Mental Health: A Discussion of Challenges, Views, and Frameworks

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of mental health, encompassing its definition, challenges, and various perspectives. It explores the complexities of mental health, including the influence of cultural and religious viewpoints, specifically focusing on the Christian worldview and its impact on mental health perceptions and treatment approaches. The essay delves into ethical and legal considerations in mental health practice, addressing the challenges posed by modern psychology and the importance of patient autonomy and informed consent. Furthermore, it presents a personal practice framework, outlining the author's approach as a mental health counselor, integrating theoretical knowledge, practical experience, and personal values to address patient needs effectively. The essay highlights the significance of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and the challenges in counseling, such as maintaining confidentiality and addressing ethical dilemmas.

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

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Table of Contents
Introduction to mental health:..........................................................................................................2
Understanding of mental health and its challenges:........................................................................2
Christian world view about mental health issues:...........................................................................3
Ethical and legal issues and post modern perspective of mental health:.........................................4
My practice framework:..................................................................................................................6
Reference.........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction to mental health:
Mental health refers to emotional, psychological and social well-being where a person
has the capacity to relate to others, work productively, cope with different life stress and
contribute to the community (Caplan, 2013). Mental health is highly linked to physical health too
as different factors like family history of disease, health related behavior, lifestyle, life
circumstances and exposure to environmental toxicants, level of social and health care support
and coping skills of an individual affect the physical and mental well-being of a person (World
Health Organization, 2014). The perspective about mental health also differs on the basis of
culture, own personal values and behavior. The scope of this essay is to discuss about different
challenges related to mental health and Christian world view about mental health. It also
provides personal practice framework as a counselor to describe personal knowledge, skills,
attitudes and behavior to respond to mental health challenges as a mental health counselor.
Understanding of mental health and its challenges:
Several psychological theories of mental health mainly imply that one of the important
components of good mental health is having a closed contact with reality. In addition, the
biomedical model defines mental disorder as a brain disease relying mostly on pharmacological
treatment to treat abnormalities. According to neurobiological perspective, the mental health
disorder is mainly characterized by chemical imbalances in the brain causing brain disease and
the use of psychiatric medicine is regarded as a treatment option as they address chemical
imbalances by means of disease specific drugs (Deacon, 2013). However, despite the great
potential of neuroscience in revolutionizing mental health practice, the biomedical era is
criticized for lack of clinical innovation and poor mental health outcomes. Although

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neurobiological understanding of the disease has increased development of psychological
treatment, it has neglected treatment process and values of patients in the recovery process.
The criticism regarding biomedical model of mental disorder was also raised because of
etiological accounts. Shefer et al., (2014) has argued that that the biomedical approach is very
simplistic model that is scientifically inadequate for complete recovery of mentally ill patients. It
is mainly lacking in human sense and many treatment processes are very dehumanizing for
patients too. Mental health challenges stems mainly from sudden changes in mood, fears and
feelings of anxiety and inability to cope with life stress. The role of psychiatrist and other mental
health professionals is has also become complex because of general health systems and
inappropriate attitude towards the mental health patients. To reduce the sufferings of patient
during the mental illness, there is a need for changes in attitude and system design too. Due to
such limitation in current mental health practice, the neurobiological component of mental health
has become an active area of research and there is a focus on combining both neuroscience and
psychology. Mental disorders are highly linkers to the psychology of the human as different
beliefs and thinking pattern also affects the mood and feelings of people on a daily basis.
Christian world view about mental health issues:
From the point of view of Christianity, the perspective of mental illness and the
medications related to psychiatry is very challenging. Many Christian people have doubts
regarding the effectiveness of psychiatric medications. This view and attitude about psychiatric
medication and treatment option is not unique for Christianity only, several medical
professionals are also going against the use of medication for psychiatry. Many Christian
psychologist deny the existence of many mental illness (Clements & Koenig, 2014). The

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Christian psychology regarding poor preference for psychiatric medication arises mainly because
of the Christian perception of the human nature. They have the feeling that mood disorder or
other forms of mental illness occurs due to guilt feeling and people adapt different means to
reconcile with God (Stuber et al., 2014).. Hence, they do not set the problem of sin in line with
other problems to define neurosis or mental health challenges.
Many Christian counselors also lack the medical licensing to authorize the use of
medications. Due to their different perspective about mental illness, they must be given special
training to seek patient’s permission while ordering or stopping medications for patients.
However, they often deliver treatment on the basis of their own perception about mental illness.
This is ethically and legally not right and they must be given training to deal with people with
mental illness. Hence, the main challenges in the mental health care system due to the Christian
world view are that Christian people regard mental health as a consequence of doing sin. They
also believe that care without following physical remedies is the manner in which Jesus health
the patients (Stuber et al., 2014). Christian believes psychiatry is formed by wrong beliefs and
notion which is not applicable to teach people with mental illness. Certain sections also believe
that mental illness can be addressed by means of prayers and rituals instead of medical
interventions (Agorastos, Demiralay & Huber, 2014). Hence, they adapt certain elements of
psychiatry but leave major parts in order to adapt the correct approach to well-being of patients.
Ethical and legal issues and post modern perspective of mental health:
In the post modern world, psychiatry became the subspecialty of medicine for treating
mental health issues and challenges faced by patient. Modern psychology defined mental illness
by means of different psychological theories. Some example of modern psychology theories that

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influenced mental health practice includes behavioral, cognitive and social theories. The field of
psychiatry embraced this theory as this medical specialty mainly incorporated social science and
humanities to cure people with mental illness (McNally et al., 2015). Although the psychiatric
process and counseling is regarded as defensive procedure in the beginning, however it
eventually results in recovery of patient. The psychological theories is also more readily accepted
by people as it is least restricted and favors liberty of people instead of enslavement or separation
methods to promote recovery of patients. It is also more humanistic approach to treatment where
patient’s values and preference is respected and full autonomy is provided to patient or their
family members regarding treatment choices (Rogers & Pilgrim, 2014). Hence, the final
consequence of modern approach to psychology is that it can address the limitation present in
past models and make practice more favorable for mental health care professionals as it the
treatment process mainly revolves around patient concerns. In the modern era, the strategies that
medical school training program can take is that new staffs should be trained regarding cultural
competency training to safely handle diverse group of patient and addressing the barrier in
delivering care to mentally ill patient.
Apart from the challenges is mental health practice due to different cultural and religious
views about mental illness, there are many ethical and legal challenges in delivering care to
patients too. The risk to professional liability for psychiatrist is high when the patients display
suicidal behavior and any psychopharmacological issues arise. In such situation, ethical values
and principles of bioethics such as beneficence, autonomy, justice, fidelity and veracity is
violated. In case of voluntary or involuntary admission, taking patient’s consent during the
treatment procedure also brings many challenges. To address such dilemma, it is necessary that
patients remain informed about different ethical and legal requirements related to care of patients

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with mental illness. Some important patient’s right includes right to treatment, right to refuse
treatment and right to informed consent (Dennis & Monahan, 2013). Mental health professionals
must have the maturity to respond to ethical challenges during the care process. They must be
trained regarding taking the right action regarding seclusion, restraint and taking patient’s right
related decision for patients. P roper understanding of the DSM V criteria for mental
health disorder is also necessary to understand the severity and types of mental health disorder
diagnosed in patient.
My practice framework:
You: (Who are you as the helping professional?)
The above discussion has mainly given idea regarding the Christian world view about
mental illness and the ethical and legal issues surrounding mental health practice that has
challenged mental health care practitioner. As a mental health counselor, I also do not have very
positive thoughts about the use of psychiatric medication. I feel that mental health and well-
being is a spiritual concept where the thought pattern and inadequate beliefs of people needs to
be changed to address mental illness. I have favored my religious thoughts about human nature,
however do not totally ignore the contribution of psychiatry in the cure of people. Hence, as a
counselor so far, I have focused mainly on psychoanalytic and behavioral interventions for
patients so that their thought patterns could be changed and modified instead of changing their
behavior through psychosis medication. There are many hazards of antipsychotic treatment too
such as evidence has shown increase in symptoms of confusion and delirium as a result of
antipsychotic medication use (Inouye, Marcantonio, & Metzger, 2014).
Theory: (What you need to know?)

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So far in my experience as a counselor, I have followed the recovery oriented model of
mental illness and considered the fact that unresolved trauma in patient is seen due to poor
thought pattern and social issues in life. Hence, I have applied cognitive behavioral theory (CBT)
during counseling session. It has helped me to enhance positive outcome for patient as the theory
focuses on how people think (cognition), how they feel (emotion) and how they act. Inquiry
regarding these three areas in the counseling session has helped me to understand negative and
unrealistic thought of patient and develop alternative ways of thinking in patient to address
psychological distress and other symptoms (Kendall & Hollon, 2013). However, as different
people have different views about mental illness due to different cultural and religious beliefs, I
also need to learn about several social and psychological theories too. This will help me to
understand the complexity of thought patterns and cause of mental problems in patient. In
addition, my values and attitude as a mental health professional is related to promoting fairness,
justice, well-being and relational harmony of patient. I focus on empowering patients so that they
redevelop the skills to cope with life stress. The values of well being and being fair to patient
will also help to minimize ethical and legal consequences in the care process.
Practice: What you need to be able to do?
As a competent practitioner, I must also be able to handle people coming from different
culture. I also want to effectively adapt recovery oriented framework so that I can build a
therapeutic relation with mental illness client and they develop the trust level to disclose their life
issues to me during the counseling session. My practice framework is also incorporates practice
knowledge, theoretical knowledge and factual knowledge for the delivery of care. Practical

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knowledge is related to lived experience of mental health professionals, whereas theoretical
knowledge is related to appropriate models and theoretical approaches to be applied during
treatment. Factual knowledge is related to following all professional standards and competency
required for a mental health professional to practice. I want to integrate my gospel knowledge
and give preference to client need during treatment planning.
Context:
On the ground, I have found several limitations in counselor training. The limitation for
individual counselor increases on the basis of years serviced in counseling sessions. Some of the
common challenges in counseling include issues in maintaining confidentiality of patient, taking
informed consent from patient, imposing values and preserving patient’s right during care
(Erford, 2017). This has influenced me to as many patients are not capable to engage in shared
decision making due to mental illness and it increases the ethical dilemma for us. I aim to use my
professional practice standards and the evidence based strategies to handle these issues in the
future. My plan for the future is to engage in proper assessment process to improve my decision
making skills. This will be enhanced mainly by the use of recovery oriented service delivery as it
will support me to provide evidence-informed treatment and provide psychological support in
way that brings best outcome well being of patient (Slade et al., 2014).

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Reference
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Caplan, G. (2013). An approach to community mental health(Vol. 3). Routledge.
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