Strength based approach for mental health
Introduction
Majority of the mental health system have adopted pathologies-based model when dealing with mental disorder and the risk associated with it, this model is quite expensive with research showing that, billions are spent every year in health care system to deal with mental illnesses. Pathology based approach doesn’t utilize the resource available in individuals environment to improve the quality of life or to help in recovery journey.it perspective about mental illness make the life the individual difficult and leads to isolation because of the believe that mental illness is chronic and one cannot recover and the community also view the individual as crazy people. However, with the introduction of individualized strength -based approach, there is reduced stigma for mentally ill person and there is hope to recovery. This approach moves the focus away from the shortfalls of mentally ill people and concentrate with the strengths and resources of the individual that can be used to facilitate recovery.in this approach every opinion of the individual is vital for the recovery process unlike in pathology- based model which consider and relies only on the views knowledge of the nurses.in strength -based approach nurses intervention focus on psychosocial process, social policies, planning and development which include counselling, family therapy and help individuals to access services and other resources in the community. The mental health nurses or workers should be recovery-oriented. Therefore, this study points out the relevance and contribution of strength-based approach to mental health system.
Mental health problem is a one of the primary issues policy makes focus on because of the impact it has to the community such as reduced production rate and high cost of condition management. According to World Health Organization (WHO), mental illness is the highest cause of disability among all other diseases. Most of the health systems have adopted traditional medical view of mental health disorder based on diagnostic categories for mental disorder such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. In medica model, mental illness is seen has irreversible brain damage and this has made majority people with mental illness to loss hope, develop low self-esteem and isolate themselves. They also live poor quality life with the community viewing them negatively due to bad psychosocial functioning, making the recovery journey difficult for them. However, in 1979 professor Aaron Antonovsky come up with strength-based approach to support human health and well-being. This approach, focus on a person’s character to promote health rather than focusing on symptoms and pathologies that trigger illness. In this approach recovery journey of mentally ill person is determined by the confidence of the individual that he/she is capable to recover. According to studies, acknowledgment of an individual’s strengths aids in preventing or reducing damage of the disease.
Strength based approach encourage people in the community to have interests to identify and use their strength to improve the quality of life. Family and friends are required to offer significant support to the ill individual although personal attitude play the major part to help in recovery or to reduce symptoms. Having interest and desire to recover make it possible. Having hope and confidence that you have the ability to recover, act as a motivation factor to this process and one of the first step to recovery. This can be attained through listening and reading stories of people who have recovered and engaging in positive conversation with people who can help to be strong. Accepting you have the illness and learn to cope with the changes helps an individual to come up with ways to improve the situation rather than living in denial. Controlling your life by making a choice to eliminate what makes your mental health symptoms worse and taking what is better in order to prevent relapse . Adopting good lifestyles that can help improve quality of life for example engaging in regular physical exercise that help to reduce or eliminate depression symptoms, low mood and it also help as an antidepressant. Eating healthy diet help in well-being by maintaining stable normal weight. These strengths result to better functioning and aid in mental recovery.
However, it is difficult for metal health practices to shift from pathology-based model to strength -based approach. usually, there has been a perception that accurate diagnosis aids in administration of the right medication to the individual but in strength-based approach nurses have to take time to interact closely with the individual for the to gain understanding of their character traits before diagnosis. This is done through education and training.in illness based approach it believed that solving the problem make the life of the individual to return to normal while strength based approach believe in focusing on personal capabilities and sharing of mental distress experience is form of change that eliminate the old behaviors and expose a new personality. The struggle that the individual goes through result to positive outcome and enables the individual achieve more than they would achieve without the experience. The approach relies less on to nurses knowledge for mental health diagnosis and recovery, but it considers the knowledge of the individual as being crucial in this process. However, shifting the attention to strengths doesn’t mean that the illness and the professional knowledge of nurses is ignored.it still nurses’ responsibility to assist individuals to utilize and consolidate their strengths to recovery process. This process is not successful until the individual gets back to their normal meaningful life. This can be achieved by helping the individual understand signs and symptoms of the disease and come up with a plan of action to improve the situation. Majority of the people with severe mental illness resist to seek medical help or any form of assistance thus making it difficult for the nurses to develop a relationship, that can lead to identification of individuals strengths thus resulting to delay of the process. However, in such a case, the practitioner shift to advance directives where by the opinion or wishes of the individual are clarified by some advocating for them if they cannot do so by themselves.it is through strength focus the practitioner is able to respect individuals abilities, value, goal and beliefs despite their mental condition. Due to the common pathology -based model, these individuals from disadvantaged areas and from low social-economic population may not access medical services early enough while others don’t seek medical services completely due to fear of stigma. This has facilitated increase in number of untreated mental illness. Inadequate resource for mental health such as research portals to address the issue of mental health is another great barrier of strength- based recovery process.
This approach involves principles that focus on individuals’ strengths and encourage personal responsibility, self-protection and positive outcome. There is evidence that individuals receiving strength-based practices, their symptoms are significantly reduced and the stay in hospital for fewer days in hospital compared to these using symptom focus approach. Individuals with mental illness want quality life just as everyone else want. This is because mental disorder doesn’t change the aspect of human nature in them. For instance, a mentally ill individual requires good diet, shelter and clothing. Practitioners should focus on strengths and help people to feel good about themselves and encourage them to believe in their ability for personal recovery. Encourage support from family and friends, bring resources and strengths together to aid in recovery. family and community can organize education sessions and social gatherings between the patient, family and health care providers to create understanding of their demand and offer them an opportunity to show their strengths. Curative relationship is developed between the health care provider and the person with mental disorder with an aim of knowing how the patient cope despite the health condition and identify the person’s desires, strengths and ability. The relationship is met to challenge the traditional believe associated with mental illness. The individual and the health care provider work as partners as the health care provider offer technical knowledge to influence utilization of individual’s strengths to help in recovery. The views of the person with mental illness help the health provider, family and community understand them better and support them to recover.
According to research carried out in Australia, 21-24% of household has a mentally ill person thus creating the need for utilization of strengths and resources of the family to facilitate healing.it is the responsibility of nurses to educate family members that the mentally ill people still have an identity, have a voice and need to be loved despite their health condition. Assist them to accept and understand the individual’s change in behavior that involves mood swings and social withdrawal. Show them hope that the individual will recover and once they accept, they are involved in treatment process. This make recovery easy and quick because the family members are at a good position to identify the strengths of the individual that can be used to achieve the goal.
The health provider can develop curative relationships using strengths-based approach through evolution of individual’s strengths. Although every individual has unique strengths there some assets and traits that appear on the list of strengths. These include personal character, virtues, personal qualities and cultural.in case an individual has difficult in identification of strengths the nurse help them to do so, through interrogating them by asking general questions about their hobbies or asked to give an opinion about their personal life. The nurse uses the information collected from the person to identify strengths and after this a plan is set to utilize them to deal with the condition. This means what matters is what the patient’s view being vital to them rather than what the nurses think is vital for them.
Conclusion
The practice of mental health has shifted it attention from the medical model that believe in controlling of mental disorder symptoms to strength -based approach that focus on capabilities of the individual. This has helped an individual with mental illness to feel important and it boost the self-esteem. In this approach, identification and utilization of strengths of the individual are used to help them in recovery journey by making them realize that they have the ability to facilitate their recovery. The interest and the desire of the individual to recover is very vital in this process because the individual is the driver to the recovery journey. This means without the desire and the effort of the individual the set goal cannot be achieved. For the individuals who are not able to identify their strengths, they are assisted by nurses by get information from them through asking questions about their personal life to help them to point out their strengths. Also, the development of curative relationship between the individual, nurse, family and the community agencies make it easy to understand the demands the individual and offer the required support through incorporation of resources. Although this approach is significant, it faced by varies challenges that led to implementation of certain policies to help in overcoming the barriers involved.