Lived Experiences of Mental Health Disorders

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Lived Experiences of Mental Health
Disorders
Introduction
Nurses need to understand people who have lived experiences when providing mental disorder
care to enhance person centred nursing practice. People’s lived experiences refer to a person’s
past events or backgrounds that have impact to their mental health and make one vulnerable to
stigma, exclusion, or shame (Slade et al., 2014). Nurses need to develop their skills to provide
person centred care to patients with lived experiences of mental disorder. A nurse should be able
to show empathy and relate to individuals of all backgrounds and ages. The following write up
discusses how understanding people’s lived experiences of a mental disorder contributes to
development of a person-centred mental health in nursing practice. The second part of the write-
up is my reflection on own nursing practice and identification of an aspect that requires some
developments to achieve collaboration when working with people who have lived experiences of
a mental health. The write-up will uses evidence based nursing literature and literature of people
who have experiences of living with effects of mental disorders.
Understanding of a person’s lived experiences of a mental health disorder contributes to
development of person centred mental health. Understanding people’s lived experiences can be
the first step to planning a personalized care. Planning a nursing care is an important process in
nursing practice and provides direction of nursing care that a patient need. The care plan
facilitates evidence based, holistic and standardized care to a patient’s needs. Lived experiences
can help nurses in the development of care plan by enhancing understanding of patient’s unique
needs. The care plan lists all the patient’s needs and effectively communicates a standard care for
a specific patient. Shepherd, Boardman, and Slade, (2008) stated that understanding people’s
lived experiences is the head start to planning for mental disorder care. According to Slade et al.,
(2014) mental disorder patients with lived experienced were excluded from treatment decisions
hence undermining person centred care. In a similar findings, Barker and Buchanan‐Barker
(2011) noted that majority of mental disorder patients were not given adequate or sufficient
information regarding their treatment. This show that lack of understanding people’s lived

experiences excludes mental patients from being involved in developing their care plan.
Therefore, understanding people who have lived experiences in mental disorders contribute to
developing a care plan that is person centred for mental patient. Secondly, understanding
people’s lived experiences with mental disorders contribute to building effective therapeutic and
professional relationship. Therapeutic relationship is an important part of person centred care and
it involves how a nurse and a client engage and effect beneficial changes to the client.
Understanding people’s lived experiences establishes trust and enhances equal Partnership
interactions that are important in providing mental care to patient. Gunasekara et al., (2014)
found that people with lived experiences felt that they were patronized by health professionals
that undermined person centred care. Understanding people’s lived experiences with mental
disorders enhance therapeutic relationship by actively listening to the patient. This minimizes
situations where mental disorder patients feel humiliations or patronized when accessing mental
health care.
Another contribution of understanding people’s lived experiences for person centred nursing
practice is respect for culture in nursing practice. Respect for culture refers to acknowledging
beliefs, assumptions, tolerated behaviours, and values that have developed over time. People’s
with lived experiences of mental is disorders develop beliefs, values, assumptions and tolerable
behaviours that they think and feel are acceptable or not acceptable and nurses need to
understand them when providing mental care. Understanding people’s lived experiences enable
nurses develop cultural competence of the patient’s culture through direct interaction and
engagement with the patient’s past events. According to Edvardsson, Winblad, and Sandman,
(2008), a person centred care has to involve people’s values, desires, social circumstances,
family situation, and lifestyles. To achieve, a person centred care, a nurse should provide mental
care from a person’s point of view for improved health outcomes. Gunasekara et al., (2014)
found that respect for culture is important for mental disorder patients with lived experience and
enhances patient support to decisions made regarding their treatment. According to Dziopa, and
Ahern, (2009) person centred care has to respect people’s values as they determine preferences
and expression of needs when providing mental health care. Therefore, understanding people’s
lived experiences with mental disorders enhances cultural awareness and respect for values,
beliefs, behaviours and assumptions that are important contributions to attaining person centred
mental care. Last but not the least, understanding of people’s lived experiences with mental