Download Mental Health Unit Introduction

PDCP – Leo Hayes High School
• What is mental health?
• Stopping the Stigma
• Mental health and mental illness
• Specific mental illnesses
• Experience
• Finding Support/Positive Mental Health
• Students will get in groups of four
• Within their groups they will receive a piece of chart paper
and markers
• Groups will make a concept map of what they think mental
health is.
• Once everyone is done, groups will briefly present their ideas
to the rest of the class
• Mental health includes our emotional, psychological,
and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel,
and act.
• It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to
others, and make choices.
• Mental health is important at every stage of life,
from childhood and adolescence through adulthood.
Mental Health
• Was once defined as showing no signs or symptoms of
mental illness. This has changed.
• The following characteristics are now considered when
assessing mental health:
• Ability to Enjoy Life
• Resilience
• Balance
• Self-Actualization
• Flexibility
• Mental illnesses are disorders of brain function. They have many
causes and result from complex interactions between a person’s
genes and their environment.
• Having a mental illness is not a choice or moral failing. Mental
illnesses occur at similar rates around the world, in every culture
and in all socio economic groups.
• The statistics are staggering, 1 in 5 young people suffer from a
mental illness, that’s 20 percent of our population but yet only
about 4 percent of the total health care budget is spent on our
mental health.
• We all have it!
• Mental health is like our physical health,
we have to exercise to stay fit.
• A positive sense of well being is something
that everyone should try to achieve.
Is a term used to describe a number of different
psychiatric problem.
• Can affect emotional, cognitive, or behavioral
functions.
• Ex. how a person feels, thinks or acts.
Mental illness can vary in duration and
intensity and can come and go from a
person’s life over time.
•
•
Must be diagnosed by a doctor
Can be treated through therapy and medication
Mental illnesses are characterized by changes in thinking, mood or
behaviour associated with significant distress and impaired
functioning.
Examples of specific mental illnesses include:
• Mood disorders: major depression and bipolar disorder
• Schizophrenia
• Anxiety disorders
• Personality disorders
• Eating disorders
• Problem gambling
• Substance dependency
• Mental illness arises from a complex interaction of genetic,
biological, personality and environmental factors. Mental
illnesses affect people of all ages, education levels, income
levels and cultures.
Specific risk factors include:
• family history of mental illness,
• age,
• gender,
• substance abuse,
• chronic diseases,
• family, workplace, life event stresses.
• …are not the same as mental
illness. (Distress vs. Disorder)
• …are short term and typically not
recurring.
• …refer to the more common
struggles that people face in their
day to day lives.
• …are associated with life events
such as break ups, death of a loved
one, stress, etc.
• The brain is responsible for many
different functions in the body:
• Thinking
• Sensing
• Feeling
• Signaling
• Physical Functions (Bodily Systems)
• Behavioral Functions (Listening,
talking, etc)
oAll of these systems are connected
to one another through the brain.
• Smarter Everyday Video on Brain Development
The brain can get sick because:
oDamage can occur through the use of drugs, poison,
head injury, or environmental stress.
oInfection such as meningitis (high fevers)
oGenetic history or heredity
oIf the brain is not working properly one of the six
previous functions are being interrupted or
disturbed.
• Read the handout titled “Anxiety – Rachel’s Story.
• In your notebook make a list of factors that indicate what
Rachel was experiencing was a Mental Illness and not just
a Mental Health Problem.
• Look for and list specific evidence from the reading.
• Be prepared to share with the class.