Mental Health Case Study

Mental health is on the rise and many children and young adults do not know where to turn to. It is said that “one in four people will experience mental health problems during their lives (Peate, 2013, p. 374).” Mental health problems can be experienced at any age but are usually predominant in children and young adults. According to the center for disease control and prevention, the definition of mental illness is “disorders generally characterized by dysregulation of mood, thought, and/or behavior, as recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 4th edition, of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-IV) (“Mental,” 2016).” School nurses and their teams are the most effective because they are able to recognize the problem and help

This would then help the student nurses “to develop more positive, but realistic, attitudes and empathy towards people with mental illness” (Blackhall et al., 2012, pg.23). A service user is defined as “patients, carer’s and the public” (Smith et al., 2008, p. 298). The group of nursing students were to complete a questionnaire before and after they partook in their studies (Blackhall et al., 2012). This questionnaire before they started studying found that students based their judgement towards people with mental illness positively and based off their personal encounters (Blackhall et al., 2012). Three years later another questionnaire was given to the same students which found common themes (Blackhall et al, 2012). The first theme was that “personal knowledge or experience continued to inform attitudes towards mental illness” (Blackhall et al., 2012, p. 24). The second theme was “most of those who attended service user-led sessions found it was effective in challenging their beliefs and attitudes about mental health” (Blackhall et al., 2012, p. 24). In conclusion, the study found that it was beneficial for the students to learn from the service users. It allowed the students to “see service users as ordinary people and witness

The first practice of preventative care is primary prevention (Learning House Admin, 2014). This practice allows the nurse to come up with strategies that will help prevent students to partake in unhealthy behaviors (Learning, 2014). Nurses can demonstrate primary prevention by having educational programs for groups of students or individually providing information to students on how to improve aspects of their lives (Learning 2014). With mental illness, nurses can provide students with information on how to live with their mental illness in a safe and healthy way (Learning, 2014). The second type of prevention that nurses provide is to recognize risk factors within students and put a plan in action to prevent the student from acquiring the disease (Learning, 2014). The nurse can do this by recognizing certain symptoms and looking at the student’s environmental situation and their family’s socioeconomic status (Learning, 2014). Risk factors such as poverty and a child’s family situation at home put the child at a higher risk for mental health and behavioral problems (Montanez et al, 2015). The third type of prevention care is to help the student manage the illness or disease that the individual has and to prevent it from getting worse (Learning, 2014). With certain mental illnesses, if students do not take their medications or allow the mental illness to go on unnoticed, it can get much worse