Mental Health and Mental Disorder: Promotion and Prevention
*Mohammad Q Abdullah
Department of Counseling Psychology, University of Aleppo, Syria
Submission: October 02, 2017; Published: October 17, 2017
*Corresponding author: Mohammad Q Abdullah, Department of Counseling Psychology, University of Aleppo, Syria; Email: mk.abdalah@yahoo.com
How to cite this article: Mohammad Q Abdullah. Mental Health and Mental Disorder: Promotion and Prevention. Psychol Behav Sci Int J. 2017; 7(2): 555708. DOI: 10.19080/PBSIJ.2017.07.555708
Abstract
Mental health or psychological well-being makes up an integral part of an individual's capacity to lead fulfilling life. The determinants of mental health are influenced not only by individual attributes, but also by social, environmental factors and people's circumstances. This review focused on analyzing the determinants of mental health and factors that predisposing to mental disorders and maintaining the symptoms. The conclusion of this review is that practitioners and decision-makers should be used broad strategies as integrated model (social, psychological, physical, community) for good mental health promotion and prevention of mental illness, especially during childhood.
Keywords: Mental health promotion; Mental disorder prevention.
Introduction
Mental health is moving onto the political agenda. And the promotion of mental health, which has been generally neglected by policymakers, has gained prominence over the last few years. Mental illness has a major impact on the economy and is associated with significant costs. These total costs are comprised of both direct and indirect costs. Examples of the direct costs include the costs of medication, clinical visits, and hospitalization; examples of the indirect costs include the costs of reduced labor supply, increased physical health care, public income support payments, educational underachievement, homelessness, and incarceration.
Mental or psychological/behavioral health, together with physical or somatic health, is central for optimal human development and functioning of people in any society. Mental health is multidimensional construct made up of people's intellectual well-being; their capacity to think, perceive and interpret adequately; their psychological well-being, their belief in their own self-worth and abilities; their emotional well-being, their affective state or mood; and social well-being, their ability to interact effectively in social relationships with other people. Behavioral or psychological health is often linked to mental health and refers to behavior that influence on people's health and functioning. Therefore, health behavior can be positive or negative. For example, substance abuse is negative behavior because it can inhibit effective intellectual and social functioning [1].
Prevention of mental disorders and promotion of mental health is a key part of the work of mental health professionals. This work has been ignored partly because training is focused on diagnosing and managing or treating mental disorders and because of insufficient resources. Prevention has the potential to significantly reduce the onset and subsequent related to mental disorders as well as associated personal, social and economic costs. The distinction between prevention and promotion is very important to bear in mind when comparing mental disorder and mental health which are not simply opposite ends of a spectrum. Instead, mental disorder and mental health are distinct although related dimensions so that absence of either mental health or mental disorder does not imply the presence of other.
Prevention of mental illness is closely related to a can occur a result of promotion of mental health and associated resilience [2] . Prevention is characterized in many forms: Primary prevention that focuses on addressing wider determinants across whole populations. Secondary prevention that focuses on early detection and intervention, and tertiary prevention involves working with those with established illness to promote recovery and reduce risk of release. All these ways and processes should be done through integrated interdisciplinary fields and specialties of mental health practitioner and psychological sciences and social workers [3].
Consistent with this focus, current research and practice in the field is now moving towards the active promotion of mental health, and identifying successful population-based public health interventions, and mental illness prevention . The most successful mental health interventions are those programmed that focus on evidence based risk and protective factors. To date systematic reviews and meta-analyses on specific mental health topics have demonstrated that promotion of mental health and the prevention of mental disorders can bring about health, social and economic benefits to society.
Mental Health
Mental health or psychological well-being makes up an integral part of an individual's capacity to lead a fulfilling life, including the ability to form and maintain relationships, to study, work or pursue leisure interests, and to make day-to- day decisions about educational, employment, housing or other choices. Disturbances to an individual's mental well-being can adversely compromise these capacities and choices, leading not only to diminish functioning at the individual level but also broader welfare losses at the household and societal level. Mental Health is a state of emotional and psychological wellbeing in which an individual is able to use his or her cognitive and emotional capabilities, function in society, and meet the ordinary demands of everyday life.
Mental disorders are general phrase for a serious mental problem of an organic or psychogenic nature. Phrase is referred to "mental disease» or "mental illness», since the terms disease and illness are primary associated with organic conditions and many mental disorders can be purely psychogenic as well as mixed psychogenic and physiological in origin. Also known as mental disease/illness., psychiatric disorders/illness. Mental disorder has been realized through mal adaptive behavior that defined as an action detrimental to a person, group, or society; ineffective or self-defeating behavior. Phrase is often preferred by social learning theories as a substitute for mental illness, particularly when emphasizing the fact that detrimental pattern represent learned behavior and are thus modifiable [4].
Mental health means the ability of an individual to pursue reasonable, purposeful goals; use his capacities and talents fruitfully. As part of one’s overall health, mental and emotional health is a necessary condition to enable one to manage one's life successfully. It gives him or her capacity to live life in fulfillment of what he or she wants to achieve in accordance to the available resources. This condition also provides an individual the capacity to be resilient to the stresses he meets and to respond to these challenges without having to compromise his wellbeing. This also makes him productive and fruitful for himself and his community [5].
Mental health is important as it affects everything one does- how one sleeps, what one eats, the risk one will take and the types of things one does to relax and enjoy one. Some of the criteria for good mental health are: Adequate feeling of security; Adequate self-evaluation; Adequate spontaneity and emotionality; Efficient contact with reality; Adequate bodily desires and the ability to gratify them; Adequate self-knowledge; Integration and consistency of personality; Adequate life goals; Ability to learn from experience; Ability to satisfy the requirements of the group; Adequate emancipation from the group or culture. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) illustrated how climate changes impacts physical, mental and community health (APA).
Mental Disorder
Mental health is a state of successful performance of mental function, resulting in productive activities, fulfilling relationships with other people, and an ability to adapt to change and to cope with adversity. ...Mental illness is the term that refers collectively to all diagnosable mental disorders. Mental disorders are health conditions that are characterized by alterations in thinking, mood, or behavior (or some combination thereof) associated with distress and/or impaired functioning.
Mental health is a state of mind characterized be emotional well-being, relative freedom from anxiety and disabling symptoms, and a capacity to establish constructive relationships and cope with the ordinary demands and stresses of life.
Components of Psychiatric Assessment includes: Identifying data; Chief Complaint; History of Present Illness; Past Psychiatric History; Past Medical History; Family History; Social History. Mental status examination should include: General appearance, Consciousness, orientation, Speech and thought, speed content ,Perception , Mood, Anxiety, Attention/concentration, Memory, Insight and judgment Intelligence/higher intellectual functioning, Sociality, General appearance and behaviors, Psychomotor activity, Speech, Thought form, thought content, Mood, Affect, Cognitions, insight and judgment.
Determinants of Mental Health and Well-Being
A commonly used definition of mental health is "... a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community". Reference to this definition makes it clear that mental or psychological well-being is influenced not only by individual characteristics or attributes, but also by the socioeconomic circumstances in which persons find themselves and the broader environment in which they live.
a) Individual attributes and behaviors: These relate to a person’s innate as well as learned ability to deal with thoughts and feelings and to manage him/herself in daily life ('emotional intelligence’), as well as the capacity to deal with the social world around by partaking in social activities, taking responsibilities or respecting the views of others ('social intelligence’). An individual's mental health state can also be influenced by genetic and biological factors; that is, determinants that persons are born or endowed with, including chromosomal abnormalities (e.g. Down’s syndrome) and intellectual disability caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol or oxygen deprivation at birth.
b) Social and economic circumstances: The capacity for an individual to develop and flourish is deeply influenced by their immediate social surroundings - including their opportunity to engage positively with family members, friends or colleagues, and earn a living for themselves and their families - and by the socio-economic circumstances in which they find themselves. Restricted or lost opportunities to gain an education and income are especially pertinent socio-economic factors.
c) Environmental factors: The wider sociocultural and geopolitical environment in which people live can also affect an individual's, household's or community's mental health status, including levels of access to basic commodities and services (water, essential health services, the rule of law), exposure to predominating cultural beliefs, attitudes or practices, as well as by social and economic policies formed at the national level; for example, the on-going global financial crisis is expected to have significant mental health consequences, including increased rates of suicide and harmful alcohol use.3 Discrimination, social or gender inequality and conflict are examples of adverse structural determinants of mental well-being [6].
Mental Health Promotion
Mental health promotion often refers to positive mental health, considering mental health asa resource, as a value on its own and as a basic human right essential to social and economic development. Mental health promotion aims to impact on determinants of mental health to increase positive mental health, to reduce inequalities, to build social capital, to create health gain and to narrow the gap in health expectancy between countries and groups. Mental health promotion interventions vary in scope and include strategies to promote the mental wellbeing of those who are not at risk, those who are at increased risk, and those who are suffering or recovering from mental health problems. Further information can be found in Promoting Mental Health: Concepts, Emerging Evidence Practice [7].
Mental health promotion defined as: «Activities imply the creation of individual, social and environmental Conditions that enable optimal psychological and psycho physiological development. Such initiatives involve individuals in the process of achieving positive mental health, enhancing quality of life and narrowing the gap in health expectancy between countries and groups. It is an enabling process, done by, with and for the people. Prevention of mental disorders can be considered one of the aims and outcomes of a broader mental health promotion strategy», [8].
Mental Disorder Prevention
Mental ill health refers to mental health problems, symptoms and disorders, including mental health strain and symptoms related to temporary or persistent distress. Preventive interventions work by focusing on reducing risk factors and enhancing protective factors associated with mental ill health. Although there are definitional nuances in the field, mental disorder prevention is broadly understood as defined as: « Mental disorder prevention aims at "reducing incidence, prevalence, recurrence of mental disorders, and the time spent with symptoms, or the risk condition for a mental illness, preventing or delaying recurrences and also decreasing the impact of illness in the affected person, their Families and the society», [9].
The approach to mental disorder prevention lies in the concept of public health, defined as "the process of mobilizing local, state, national and international resources to solve the major health problems affecting communities" [10]. The Institute of Medicine Report has proposed a framework of mental health intervention for mental disorders based on the classification of the prevention of physical illness, and the classic public health distinctions between primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. Universal, selective and indicated preventive interventions are included within primary prevention in the public health classification. Secondary prevention seeks to lower the rate of established cases of the disorder or illness in the population (prevalence) through early detection and treatment of diagnosable diseases. Tertiary prevention includes interventions that reduce disability, enhance rehabilitation and prevent relapses and recurrences of the illness. Prevention of Mental Disorders: Effective Interventions and Policy Options focuses on primary prevention of mental disorders. It reviews universal, selective and indicated interventions and proposes effective strategies for policy-makers, government officials and practitioners to implement across countries and regions.
Universal Prevention
Is defined as that intervention that is targeted at the public or to a whole population group that has not been identified based on increased risk.
Selective Prevention
Targets individuals or subgroups of the population whose risk of developing mental disorder is significantly higher than average, as evidenced by biological, psychological or social risk factors.
Indicated prevention
Targets high-risk people who are identified as having minimal but detectable signs or symptoms foreshadowing mental disorder or biological markers indicating predisposition for mental disorder but who do not meet diagnostic criteria for disorder at that time.
Many operations can be done for promoting mental health, (a) Think about mental illnesses like another illness or health condition and bring them into the open, (b) Talk about mental illness openly with everyone you meet - it is surprising how many people are affected by mental illness, particularly the highly prevalent disorders of depression and anxiety, (c) Educate the community to overcome negative stereotypes based on Misconceptions, (d) Promote mental health and healthy attitudes through childhood and adult life, (e) Support the development of resilience: learn ways to deal with stress in relationships, situations, and events, (f) Assist friends and family with a mental illness to obtain care and treatment as early as possible, (g) Ensure high quality support and treatment services are provided to people with mental illness to promote recovery, (h) Actively support the families and cares of people who have mental illness, who also experience the confusion, distress, and stigma that can accompany mental illness, (i) Address discrimination in every area of life, including employment, education, and the provision of goods, services, and facilities, (j) Encourage research into mental illness to assist understanding of how these illnesses affect people and can be prevented and/ or effectively treated (WWW.health.gov.au/mentalhealth.) www. ranzcp.orgAustralian www.health.gov.au/mentalhealth
Risk and Protective Factors for Mental Disorders
While prevention and early intervention play an important role in child mental health, we are increasingly finding evidence that our programs can help at later ages as well. New interventions to address academic and social deficits are being designed for adolescents with substance abuse and behavior problems. Tiered approaches that provide interventions to entire at-risk communities of children and then focus additional services on high-need families are also being developed. For some disorders and at some ages, we lack solid interventions, such as for autism in teens (Table 1).
Social, Environmental and Economic Determinants of Mental Health
Mental health disorders can affect children at different ages and can be detected and treated in health-care settings, schools, and even justice agencies. Funding streams fol-low idiosyncratic rules that make services more difficult to coordinate and deliver When services are provided, they often focus on one dimension of a child's mental health, such as symptoms, without sufficient atten-tion to long-term outcomes such as educa-tional success and employment. Divided system responsibilities for children also make it difficult to deliver prevention programs. All this can come at a heavy cost both for children and for society (Table 2) showed the risk factors and protective factors of social, environmental and economic factors of mental disorders.
Examples of the environmental factors associated with mental illness include: stressors such as the death of a loved one, separation/divorce, changing schools, job loss, and financial hardships; cultural and social variables; prenatal exposure to viruses, toxins, alcohol and/or drugs; nutritional deficiencies; chronic medical disorders; autoimmune diseases and infections; tobacco use and excessive alcohol intake; air pollution and toxicant exposure; high weather temperatures; seasonal patterns; natural disasters; and rural geographical location,[11] has been summarized the most important determinants and conclusions regarding the mental health, mental disorders determinants, that I propose to be guidelines for implementing mental health promotion and mental illness prevention's programs :
a) Mental illness is associated with many contributing and/or causative factors. Genetics and other biological variables (e.g., abnormal balances of neurotransmitters and brain defects and injury) and psychological issues (e.g. Trauma and neglect) are examples of such factors that have been significantly linked to mental health. Additionally, numerous environmental factors are associated with mental illness.
b) Mental disorders tend to result from various combinations of the contributing/cause active factors and so all of these factors and mental health issues must be considered in context.
c) Certain environmental factors related to mental illness are modifiable. Awareness of the numerous environmental factors that contribute to mental illness could help individuals, family members, friends, teachers, employers, coworkers, and health care providers utilize and/or develop preventative interventions, early identification and screening services, and immediate treatment strategies for mental health problems [12-15].
d) A substantial proportion of individuals with mental illness do not receive the mental health care they need, even though reliable and cost-effective evidence-based services exist for all mental disorders. Funding for the mental health system is insufficient. The study, prevention, early recognition, and treatment of mental illness are not only Economical, but importantly, essential to the overall wellbeing of society.
Conduction
Good well-being and mental health is the basis of all healthy personality. Positive mental health results in health, social and economic benefits which are not simply due to absence of mental disorders. Mental health is associated with many factors such as improved educational achievement and outcomes, greater productivity and less in sickness absence, better somatic health, reduced mortality, increased social interaction and participation, reduced risk of mental illness or suicide, reducing risk-behaviors such as smoking, and increasing resilience to adversity. This review encourage researchers and practitioners to practice and work on the prevention of mental disorders and mental health programs together and with integrated plan for normal personality through life -span [16].
Prevention of mental disorder through childhood is very significant for promoting mental/behavioral health in adolescence and adulthood. Many poor communities would benefit from interventions and prevention in early years, and these gains are more likely to be enhanced if similar programmers are targeted at middle childhood and early adolescent children.
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