Mental Health Promotion: Types of Violence and Impact on Mental Health

Running Head: MENTAL HEALTH PROMOTION
MENTAL HEALTH PROMOTION
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

MENTAL HEALTH PROMOTION
1
Introduction:
Violence is referred to as the illegal behavior which involves illicit use of the physical
force to damage hurt of kill someone. Violence is associated with trauma and can lead to mental
illness. According to the World Health Organization (2019), the prevalence rate of IPV in
Australia is higher which leads to adverse effect on the mental health of the individual. It is
observed that the demographic population of the total number of individual suffering from
mental health issue is due to violence. This essay includes the types of violence which is
observed frequently. According to Benjet (2016), violence, trauma and mental health of the
individual are correlated to each other and the association between the same is discussed in the
essay in detail. The prevalence rate of IPV in Australia and its undesirable impact on the mental
wellbeing and family is also incorporated. By reviewing the prevalence rate of mentally health
illness due to violence, it is essential to formulate strategies that can aid to prevent the incidence
rate of IPV. The discussion includes two health promotion strategies along with the role of
mental health nurse in the successful of the strategies.
Part A:
Violence is demarcated as the physical force which intends to harm the individual and is
considered as one of the most effective reason which can lead to mental illness. Types of
violence which is commonly observed among the Australian population are economic violence,
cultural violence, sexual violence and domestic violence. Emotional violence is considered as the
violence in which the victim is emotionally harmed or damaged. It becomes hideous for the
victim to cope up with the psychological and emotional trauma and as result they are not able to
stabilize with the basic resources. Cultural abuse or cultural violence is considered as the

MENTAL HEALTH PROMOTION
2
violence based on culture. According to A. R. et al. (2018), Australian indigenous population is
considered as one of the most vulnerable population for the cultural violence. They are
discriminated based on their culture in school, colleges, work place and healthcare setting, which
can lead to mental illness (Wendt, 2016). According to Chmielowsk and Fuhr et al., (2017),
seven out of every ten indigenous individual have experienced discrimination and abuse at some
point of their life. Due to which the prevalence rate of mental illness among the indigenous
population is higher than that of any other population.
Violence occurs due to various reasons such as, due to lack of respect, minimal access to
power, family influence, low self-worth and experiencing abuse or neglect. According to the
Australian institute of Health and Welfare (2019), around 2.2 million of the total Australian
population has experienced physical and sexual abuse from their partners at some stage of their
life. Along with that about 3.6 million of the Australian populations have experienced emotional
abuse from their partners. Sexual abuse among the individual of age group less than 15 years is
also frequently observed in Australia. Rendering to the Wasarhaley et al. (2016), the intimate
partner violence is the most common type of domestic violence experienced contrary to women.
According to the Australian institute of Health and Welfare (2019), domestic violence can be
considered as the major concern that can lead to mental illness and among which the prevalence
rate of the intimate partner violence is highest and especially against the women. According to
the statistics by Australian institute of Health and Welfare, the rate of sexual assaults in men and
women is 1 in 5 and 1 in 20 respectively. The statistics also suggests the intimate partner can
cause more mental illness, death and disability than any other type of violence against women
and hence is also considered as the one of the significant risk factor for the mental illness for the
women of age group 25-44. In the year 2015 and 2016, it is observed that about 2800 women

MENTAL HEALTH PROMOTION
3
population and 560 of men were hospitalize after being physically assaulted by their partners
(Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2019).
Mental health illness is correlated with the violence or and trauma. Conferring to Straus,
Gelles and Steinmetz (2017), around 50 of the total female population who are suffering from
any mental illness have experiences some sort of physical or sexual abuse during their life time,
either during the adulthood or childhood. Intimate partner violence can cause negative impact on
the physiological and emotional state of the individual which can lead to different type of mental
illness, anxiety disorder and can even lead to depression (World Health Organization, 2019).
According to Herman (2017), intimate partner violence can give rise to panic attacks, depression,
substance abuse, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder which can cause the interaction of the
multiple genes or several other factors that disrupts the normal functioning of the brain and can
cause mental illness.
The women who are the victim of the intimate partner violence feels isolated and does
not feel any control over their life. It exerts extreme physical and emotional pressure on their
physical and mental well-being (Woodlock, 2017) The review conducted by Oram et al. (2017),
suggests that the risk of experiencing post traumatic disorder in women who are the victims of
the any type of violence is higher than any other individual.
Due to the extreme mental pressure, they often think to commit suicide so that can get
relieved from the pressure. DeVylder et al. (2017), stated that the incidence rate of suicidal
thoughts and suicide in the individual who had observed violence is 3.5 times greater than that of
the other individual. The rate of depression among such individual is also 2.7 times higher in
such individual (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2019).