Mental Health Nursing: Recovery Oriented Practice, NSW Mental Health Act, and Least Restrictive Practice

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
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1MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
Part 1: Recovery Oriented Practice in Mental Health
Personal Recovery:
Mental health interventions for serious mental health issues such as bipolar disorder,
schizophrenia or acute depression have been only associated with the clinical interventions in the
past (Beghi et al.,2013). However, with the amendment of the wellness associated with mental
health recovery policies, the focus has now shifted from a clinical approach to the personal
recovery of the affected patients. While the clinical intervention deals with the reduction of the
prevalent symptoms, the personal recovery is based on the patients being able to relate to the
fulfillment of their life-goals according to their perspective and also uphold their self-esteem and
be able to efficiently manage their relationships and possess an essence of purpose in their lives
(Yang et al.,2013). Hence, personal recovery aims to fulfill the personal goals of the patient
towards leading a stable life and is often administered with clinical interventions. Also, personal
recovery ensures a more individualized or rather a more defined focus on individual treatment
intervention which encompasses of enlightening the patient and at the same time instilling the
faith and confidence in patient that he or she could recover and lead a stable life.
Identification of three principles of recovery:
In order to administer personal health recovery, the focus is centered on the ability of
being able to return the essence of hope in a mentally unsound patient and also elicit active
engagement in social life so as to help them relate to a positive environment (Goulet et al.,2017).
The three principles that are identified ultimately aim at promoting the self-recovery of the
patients which can be enlisted as under:
 Respect and dignity: It is associated with treating the patients with respect and care and
not following a stigmatized approach while devising intervention on the basis of cultural
or ethnic discrimination or any other discrimination pertaining to creed or sex (Lloyd et
al.,2014).
 Attitudes and rights: It is associated with the legal protection of the citizenship rights of
the patients and assisting them with vocational and occupational activities that can help
them in adding a meaningful purpose to life after recovery and it also aims at
empowering the patients with aid that can help them sustain themselves in future (Lloyd
et al.,2014)
 Real Choices: Provides assistance to patients in building upon their strengths and be
accountable for the choices that they make, thereby instilling a feeling of hope in them.
The patients are deliberately exposed to real like scenarios where they are expected to
make a sane decision, thereby helping them to gain ownership of their responsibility
(Ling et al.,2015).
Recovery-oriented language in mental health:
Recovery-oriented language in mental health can be defined as the language used that
critically reflects the recovery of the patient, that is the language used does not highlight the

2MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
professionals view-point or logic but is more centered towards the voice and the feelings of the
patient (Wieman etal.,2014).
Significance of recovery language:
While dealing with patients affected with an unstable mental health, the language used
for communication has seen to play a vital role in either speeding up or slowing down the
process of recovery (Larue et al.,2013). On using positive words or while documentation of the
treatment if the record is more focused on the patient than on the care givers perspective then the
patient has been seen to recover at an accelerated speed.
Example of recovery language:
If the observation recorded by a professional states that, ‘the patient acted paranoid on
being asked a few questions about his childhood...’ then the statement clearly lacks the use of a
recovery language, hence it should be reframed as ‘The patient experienced paranoid symptoms
on being questioned about his childhood’ (Putkonen et al.,2013). Hence it should be critically
noted that use of recovery language can help in the recovery process at a faster rate and also be
more convenient to the patient as well as to the dear ones of the patient.
Part 2: NSW Mental health Act,2007
Description:
The NSW Mental Health Act,2007 was passed as a replacement of the Mental Health Act
1990 (Saurman et al.,2014). It is based upon the mental health act of 1990, however provides
rights to the mentally unsound patients and also provides an improved approach for the provision
of service delivery to the patients. The law is critically focused on the treatment, care and the
therapeutic regulation of the mentally-ill patients (Wand & Wand,2013).
Ownership of rights:
The NSW Mental Health Act of 2007 is aimed at providing for all the mentally
challenged patients and it also provides them the right to designate a care-giver who has the right
to dispense confidential information about the patient and take a decision about the interventions
that would be administered to the patient (Light et al.,2014).
Rights under NSW Mental Health Act,2007:
According to Lamont et al., (2016) the following rights have been guaranteed to the
mentally challenged patients who are at a risk of facing life threatening situations and the
following rights under no circumstances can be taken away from them. The rights are:
 To provide care and treatment to patients with mental disorder
 To avail community care facilities for the treatment of the mentally ill patients
 To provide hospital care to the mentally unsound patients on a voluntary or an
involuntary basis