Mental Health and Wellbeing: A Whole Person Approach

This report discusses the importance of positive mental health, the impact of social and psychological factors on mental health, and strategies for promoting mental wellbeing. It also explores early intervention and the significance of childhood experiences on mental health.

Mental Health and
Wellbeing a Whole
Person Approach

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
CHAPTER 1: Mental Health Awareness.....................................................................................................3
Evaluate the importance of positive mental health and also assess the impact of a range of social and
psychological factors on individual’s mental health and wellbeing.........................................................3
Analyse the relationship between the impact of factors affecting mental health and wellbeing and the
characteristics of positive mental health in individuals............................................................................5
CHAPTER 2: Managing Mental Wellbeing through Early Intervention.....................................................6
Classify the early warning signs of mental distress and suggest action that can be taken by the social
and community workers in addressing the early warning signs of mental stress in individuals...............6
Review the significance of early experiences in childhood for mental health and analyse the potential
impact of early intervention on individual’s mental health and wellbeing...............................................7
CHAPTER 3: Promote Mental Wellbeing...................................................................................................8
Critically review the potential benefits and limitations of the use of different approaches to promoting
mental health and wellbeing, using examples from own practice............................................................8
Critically appraise either a local or national strategy that aims to promote mental wellbeing in a specific
group within the population.....................................................................................................................9
CHAPTER 4: Mental Health First Aid........................................................................................................9
Examine in details how workplaces in the social or community care sector can support an individual
worker to maintain or improve their own mental health and wellbeing...................................................9
Analyse the impact on service provisions of policies and processes that contribute to the promotion of
mental health and wellbeing of workers in a specific social or community work setting and enlist the
impact of a social or community workers own mental health and wellbeing on colleagues, services
provision and individuals receiving support..........................................................................................10
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Mental health refers to the state of mental and emotional well being. Any disturbance in
the mental health of a person can wreck his physical and emotional health. A mentally healthy
person can cope up with his normal stresses of life and can surmount it without creating any
disturbance in his physical and mental health. Maintaining a healthy mental mind is very much
necessary for a human being. There are many communities or NGO’s which promote mental
health. There basic purpose is to help the people who are suffering with mental illness and help
them in coming out from this (Allen and et. al., 2014). For example Mental Health Foundation is
a non- profit organization which is establish in London, UK. Their main purpose is to help out
the people who are suffering from mental health and illness.
This report discuss about the factors which influences the mental health and emotional
well being. Also, it concerns about the intervention which an organization must take to treat the
people before their case become serious. This report also discusses about the roles and strategies
which these communities and NGO’s take to treat the people and how the doctors or tutors keep
themselves healthy in such environment.
CHAPTER 1: Mental Health Awareness
Evaluate the importance of positive mental health and also assess the impact of a range of social
and psychological factors on individual’s mental health and wellbeing.
The positive mental condition is very much necessary for a person. Mental health refers
to how a person thinks, receive and react in a particular situation (Bateman and Fonagy, 2012). It
is very important for a person to maintain a happy and balanced mental health for the following
reasons:
Impact our thought: Our mental health puts major impact upon the ways a person thinks and
perceive. Good mental health person would have good and fair judgment but where as a person
with poor mental health would not have that ability to think rational and fair. Our mental health
puts a great impact upon our thoughts. It is the thoughts only which forms the actions of a
person. Poor mental health generates bad thoughts which also results into bad actions.

Productivity and effectively: A health mind will perform work with more efficiency and
effectiveness. When a mind will feel free and happy then that person would willing would
perform his 100 percent in the work. But whereas if a person’s mental health is very much poor
then he would feel irritated and suffocated while doing his work. His will to perform the work
would automatically decrease and he will then become a liability for his employer (Caplan ed.,
2013).
In maintaining a mental health good, it is very important for a person be sharing his
thoughts, problems and opinions to someone. At this state, it is good to share things and get
socialize. The social and psychological factor does put impact upon a person’s mental health.
And these impacts are as follows:
Importance of friends and family: It has been seen that a person who shares his thoughts and
opinions or any kind of problem with his friends and family has a better mental health in
comparison of those who does not share. A person who does not shares his problems with others;
they tend to accommodate that into themselves which might results into suffocation, depression,
anxiety and much more (Elliott, Huizinga and Menard, 2012). Friends and family helps a person
by making them feel secure and safe. Family and friends play a very important role in
maintaining a person’s mental health.
Social isolation: A depressed person sometimes tends to isolate himself or herself from the
society and even from his family and friends which has not good for him. Social isolation will
result in more addition of loneliness and depression; it might leads to heavy anxiety sometime. It
is very much necessary for a person to become a part of society or social group from which he
can take his minds of from the problem for some time and can feel good.
Attachment theory: In a study, it is determined that people who have the secured paths, they
tend to have more attachment in their youth or in future. People who are attach to someone, they
feel secure and safe because they have the reasons to come out of the problem or mental illness.
But the people who have no one or have bad experience in their childhood, they are found with
more mental illness and stress as they have no reason to get out of that zone (Cohen and Cohen,
2013).

Analyse the relationship between the impact of factors affecting mental health and wellbeing and
the characteristics of positive mental health in individuals.
Therefore, both characteristics of mental health and factors affecting mental health shares
the same or positive relationship with each other, as:
Basis Characteristics Factors affecting
Family and Friends A person who has his family
and friends tend to have a
personality of extrovert with
them as he considers them a
important person in his life to
share things. He would share
his thoughts and opinions and
comparatively be happier than
those who don’t have any
friends.
Here, friends and family plays
an important role in framing
the mental health of that
person. A supporting family
and friends will help him in
coming out of the problem and
support him throughout the
journey.
Experience A person with dark or bad past
and experience would face
more mental illness as
compared to the person who
has very attached and happy
past.
Experience also plays an
important role in framing one
mental illness. Continuously
bad experience would pull the
person in dark side which also
affects his thoughts and
actions.
CHAPTER 2: Managing Mental Wellbeing through Early Intervention.
Classify the early warning signs of mental distress and suggest action that can be taken by the
social and community workers in addressing the early warning signs of mental stress in
individuals.
Mental illness is not a one day event; it takes many events or series which slowing form
illness into a person’s mind. Mental illness can get predicted at its early stage only. The early
signs of mental illness can be:

Feeling sad or low: The continual feeling for sadness and low can be a cause for huge mental
illness. A person who is becoming low in his emotions and mood day by day is actually shifting
himself to more or severe mental illness (Koenig, 2013). Feeling sad and low is a sign for mental
illness.
Confused thinking or reduced ability to concentrate: A person who is feeling low and
suffocated might also start getting confuse between the things. He would stop using his mental
ability to think rational and may act irrationally sometime. These people with the time also losses
the ability to concentrate upon the thinks or topic which also creates problem for them as they
loss connection with reality. These people lost the connection with the real world and they start
getting comfortable with darkness and being alone.
Excessive mood changes: The early signs for mental illness can get detect if a person if having
excessive mood changes. Such people would sometime have excessive high mood and sometime
they can start behave very sad, depressed and low. Their moods get change within seconds and
they themselves don’t know the reasons (Lawrence and et. al., 2015).
Anxiety disorders: Person facing mental illness would go through anxiety which cause him fast
heartbeats, problem in breathing and recklessness. Anxiety can take its serious form when not get
cool down in time.
To overcome these early sign of mental illness at its early stage following measures can
be taken by the social and community workers:
Good health care and medicines: There are many medicines which helps a person in coming
out of mental illness. These medicines can be of vitamins or calcium or of some chemical which
helps the person in reducing the production of toxic thoughts or chemical in a person’s brain.
Whereas healthy food habits also helps a person in reduction of stress. For example yoga or
exercise, this helps a person in increasing concentration power and building up of strength. It
also helps a person in cleaning of his mind which was full with negative thoughts and action.
Social group: Workers and community gather the people who are suffering from the same
problem of mental illness and then there these people discuss about their issues and problem. It is
said that only a person who gets through the same can understand the feelings and suffering of

another (Mitchell, 2013). Through this activity these patients can share things with each other
which result in low depression and illness in them.
Daily activities: A person can be allotted with some activity which he or she is required to
complete before the next session. This activity can be fun which helps a person in finding the
solution of his problem or can distract himself from the stress. Regular activities would release a
person the real value of life and he will drag himself out of mental illness.
Review the significance of early experiences in childhood for mental health and analyse the
potential impact of early intervention on individual’s mental health and wellbeing
There are also people who has experienced dark childhood, which caused them mental
illness. These childhood experience may include:
Relationship with parents and family: A child experience and relationship architecture the
mental health of a child. If the relationship of a child with his parents was strong and healthy,
then the formation of his mental health would be good. But if the relationship of a child with his
parents is not good, the parents were strict or were not supporting and the like, then the person
tend to have a very bad experience or instable mental health (Naylor and et. al., 2012).
Peer or friends group: The peer or friends group are the people to whom a person also get
influence. They are the people with whom a person shares the things which he can’t shares with
his family also. If person friends gets himself influenced too bad and it might get difficult for
him to match up the standards that his friends have. It become a becomes a burden upon a person
shoulders about matching himself with others and with that pressure if he get failure he can get
into mental illness. Therefore, such groups can also architecture a person mental illness.
CHAPTER 3: Promote Mental Wellbeing
Critically review the potential benefits and limitations of the use of different approaches to
promoting mental health and wellbeing, using examples from own practice.
There are many approaches from which a person can bring mental peace and health.
These ways includes:
Accept a change is a part of living: There are some people who resist change, they love to live
a life which they were living from their past life. Any change in their lifestyle or living make

them mentally ill or unstable because they are used to of their earlier lifestyle. There are some
people to whom a new living does not suits as they don’t find it much appealing; this also causes
them a mental illness. But these people need to understand that change is an ongoing process
which does not wait for anybody’s permission. When a person from his heart accept the change
then ultimately he will start filling satisfied and comfortable in his mind.
Limitation: Although change is for good. Bu there is also many changes which caused
harm to a person mental health. For example a person who loves to live a village life, he can’t
find peace in city crowd (Nyqvist and et. al., 2013). This may create a mental illness in him
which can result into irrational behavior, irritating attitude and the like. So a person needs to
differentiate about the kind of change is benefiting him .
Make connections: A social life can help a person to get out from the mental illness. When a
person talks to another he feel lighted and quite happy, this help him in making forget about his
problem or illness. In such times it is not healthy for a person to get social isolation. Social
isolation would take him more away and would create more illness. If a person adopts isolation
then the chances of getting into dark side would increase. In such situation a person needs to get
out and talk to people, especially he should make connections with his parents and family
because it is they only who can provide support to him and stand strong with him.
Limitations: The limitation of this approach can be that the person should not made
connections with the people who influence him in a negative way. This often happens that when
a person suffering from mental illness made connections with bad people who influence him in a
bad way, just to comfort himself.
Critically appraise either a local or national strategy that aims to promote mental wellbeing in a
specific group within the population.
There are many strategies set by local or national community level which helps in a person in
promoting mental health and wellbeing, some of them may includes:
 Collaboration with many local authorities and people who educate about mental illness is
one of a strategy which is followed by local authorities (Rogers and Pilgrim, 2014). In this they
organise a classroom section in which they educate the people of the importance of mental health
and wellbeing, ways in which a person can detect an early stage of mental illness and various

ways to get over from it. These local communities go schools, collages, offices, many
administrative places and etc to give education to people.
 The problem of mental health and illness is also taken under WHO. In this the
organisation also promotes mental health and wellbeing by giving volunteering to the people to
educate the other about the importance of mental health. These volunteers go place to place and
give the required education to the people about the importance and measures related to mental
health.
 The role of media also takes a major part into this. Through social platforms the people
can promote mental health and related issues. Social media is the cheapest and the fastest way to
communicate something to the target audience. Through social platform the educators, teachers,
communities, authorities, and many others can help the people by providing them the education
about the mental health and well being and how a person can deal with it.
CHAPTER 4: Mental Health First Aid.
Examine in details how workplaces in the social or community care sector can support an
individual worker to maintain or improve their own mental health and wellbeing.
It is also happen that giving treatment to mentally sick people and continuously being
surrounded with that environment only, cam cause illness to the worker also (Rosenfield and
Mouzon, 2013). It is generally possible for a person who is giving the treatment also gets disturb
emotionally and mentally. Therefore there are many strategies and approaches from which a
person can improve his own mental health being, some of which may include:
Practically handling: The doctors also sometimes get emotionally attach with a person which
does cause an emotional breakdown in a doctor also. It is for doctor mental state that he must
handle his patients practically. Then it would be less risky for a doctor to get himself get into
mental illness as he is surrounded by that environment (Thoits, 2013). When a doctor get himself
emotionally involved with his patients then he may get wreck if any loss happens with them,
which is not healthy for a doctor because he has other patients also to look forward.
Positive thinking: Positive thoughts and thinking helps a doctor to not get affected from
environment where he treats only mentally ill persons. Positively in soul and in him is a practice
which every doctor follows.

Exercising and good healthcare: A doctor knows very well to how to take care of himself. He
takes good and healthy good which helps him in having good and healthy body and sound mind.
Apart from this a doctor also follows a healthy routine which helps his body in proper
functioning, when body functions proper then ultimately his mind will be in sound and healthy
position. They also do yoga or exercising which helps them in keeping their head clean from the
entire negative environment (Worden, 2018).
Analyse the impact on service provisions of policies and processes that contribute to the
promotion of mental health and wellbeing of workers in a specific social or community work
setting and enlist the impact of a social or community workers own mental health and wellbeing
on colleagues, services provision and individuals receiving support.
There are also an impact upon service provisions of policies and processes that contribute to the
promotion of mental health and wellbeing of workers in a specific social or community work
setting. They impact in the following ways:
Strong and healthy environment: These workers are supposing such environment
which is healthy for their patients. The patients in such environment should be feeling very much
comfortable and relax so that they can share their things and problem with the doctors very
easily. An environment which is too crowded and loud would create more disturbance for the
people who are suffering from mental illness. Therefore the workers must provide the people
with an environment which is quite and soothing for them. A place where they can meditate and
can clear out their mind.
Quality treatment and education: Quality treatment and education should be given to
the people who are suffering from mental illness issues. Quality treatment may include the right
kind of medicines and routines which improves the health of a patient. Right education should be
also be provided to the person suffering from mental illness. It is the duty of a doctor to first
listen to his patient properly and then educate him about how he has develop a mental illness
problem and what are the factors which can help him in coming out of this (Zeanah ed., 2018).
Doctor should be very much polite and make his patient much comfortable so that he can share
the things which haunts him from inside or that has lead to this mental instability. Because there
can be any factor which can cause instability in a human being, be it a emotional health, be it a
physical heath or anything else. The duty of a doctor is to educate his patient about the reason for
his mental disorder and give treatment accordingly.

CONCLUSION
From the report discuss above, the importance of mental health and wellbeing has been
stated. A unhealthy mind cause less productivity and efficiency into the work, more confusion
into the mind, less concentration, more anxiety and much more. An unhappy mind also wreck the
physical and emotional state of a person. There are many ways and approaches which promotes
mental health being of a person, some of them may includes, good and healthy health care,
exercising, medical treatment, socializing and much more. The report also covers the early signs
for mental illness, which may include, an urge to die, anxieties, social isolation and much more.
In some cases it is the experience of childhood also which architecture the mental health. For
example if a person has healthy and happy childhood then he will be very much attached to his
family and has a sound mental health. But if a person who has bad childhood then he might be
able to suffer from mental instability in his future.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Cohen, P. and Cohen, J., 2013. Life values and adolescent mental health. Psychology Press.
Elliott, D. S., Huizinga, D. and Menard, S., 2012. Multiple problem youth: Delinquency,
substance use, and mental health problems. Springer Science & Business Media.
Koenig, H.G., 2013. Religion and mental health. In Is Religion Good for Your Health? (pp. 63-
90). Routledge.
Lawrence, D. and et. al.., 2015. The mental health of children and adolescents: Report on the
second Australian child and adolescent survey of mental health and wellbeing.
Mitchell, R., 2013. Is physical activity in natural environments better for mental health than
physical activity in other environments?. Social Science & Medicine. 91. pp.130-134.\
Naylor, C.,and et. al., 2012. Long-term conditions and mental health: the cost of co-morbidities.
Nyqvist, F.,and et. al., 2013. Social capital as a resource for mental well-being in older people: A
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Rogers, A. and Pilgrim, D., 2014. A sociology of mental health and illness. McGraw-Hill
Education (UK).
Rosenfield, S. and Mouzon, D., 2013. Gender and mental health. In Handbook of the sociology
of mental health (pp. 277-296). Springer, Dordrecht.

Thoits, P. A., 2013. Self, identity, stress, and mental health. InHandbook of the sociology of
mental health (pp. 357-377). Springer, Dordrecht.
Worden, J. W., 2018. Grief counseling and grief therapy: A handbook for the mental health
practitioner. Springer Publishing Company.
Zeanah, C. H. ed., 2018. Handbook of infant mental health. Guilford Publications.