Understanding Mental Health and its Relationship with Physical Health

Running head: HEALTHCARE
Healthcare
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), mental health is defined as a
state of well-being under which each and every individual understands personal potential and
thus coping with the daily stress while working productivity and giving meaningful
contribution to the society. Having a mental health disorder affects a person’s mental health
stability leading to poor coping skills and hamper in the physical and mental well-being. The
common mental health orders include anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia
(Parliament of Australia., 2019). The following assignment is base on the case study of Sam,
who has recently expression signs and symptoms of mental health complications. The paper
will initiate by explaining that mental health complications he is suffering from by relating
with the symptoms. This will be followed by establishment of the relationship of mental
health with physical health along with a comprehensive understanding about the level of
personal recovery. At the end, the paper will highlight the mental health needs of Sam and the
implications of the assignment in relation to the therapeutic mental health practice. The
overall assignment will help in understanding how mental and physical health and related and
the importance of the mental health interventions for promoting faster recovery and
improvement of the overall health and well-being.
Discussion
Understanding of mental and mental illness
Mental illness is epidemic in Australia like any other developed countries and has a
significant impact over the personal, social and economic status of the community dwelling
population. Nearly 45% of the Australian population suffers from mental health
complications during their life-time. Anxiety and its associated mental health complications

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like depression are the common mental health alignment affecting 14 to 16% of the adult
population per year and are regarded as high prevalence illness. The anxiety and depression
related mental health disorders include post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, obsessive
compulsive disorder and bipolar disorder. Mental illness of “low prevalence” includes
schizophrenia and other psychosis related disorder affecting 1 to 2% of the adult population
(Parliament of Australia., 2019). From the analysis of the case study, it can be stated that Sam
is suffering from schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that results in psychosis. It
affects thinking of a person, sense of self and perceptions. The disorder becomes evident
during late stage of adolescence or during the early adulthood (U.S National Library of
Medicine, 2019). In case of Sam, the symptoms surfaced during 18-year during the early
adulthood. Main signs and symptoms of Schizophrenia are false perception like
hallucinations (both visual and auditory and smell) (U.S National Library of Medicine, 2019).
In case of Sam, he is experiencing visual hallucinations like according to him Australian
Secrete Intelligence Service (ASIS) is tracking his every move by installing mini videos in
the University campus. However, later his parents found that he is lately not-visiting
University and is showing bizarre behaviour. U.S National Library of Medicine (2019)
reports that people with schizophrenia expresses decreased ability to function at academic or
professional field. Sam usually loved to play sports and was actively involved at the local
club level. However at present, he prefers staying at in his own room and listening to music.
He asked he says that needs to protect his friends. Australian Government Department of
Health (2018) stated that having a first degree of relative with schizophrenia increases the
vulnerability of the developing disorder. The case study revealed that Sam has a family
history of psychiatric disorder. His paternal uncle was diagnosed with shizo-affective
disorder. In shizo-affective disorder, individuals’ exhibit strong features of both
schizophrenia and mood disorders (U.S National Library of Medicine, 2019). Australian

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Government Department of Health (2018) however, stated that though schizophrenia can run
in families, only one precent of family member develops schizophrenia.
Relationship between mental and physical health
A distinct distribution is often made between mind and body. However, while
considering mental and physical health, the two aspects of health must never be separated.
Poor physical health-related consequences like prolong illness from chronic disease leads to
the development of complex mental health disease. The poor mental health condition leads to
the development of several physical co-morbidities. There are several ways through which
mental health leads to detrimental physical health outcome. For example, individuals having
highest level of self-rated distress are vulnerable towards developing cancer. People suffering
from depression are vulnerable towards developing coronary heart disease (Ohrnberger,
Fichera & Sutton, 2017). Kritharides, Chow and Lambert (2017) are of the opinion that
schizophrenia doubles the risk of developing cardiac complications and triples the risk of
developing respiratory distress in-comparison to the individuals who do not have any serious
mental health complications. The reason behind this is, people with complex mental health
disease like schizophrenia are less likely to receive physical healthcare as the initial signs and
symptoms of physical health co-morbidities remain undiagnosed leading to increased severity
of the disease. The study conducted by Correll et al. (2015) stated that people with complex
mental health disease have shorter lifespan in comparison to the general population. This high
level of mortality mainly arises due to increased level of occurrence of the physical health
disparity. The use of the antipsychotic medications like anti-depressants and mood stabilizers
used for the treatment of schizophrenia and shizo-affective disorders increase the risk of
several physical diseases like obesity, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, hyponatremia, thyroid
disorder, cardiovascular disease, renal disease, respiratory disease, gastro-intestinal
complication, hematological disease and musculo-skeletal disease and other movement