Understanding Mental Health and Mental Illness: A Case Study Analysis

Running head: NURSING
Nursing
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

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Introduction:
Mental illness is associated with complex symptoms and adverse impact on physical
health of affected individuals. Due to this, recovery is often perceived as a complex and time
consuming process. To successfully engage in addressing mental illness in primary care
setting, it is necessary to take into account complex psychological, medical, social and
cultural factors leading to the condition. Current research emphasizes use of personal
recovery model in mental health as it helps to address various factors contributing to mental
illness in patient. This is essential to address all needs of mentally ill patient and promote
recovery of patient by addressing all factors that leads to deterioration of symptoms (Grover
et al., 2016). This report aims to develop understanding regarding mental health and mental
illness by evaluating the case study of Mary, a 41 year old patient with depression and
critically evaluating the relation between mental and physical health to provide appropriate
care to the client.
Analysis of mental health and mental issues:
Mental health is the state of complete well-being where an individual is able to cope
with stressors of life and work productively to contribute to the community. It can also be
defined as a state of complete mental, physical and social well-being (World Health
Organization, 2014). In contrast, mental illness is a disorder that affects the way people think
and behave with others. The impact of mental illness on overall well-being and normal
functioning is evidenced from the review of case study of Mary, a 41 year old woman who is
experiencing symptoms of depression currently. The key symptom indicative of depression
for Mary included lack of interest in simple activities like eating and dressing, poor mood,
being tearful, poor personal hygiene and feelings of worthlessness. The impact of the
depression on her behaviour is seen from the change that has occurred in her life post

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developing these symptoms. For example, earlier she looked smart and took showers on a
daily basis. However, now her family has notices that she sits in the same gown and take no
care of personal hygiene. Her condition matched with the common symptoms of depression
as defined by DSM-V criteria for depression (Schmidt & Tolentino, 2018).
The review of the prevalence of mental illness or mental disorders today indicates
depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and schizophrenia are the most common
mental disorders who incidence is high in the contemporary world today (Charlson et al.,
2019). Among mental disorders, depression is turning out to be the most commonly occurring
mental health issues because of drastic changes in modern life circumstances and change in
demand of modern workplace. The issue of depression has been found for Mary too and the
case study reveals that she had previous history of depression too. She was diagnosed with
depression two years ago and prioritizing appropriate care is important to prevent risk to her
health. However, to ensure that appropriate care is provided, it is necessary to consider
holistic care needs of Mary which will be done by adapting personal recovery model during
care planning.
Relationship between mental health and physical health:
Mental health is directly linked to physical health and well-being of an individual.
Mary is suffering from recurrence of depressive symptoms. She was diagnosed with
depression at the age of 39 and she is experience the symptoms again now. Some clues from
the case study that shows impact of Mary’s mental illness on her physical health includes
lack of proper nutrition, poor personal hygiene and sleep problems. All these are factors that
can have direct impact on physical health of the client. For example, poor personal hygiene
and diet are factors that can expose patient to risk of infectious disease and malnutrition
respectively. Olivan-Blázquez et al. (2018) argues that poor diet in patients with major

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depression is associated with metabolic changes in the body which interacts with cerebral
functions to have adverse effect on patient. Hence, unless diet and poor hygiene related issues
are resolved, it can result in poor outcomes for patients like Mary. Therefore, addressing
mental health is important to maintain optimal physical health too.
There is strong link between physical health and mental health. Research literature
gives several evidences regarding the mental health and physical health is interlinked to one
another. Kim et al. (2012) explains mental health as a major risk factor for poor physical
conditions. This implies that the likelihood of experiencing chronic disease is high in patients
with serious mental illness. In addition, the opposite effect is also seen as odds of having
mental disorder increase with the number of chronic physical illness affecting an individual.
Stein et al. (2019) links mental illness with various non-communicable disease such as
cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and respiratory illness. Heart disease is most
common in patients with depression and the research by Palacios et al. (2018) reveals that
depression and anxiety are most indicators of poor outcome in coronary heart disease
patients. The negative impact that heart disease and depression together have on an individual
is understood from the fact is that it is associated with long term poor health and increased
medical cost too. For this reason, while treating patients with depression, it is critical to
consider and address all morbidities associated with the condition too. Hence, the above
discussion signifies the need to address both mental and physical health issues of Mary to
minimize risk of complication and reduce cost associated with costly treatment. All the
factors such as poor diet, sleep difficulty and hygiene needs must be addressed to prevent risk
of other illness.