Physical Wellness


  Need for physical activity, diet, sleep, and nutrition
• Environmental Wellness


  Good health by occupying pleasant, stimulating environments that support well-being
• Financial Wellness


  Satisfaction with current and future financial situations
• Occupational Wellness


  Personal satisfaction and enrichment derived from one's work
• Social Wellness


  Developing a sense of connection, belonging, and a well-developed support system
• Emotional Wellness


  Coping effectively with life and creating satisfying relationships
• Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing


  An interpersonal process that promotes and maintains patient behavior that contributes to integrated functioning of the individual, family, group, organization or community
• Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing


  • A specialized area of nursing practice committed to promoting mental health through the assessment of human responses to mental health problems and psychiatric disorders
• Mental health has many components and a wide variety of factors influence it. These factors interact, thus mental health is a dynamic or ever-changing state
• Contributing factors to Mental Health and Well-being

  • Environmental factors
  • Individual attributes and behaviors
  • Social and economic circumstances
• Adverse factors at the individual level

  • Low self-esteem
  • Cognitive/emotional immaturity
  • Difficulties in communicating
  • Medical illness, substance abuse
• Protective factors at the individual level

  • Self-esteem, confidence
  • Problem-solving skills, stress management
  • Communication skills
  • Physical health, fitness
• Adverse factors at the social circumstance level

  • Loneliness, bereavement, neglect, family conflict
  • Exposure to violence, low-income and poverty
  • Difficulties or failure at school
  • Work stress, unemployment
• Protective factors at the social circumstance level

  • Social support of family and friends, parenting
  • Physical safety, security, economic security
  • Scholastic achievement
  • Satisfaction and success at work
• Adverse environmental factors


  • Poor access to basic services
  • Injustice and discrimination
  • Social and gender inequalities
  • Exposure to war and disaster
• Protective environmental factors


  • Equality of access to basic services
  • Social justice, tolerance, integration
  • Social and gender equality
  • Physical security and safety
• Adverse factors across the lifespan


  • Pre-conception and pre-natal period: Unwanted pregnancy, Poor adaptation to pregnancy
  • Infancy and Early Childhood: Parental absence or rejection, Maltreatment and neglect by the parents and family members
  • Childhood: Bullying, Family violence, conflict, or loss, Negative life events, Poor academic performance, Poor living condition, Children with a parent who has mental illness
  • Adulthood: Unemployment, Ill health or disability, Stress and anxiety, Lack of social support/network
  • Older age: Social and family isolation, Bereavement, Chronic physical illness
• Mental Illness


  A clinically significant behavioural or psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in an individual and is associated with present distress or disability or with a significantly increased risk of suffering death, pain, disability, or an important loss of freedom
• General Criteria for Mental Illness


  • Dissatisfaction with one's characteristics, abilities, and accomplishments
  • Ineffective or unsatisfying relationships
  • Dissatisfaction with one's place in the world
  • Ineffective coping with life events
  • Lack of personal growth
  • Inability to distinguish reality from fantasy
  • Intolerance of life's uncertainties, a sense of disharmony in life, and a loss of meaning in one's life
  • Excessive dependency on or withdrawal from relationships
  • No sense of belonging, inadequate social support, and loss of emotional control
• Historical Perspective on Mental Illness


  • Ancient Times: Sickness indicated displeasure of the Gods and was a punishment for sins and wrongdoings
  • Aristotle: Related mental disorders to physical disorders in the amount of the blood, water, and yellow and black bile in the body controlled the emotions
  • Renaissance Period (1300-1600) England: Mental illness were distinguished from criminals and was sent to prison to starve
  • Period of Enlightenment (1790s): Formulation of the concept of Asylum as a safe refuge or haven, offering protection at institutions
  • Development of Psychopharmacology in the 1950s: Introduction of psychotropic drugs to treat mental illness
• Levels of Interventions in Psychiatric Unit

  • Primary: Interventions aimed at the promotion of mental health and lowering the rate of cases by altering the stressors
  • Secondary: Intervention that limit the severity of a disorder
  • 2 components of secondary: case finding and prompt tx
  • Tertiary: Interventions aimed at reducing the disability after a disorder
  • 2 components of tertiary: prevention of complication and active program of rehab
• Principles of Care in Psychiatric Setting


  • The nurse views the patient as a holistic human being with interdependent and interrelated needs
  • The nurse accepts the patient as a unique human being with inherent value and worth exactly as he is
  • The nurse should focus on the patient's behavior non-judgmentally while assisting the patient to learn more adaptive ways of coping
  • The nurse should explore the patient's behavior for the need it is designed to meet and the message it is communicating
  • The nurse has the potential for establishing a nurse-patient relationship with most, if not all, patients
  • The quality of the nurse-patient relationship determines the degree of change that can occur in the patient's behavior
• Psychiatric Health Nurse


  The one who takes care of the mentally ill patients in the psychiatric setting and performed so many functions as well
• Essential Qualities of a Mental Health Nurse


  • Empathy - ability to see beyond outward behavior and sense accurately another person's inner experiencing
  • Genuineness/Congruence - ability to use therapeutic tools appropriately
  • Unconditional positive regard - RESPECT
• Roles of a Mental Health Nurse

  • Ward manager - creates a therapeutic environment
  • Socializing agent - assists the patient to feel comfortable with others
  • Counselor - listens to the patient's verbalizations
  • Parent surrogate - assists the patient in the performance of activities
  • Patient advocate - enables the patient and his relatives to know their rights and responsibilities
  • Teacher - assists the patient to learn more adaptive ways of coping
  • Technician - facilitates the performance of nursing procedures
  • Therapist - explores the patient's needs, problems and concerns through varied therapeutic means
  • Reality base - enables the patient to distinguish objective reality and subjective reality
  • Healthy role model - acts as a symbol of health by serving as an example of healthful living
• The Patient


  The mentally ill patient is the one whose suffering from mental illness and the recipient of care of the nurses and the psychiatrist