Meaning of recovery in mental healthcare

Mental health is a level of psychological wellbeing of a person that indicates the absence of any mental illness. It is state or a condition in which a human body is functioning at a satisfactory level of emotional and behavioural adjustment. An effective and stable mental health of a person defines the individual’s ability to balance between the life activities and the efforts made to achieve the mental resilience. Therefore, there is a great significance of the mental health nursing. Mental health nursing is an immensely spread career providing opportunity which deals in several areas related to children, adolescents mental health and their recovery (Jacob 2017).

Mental health nursing refers to the appointed position of the nurse in a mental health care. They specialise in different areas and handle all the people with the different age-groups experiencing mental illness. According to the perspective of an individual recovery in mental health care refers to the regaining and retaining the hope of curing the patients suffering from the mental health illness. The concept of the recovery has been an important topic for decades in the mental healthcare settings. The main aim or agenda behind the recovery is the process of transformation, or changes that helps an individual to find the path of health and wellness. In other words, it is the healing process of an individual, which focuses on the strengths and abilities to achieve the goals towards recovery. The fundamental components to recovery, which include hope, personal responsibility or empowerment, respect, social connections.  Hope is crucial to every individual’s journey of recovery, as it forms the foundation of other goals (Parker, et.al 2017).

The mental health care or mental health nursing began to focus on the recovery-oriented practice. The practices involves being consumer-focused, facilitating the choice and opportunity, also hoping for a better life for every consumer. Recovery is an on-going process and is carried out following a particular process. It mentions that the people or the consumers in this issue may not have the full control over their symptoms, but they can absolutely control their lives (Nursing practice review mental health, 2018).

Along with the self-awareness regarding the cure of the mental illness, one can relate the act to some principles or tenets. Significantly, recovery from the mental illness does not describe the situation of not getting ill again. Recovery from a mental illness is not dependent only on the medication, or it can be stated that the recovery does not happen in a vacuum. It requires the support of healthcare professionals; also, it is never the sole responsibility of a health care professional. It does require the individuals’ motivation and will to change them (Mental Health Foundation, 2018).

Principles of recovery

There are some principles or tenets in the approach of the mental health oriented practice, which facilitates that the recovery supports the person from the mental illness. These include Uniqueness of the individual, a non-linear journey, evaluating the recovery. Thus, it can be stated that the recovery from the mental illness based on certain principles, describes the scope, and the process from an individual’s perspective (Clement, et.al 2015).

The application of recovery in the healthcare settings can be described in multiple dimensions and aspects. Recovery focuses on hope, and reintegrating the services users back into the society and in their life before their diagnosis. The application of recovery involves the crucial role of psychiatric nurses as well as the recovery model and recovery-oriented health practices. The recovery-oriented practices represent a shift in the method of treating the patients (Lyon, 2018).

Earlier, the mental health nursing and their staff reported the primary emphasis towards the identifying the symptoms and stabilisation as clinical outcome, which proved to be ineffective. There has been a change from the one-dimensional clinical approach towards involving the individual in the process of recovery. Later on, certain aspects of mental recovery were discovered in the healthcare setting that involving the patient in the meaningful conversations. Other activities and the principles included visits to garden, watching television, access to internet, and the computers. There are several models associated with the recovery it is a holistic, person-centred approach towards the mental health care. The model has been based on two premises, which includes, it is possible to recover from the mental health condition, and the most effective recovery is patient-directed (Perry, 2015).

Role of psychiatric nurses in the healthcare, nurses are in a unique position to assist or assessing the individual’s health status. The use of assessment tools, and the other recovery planning decisions to help them and affecting their behaviour positively. As a psychiatric-mental health nurse, they use arrange of clinical skills, which includes supporting, questioning, coaching, also it includes challenging the beliefs of patients regarding their illness. Nurses in a mental health nursing, provides them a hope for their recovery and better life (Macpherson, et.al 2016). The recovery process includes several steps, which starts from the assessment of the needs, leading to the formulation of plan for rehabilitation and recovery, implementing plan and finally evaluating the recovery plan (Boyd, Otilingam & DE Forge 2014).

Discussing the role of the psychiatric nurses and the importance of the recovery oriented practices and models in a health care setting, certain things can be analysed. The psychiatric nurses tend to develop therapeutic relationships with their consumers or patient, as they help to understand the nature of problem and the strategies to deal with them. Therapeutic alliance refers to the relationship between a psychologist or psychotherapist and the patient. Relying on the fact that the therapeutic alliance is a common factor in all the therapies, but it is more than just the bond between the nurse and the patient. In today’s scenario, that represents the neuropsychiatric focus cautiously spread by the psychiatric mental health nursing, which led to the development of therapeutic alliance. It is also known as nurse-client relationship or one-to-one relationships (Canadian Nurse, 2014).

Role of psychiatric nurses in facilitating recovery

The process of therapeutic alliance facilitates the growth and establishes a positive and ensuring the emotional experiences of the patients receiving the treatments. This is the reason that it is essential to develop therapeutic alliance with the customers in one-to-one relationship. It is understood as a sequence or the series of interactions, which occur over a specified period. These interactions take place in a unique structure, which is often characterised by the specific processes, phases and the assessment of problems. In a broader sense, the description of the specific setting, it can take place at home, private practice office, medical ward, or an emergency department (Pathways of care, 2018).

In addition, describing about the therapeutic alliance or the one-to-one relationship, it has three distinct phases. It starts with the orientation phase, to the working and finally the termination phase. The orientation or the introduction phase includes establishing a contact with the patient, i.e. between the healthcare practitioner and the patient whom they are working with (Zugai, Stein-Parbury & Roche 2015).

Next is the working phase characterised by the maintenance and analysis of the contact, established between them. The last phase of the process is the ending phase, which terminates the established contact between the nurse and the client. After observing the mental health nursing in the healthcare centres and the response of the patients to the recovery practices has been identified; the role of therapeutic alliance has been clearly observed and understood. Despite their importance, the therapeutic alliance does not always reflect a person’s problems and the illness. Therefore, there are certain principles associated with the mental health illness of a person. These principles include self-direction, holistic approach, individualised and the person-centred behaviour, self-empowerment, strengths, and the non-linear process that describes it is a systematic process (Fortinash 2014). The non-linearity defines about the systematic procedure that is based on the continual growth and occasional setbacks and the learning from the experiences. The other principles vital to the recovery in the mental health nursing include generating hope for the patient’s better life. The respect and acceptance from the people in the society is the another major principle. The principle of Self-responsibility is important in this aspect of mental health nursing (Health, 2018).

Peer support is another major factor that works in this case, especially dealing with the youngsters and adults. It refers to the employment of a person in which a person who has lived the experience of the mental illness either as a consumer or as a carer. These people support the individuals suffering from the condition of mental disorders. Peer support workers are an important part of the multi-disciplinary teams, across all the mental health services (Chinman, et.al  2014).

Factors influencing mental health recovery

To conclude the above discussion that described the scenario in the mental healthcare or nursing, it can be analysed that role of psychiatric nurses is important. The mental health recovery practices are essential to bring a positive change in the behaviour and belief system of the patients towards their recovery. The concern for the recovery in mental healthcare identified as a major force for establishing effective relations with their consumers. The recovery of any mental health disorders is not always related to the diagnosis of the problem, identifying the symptoms and therapies of treatment. The healthcare professionals now focussed more on developing meaningful conversations and involving their patients in the process. Hence, there has been a remarkable shift from the clinical approach of recovery to personal recovery, leading to the effective recovery of mental health disorders.

References

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Canadian Nurse 2014, Recovery-oriented practice, viewed 15 August 2018, <https://canadian-nurse.com/articles/issues/2014/september-2014/recovery-oriented-practice>.

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Clement, S., Schauman, O., Graham, T., Maggioni, F., Evans-Lacko, S., Bezborodovs, N., Morgan, C., Rüsch, N., Brown, J.S.L. &  Thornicroft, G. 2015,’ ‘What is the impact of mental health-related stigma on help-seeking? A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative studies’.  Psychological medicine, vol.45, no.1, pp. 11-27.

Fortinash, K.M. & Worret, P.A.H. 2014, Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing-E-Book. United States: Elsevier Health Sciences.

Health 2018, Principles of recovery-oriented mental health practice, viewed 15 August 2018, <https://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/CFA833CB8C1AA178CA257BF0001E7520/$File/servpri.pdf >.

Jacob, S. 2017,’ ‘Mental Health Recovery: A Review of the Peer Reviewed published literature’. The Australian Nursing Practice, Scholarship & Research, vol. 24, no.1, pp. 53-61.

Lyon, S. 2018, The Recovery Model, viewed 15 August 2018, <https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-recovery-model-2509979>.

Macpherson, R., Pesola, F., Leamy, M., Bird, V., Le Boutillier, C., Williams, J. & Slade, M. 2016,’ ‘The relationship between clinical and recovery dimensions of outcome in mental health’.  Schizophrenia research, vol. 175, no. (1-3), pp. 142-147.

Mental Health Foundation 2018, Recovery, viewed 15 August 2018,  <https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/r/recovery>.

Nursing practice review mental health 2018, Recovery-focused practice in mental health, viewed 15 August 2018, <https://www.nursingtimes.net/Journals/2014/03/14/l/t/n/190314-Recovery-focused-practice-in-mental-health.pdf>.

Parker, S., Dark, F., Newman, E., Korman, N., Rasmussen, Z. & Meurk, C. 2017,’  ‘Reality of working in a community?based, recovery?oriented mental health rehabilitation unit: A pragmatic grounded theory analysis’. International journal of mental health nursing, vol. 26, no.4, pp. 355-365.

Pathways of care 2018, Contemporary Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing, <https://drr-lib-uts-edu-au.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/46269/92436_PalmerPathways.pdf>.

Perry, B.L. & Pescosolido, B.A. 2015,’ ‘Social network activation: the role of health discussion partners in recovery from mental illness’. Social Science & Medicine, vol.125, pp. 116-128.

Zugai, J. S., Stein-Parbury, J., & Roche, M. 2015,’ ‘Therapeutic alliance in mental health nursing: an evolutionary concept analysis’. Issues in mental health nursing, vol.36, no.4, pp. 249-257.