Mental Health Nursing: Diagnosis, Contributing Factors and Recovery Oriented Practice

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
Question 1: The mental health status of the client is as follows-
It has been found in the mental state examination that the past circumstances, work
pressure, depression due to spending less time with family, and fear of heart attack has affected
the mood and affect of Chung (Parasuram et al., 2014). In the MSE it has been found that he has
been suffering from flat mood and he was looking tearful. His was seen to be sad and restrictive
as well. Due to long work hours, excessive pressure for the accident and emergency department,
care for his new born baby and his wife’s severe health status, he has been feeling anxious. He
has shown bland affect on asking about his health and he has lacked eye contact. His speech has
become slow and purposeful. He has been having palpitations, breathlessness and chest pain for
six to seven weeks thus, has asked his friends and colleagues to assess him for cardiac issue and
as a result of this situation, he has been facing very low mood. The mental state examination has
indicated that his current depression has affected his thought process as well (Fernando &
Henskens, 2014). However, thought process cannot be measured directly, but according to his
description of thought it has been identified that he has been experiencing thought of going to
have heart attack. In addition he has been experiencing sleeplessness or insomnia. His anxious
and depression has lead to the thinking of worthless and failure at work and due to such thinking
he has been experiencing suicidal thoughts. His think process has lead to take overdose of
medication even after knowing the high lethality of medication. He has been experiencing
hopeless and helpless situation.
In addition, according to the diagnostic criteria of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for
mental disorder or DSM 5, it has been found that Chung has been suffering from a depressed
mood (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). He has lost interest in interacting with people
and lacked eye contact. Due to lack of interest his speech has become slow. As a result he has

2MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
lacked interest in taking timely meal, thus, he has lost 5 kg weight, and has been experiencing
reduced appetite. Due to his mistake in the workplace he has been experiencing guilt and
worthless. As he worked in long hour shift, he has failed to spend time with his family even
when his wife has been suffering from severe health condition. He has become disappointed. His
health symptoms like chest pain and breathlessness has lead to significant distress within him.
According to the criteria of DSM 5, such mental condition is not attributed to medical condition
and cannot be explained by psychotic disorder (Regier et al., 2013). Furthermore, it has found
that Chung has been facing excessive anxiety for the 6 months. He has been facing difficulties in
sleeping thus suffering from sleeplessness. Such mental state has lead to the thought of suicide.
Thus, it can be suggested that Chung has been suffering from depression and anxiety according
to the diagnostic criteria provided by DSM 5 guidelines (American Psychiatric Association,
2013).
Question 2: There are number of factors contributing to the development of client’s mental
health, I will discuss them in the following section-
The stress vulnerability model is a useful tool that could help to identify the factors
contributing to the development of client’s mental health in an effective manner. Stress
vulnerability model is used to find out the factors that are related to the development of the
symptoms of mental illness. The model especially describes the link between the development of
mental distress and stress. It helps to identify the vulnerability factors related to stress, as well as
the environmental factors and protective factors (Zannas & West, 2014). Using the stress
vulnerability factor it has been found that the most effective factor that has contributed to the
development of client’s mental health is stress due to work pressure and poor health condition as
well.