Establishing Therapeutic Alliance with Mental Health Consumers with Depression

Running head: MENTAL-HEALTH
Mental health
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

1MENTAL HEALTH
Introduction:
For providing care to mental health consumers with depression, establishing therapeutic
alliance is necessary to identify patient concerns and meet their expected health needs. Mental
health nurse establish therapeutic alliance with patient with depression by adapting many
communication strategies that supports them to increase coordination with patient and the
therapist (Hazelton and Swinson 2018). This essay aims to discuss how mental health nurse
engage in therapeutic alliance with mental health consumers with depression and why it is
important for them to enter into such alliance.
Pathways or strategies used by mental health nurses to establish a therapeutic relationship:
Patient-nurse collaboration is the main factor that helps to establish meaningful
relationship with patients with depression. This is done by mental health nurse by investing time
in building the therapeutic relationship and being patience throughout the interaction. During the
process, the nurse needs to observe both verbal and non-verbal behaviour of patient and
demonstrate openness by clearly assuring the patient that their concern will be addressed on a
regular basis (Hazelton and Swinson 2018). The significance of such open relationship is that
such communication can have positive effect on patients with depression. Such strategies
develop trust of patient towards the mental health nurse (Keller, Gangnon and Witt 2014).
Many mental health nurses also apply different nursing communication theory to engage
in therapeutic alliance with depression patient too. The Peplau’s theory of interpersonal
relationship is also one such theory that states that the main goal of nursing care is to engage in
effective nurse-patient communication. The theory provides a framework based on which
communication can take place. This includes four stages of orientation, identification,

2MENTAL HEALTH
exploitation and resolution (Deane and Fain 2016). Zarea et al. (2014) gives the evidence
regarding the effectiveness of Peplau’s therapeutic communication in reducing anxiety and
depression. Through this model, nurses identify disease, main concerns and questions of the
patient. Hence, the importance of nursing communication model like Peplau’s communication
theory is that it supports nurse to establish therapeutic communication and spend more time with
patient. This can lead to improvement in health outcomes and satisfaction of patients too.
Another nursing strategy to establish therapeutic relationship with depression patients
include engaging in culturally sensitive care. This involves taking a culturally sensitive approach
to care and considering the cultural forces that shapes the expression of depressive symptoms
and distress in patient. The advantage that mental health nurse gets by understanding patients
culture is it significantly influence the interpretation of the events in care (Hazelton and Swinson
2018). Mental health nurses focus on considering cultural and ethnic background of patient
during each phase of one-to-one relationship, so that both social and emotional needs of patients
are addressed. Adam (2017) argues that while treating depressive patients with different cultural
background, it is necessary that nurse ask them about the role of culture and religion on their life
and then connect with the community resources to provide ideal care to patients. The evidence
by Chang et al. (2017) justifies that considering the culture of patients with depression is critical
during nurse-patient communication as cultural norms play a role in symptom expression and
cultural sensitivity can help to provide appropriate care to such patients.