Mental Health in Context Reflection Report - MHC402

This report is a reflection on the mental health continuum within social contexts, based on the MHC402 course. The student explores their understanding of mental health, mental wellbeing, and mental disorders, referencing course materials and modules. The report highlights the importance of mental health, emphasizing its significance alongside physical health, and defines the mental health continuum with its three spectrum ends: mentally healthy, mental health problems, and mental disorders. The reflection delves into each section, defining characteristics, and providing examples. It also emphasizes the person-first approach. The report concludes that mental health is a multifaceted concept and cannot be understood only by the absence of mental illness. The student successfully assesses and studies the four axes of the MH continuum include optimal mental well-being, minimal mental well-being, minimum mental illness, and maximum mental illness.

Running Head: MENTAL HEALTH REFLECTION 0
Mental Health in Context
Reflection
(Student Details: )
3/9/2020

MENTAL HEALTH REFLECTION 1
Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Reflection...................................................................................................................................2
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................5

MENTAL HEALTH REFLECTION 2
Introduction
This reflection is based on Mental Health (MH) in context for demonstrating an
understanding of the continuum of mental health, especially in social contexts. In doing so, I
will review as well as reflect on my responses to the course materials and tasks from the
modules one and two. This reflection will help me to explore people’s views on mental health
within the community (Auerbach, Alonso, & Axinn , 2016). In the end, a summary will be
included in the context of mental health wellbeing and awareness in a social context.
Reflection
This section is dedicated to present my reflection about mental health wellbeing and
awareness. I would like to support individuals living with mental health conditions. Based on
(News, 2017), I believe that mental health is equally important as physical health and
sometimes it is above than the physical health of individuals. In general, the MH Continuum
is a kind of spectrum of MH which explains the mentally ill people in a social context. There
are three ends in the spectrum including right, left and middle ends. I have observed that
mentally healthy people are always social, productive, happy, goal-oriented as well as skilled
people (News, 2017).
Source: (Together To Live, 2020)
My study and observation related to MH in social context suggest that MH can be
defined as an absence of psychopathologies like depression and anxiety (Halder & Mahato,

MENTAL HEALTH REFLECTION 3
2012). As per my knowledge, the MH continuum is an MH range containing mental disorder
at the right end, mentally healthy at the left and MH problems in the middle of the spectrum.
My study suggests that an individual often fluctuates on the continuum according to the
internal as well as external factors. The MH continuum can be further explained with the help
of three MH sections as below (Australian Government, 2010).
In the context of Mental Disorder (MD), I learned that this section of the continuum is
dedicated to the people having mental health disorders. In addition to that, it is evident that a
person with an MD often has so many factors that influence the normal functioning and
hence need longer or serious treatment (Halder & Mahato, 2012). In this context, some of the
key factors affecting MDs are as follows:
 Difficulty in forming as well as maintaining healthy relations with others
 A cluster of negative symptoms affecting the normal functioning
 Suffering from chronic or longer-lasting symptoms
 Depression or panic attacks ( Gabriel & Liimatainen, 2016).
 Severe symptoms like hallucinations or delusions
The second section situated at the left end of the continuum is of mentally healthy
people. I learned that mentally healthy people are characterized as emotionally stable, goal-
oriented as well as self-respecting people (Together To Live, 2020). There are some key
examples of how one can describe mentally healthy people. The key characteristics are as
follows:
 Mentally healthy people are happy in their lives
 Mentally healthy people can form as well as maintain healthy relations with others
 Mentally healthy people are skilled at problem-solving and thereby tackling life
challenges efficiently (Halder & Mahato, 2012).
 Mentally healthy people can cope with key stressors as well as negative emotions
In addition, the middle section of the continuum contains people with mental health
issues. In this context, people having mental health problems are not capable to cope with
particular stressors. Such people lying in the middle of the MH continuum spectrum usually
face issues like less sleep and hence feel a little depressed (Elkin & Rosch, 2010). I observed

MENTAL HEALTH REFLECTION 4
that people having mental health issues have few symptoms of disorders which are moderate.
Few examples of moderate MH problems are as follows:
 Suffering from moderate as well as temporary symptoms like anxiety, depression,
panic, insomnia and a loss of appetite (Australian Government, 2010).
 Experiencing stress frequently in daily lives
Thus, I have got the importance of mental health wellness for the personal and
professional life. Apart from this, both the mental illness and mental health are not opposite
ends of the sole MH continuum. To me, mental health can be understood in the best possible
way with the help of a matrix regardless of mental illness (Auerbach, Alonso, & Axinn ,
2016).
Conclusion
With the help of this reflection, I got to know a lot about MH and MH continuum
which is useful from both writer and reader perspective. Based on this research, it has been
found that mental health cannot be understood with the absence of mental illness but it is a
more deep concept. I have successfully assessed and studied the four axes of the MH
continuum include optimal mental well-being, minimal mental well-being, minimum mental
illness, and maximum mental illness.

MENTAL HEALTH REFLECTION 5
References
Gabriel, P., & Liimatainen, M. (2016). Mental health in the workplace. Introduction,
executive summaries.
Auerbach, R., Alonso, J., & Axinn , W. (2016). Mental disorders among college students in
the World Health Organization world mental health surveys. Psychological medicine,
46(14), 2955-2970.
Australian Government. (2010). Principles of recovery oriented mental health practice.
Retrieved 2020, from
https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/publications/publishing.nsf/Content/mental-pubs-
i-nongov-toc~mental-pubs-i-nongov-pri
Elkin , A., & Rosch, P. (2010). Promoting mental health at the workplace: the prevention side
of stress management. Occupational medicine (Philadelphia, Pa.), 739-754.
Halder, S., & Mahato, A. (2012). Mental Health at Work Place. International Journal of
Occupational Safety and Health, 2-6.
News. (2017). CEO’s reply to employee mental health sick day email goes viral. Retrieved
from News: https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/social/ceos-reply-to-
employee-mental-health-sick-day-email-goes-viral/news-story/
8a0b4fd691dd5360cdd201e6e49a5e91
Together To Live. (2020). Mental health continuum. Retrieved from Together To Live:
http://www.togethertolive.ca/mental-health-continuum