General Approaches to People With Mental Health Problems

To be able to help people with a mental illness it is important to think carefully about how you approach people with mental health problems. It is important to develop your skills in recognising, identifying and giving care to people with mental illness. Below we outline a few key principles in how to approach people with mental health problems and their relatives.

1) Listening with interest

For a good understanding of your clients' problems it is necessary to listen to them with interest and patience. It is important to provide adequate privacy and give the clients enough time to tell their story. To show your client that you are an active listener it can also be helpful to refer to earlier conversations and discussions. Active listening requires respect for the client's view even if you do not agree with them.

2) Acceptance people's beliefs

Every community has a rich experience and varying views and beliefs on all aspects of life, including mental health problems. It is important to accept that people may have different ideas about mental health. For example, a person with epilepsy who thinks it is possessed by the devil, you would make sure to give your client some essential education about epilepsy and encourage him to take appropriate drug treatment.

3) Interest in individuals

Any activity carried out with interest is likely to give better results. This helps in building a relationship with your clients and will make them feel more comfortable, so that they are more likely to share their problems with you. Knowing about the history of your client also helps in establishing an appropriate treatment plan.

4) Encouraging emotional expression

You should encourage the expression of emotions by asking your client about their feelings, their fears and the effect the event has had on their life. Such emotional expression is part of the treatment and may relieve their stress. Sometimes your client's emotion may be expressed in the form of irritation, anger or crying. When this happens it is important to remain patient and try not to criticise or judge your client.

5) Recognition of the needs of people with mental health problems

As a consequence of their mental illness, people with mental health problems often have difficulty with functioning in normal daily life. They are likely to want more attention, love and affection. They may also complain a lot and express dissatisfaction with their family and other significant individuals. This does not mean that the individual is finding fault with others and should not be responded to in any judgemental manner. In such situations you can react by saying it is understandable to feel this way when having such an illness.

6) Reassurance

Reassurance from someone like you who knows what is happening and whom they can trust can be valuable to help them to get over a crisis situation. You should always provide reassurance where you can, for instance by informing your client and their family about the lack of harmful effects of medicines. However, it is best to avoid unrealistic reassurance in situations beyond your capacity.

7) Non-judgmental attitude

In your role it is important to avoid quick judgments and telling people that they are right or wrong. At no point should you refer to the public as unintelligent, illiterate, dumb, or useless. Instead, your efforts as a health worker are essential in bringing about changes in people's attitudes and knowledge about mental health. You are there to assist everyone to achieve a higher level of health by providing care and health education

8) Maintain confidentiality

As a health worker, you are likely to get private and sensitive information from a client during the assessment and management process. It is very important to maintain confidentiality, that is, to keep the information private and not to share it with anyone outside the medical team involved in taking care of the person. Your duty is to assure clients that their information will be kept confidential and to ensure that it remains so. This will help in building trust between you and your client.

Last modified: Tuesday, 28 February 2017, 7:01 PM