The Importance of Consumer Voice in Mental Health Nursing Care

This essay delves into the critical aspects of mental health and nursing care, emphasizing the significance of the consumer's voice in the recovery process. It explores the impact of social stigmatization on help-seeking behavior and highlights the evolving dynamics of the therapeutic relationship. The essay discusses key recovery principles, including consent, patient dignity, respect, partnership, and communication, and how these principles are implemented in practice. It examines the role of informed consent in empowering patients and providing them with the opportunity to voice their preferences and concerns. The essay also addresses the importance of respecting patient dignity and ensuring their involvement in care planning and policy-making. Ultimately, the essay underscores the need to center the consumer's voice in mental health care to facilitate optimal recovery and promote respect and dignity for all patients.

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH AND NURSING CARE
Mental health and nursing care
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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MENTAL HEALTH AND NURSING CARE
Table of Contents
Introduction: 3
Consumer voice in mental health: 3
Consent and consumer voice: 4
Patient dignity and respect: 5
Partnership and communication: 5
Conclusion: 6
References: 7

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Introduction:
Mental health and wellbeing, or the lack thereof, has always been considered as a societal
taboo, and hence the need for medical or therapeutic support for mental illnesses has always been
second guessed in the different sectors of the society. However, it has to be understood in this
context that there are a vast variety of different recovery frameworks have developed along the
years in an attempt to ease the experience of the mental patients. On a more elaborative note, it
has to be mentioned that the manifestation of the different mental health disorders is different in
different kinds of patients (Lindwall, Boussaid, Kulzer & Wigerblad, 2012). Hence for each
individual suffering from a particular mental disorder, there are a myriad of different health and
psychosocial issues. Hence it is crucial that the mental health care providing authorities must
also take in to consideration the voice of the metal health consumers, their preferences and
grievances to facilitate their recovery, both clinical and emotional. This assignment will attempt
to discuss recovery principles, how they are implemented in practice and how it relates with
consumer voice.
Consumer voice in mental health:
The impact of the social stigmatization of the mental health is one of the greatest reasons
behind the lack of help seeking behaviour that has been witnessed in the mental patients in the
past century, however, the relationship between the mental health care provider and the care
seeker and the dynamics of the therapeutic relationship between them has changed the outlook of
the mental patients completely. According to the Purdie, Dudgeon and Walker (2012), the
therapeutic relationship among the mental health care provider and the care receiver depends not
only on the trust and communicational comfort; the ability of the patient to freely share all the

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grievances and issues also is a very important aspect of the care provided under the recovery
principle of the mental health practice (Corrigan, Druss & Perlick, 2014). Recovery paradigm
can be defined as the step by step recovery journey of a patient that is suffering with any disease
or illness. There are 6 different recovery principles that are associated with the recovery planning
and each of the recovery principle interdependently linked with the recovery journey of the
patient.
Consent and consumer voice:
According to the 3rd principle, attitudes and rights, the patient has a right to communicate and
present their views on each and every care activity. One of the most important example
implementation of this principle is the patient consent (Lindwall et al., 2012). Patient consent is
an integral part of the health care documentation and has become one of the most important
aspects associated with the treatment framework in the health care industry. It has to be
mentioned that the concept of patient consent has given the opportunity to the patients to be
equally involved with the process of care planning and be able to voice their preferences and
issues with the care activities. In case of mental health care as well, the difference in power
manifestation in the therapeutic relationship between the care provider and the mental health care
receiver often results in the patients not having any decisive power in the care scenario. The
concept of informed consent on the other hand is crucially related with the voice of the mental
patients receiving the care (Reavley & Jorm, 2011). With the process of taking informed consent
mandatory in health care, the consumers or mental health care receivers get the opportunity to
voice their discomfort and rejection with any care activity which they do not want to participate
in.

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Patient dignity and respect:
Another very important aspect of the recovery framework of the mental health patients is the
fact that these patients often do not receive the dignity and respect in the society that all
individuals are entitled to, even in the health care scenario. However, the 4th principle of the
recovery oriented framework is the dignity and respect. The social stigmatization restricts the
mental health care consumers or the mentally disabled patients from getting an opportunity to
voice their preferences and doubts in the care scenario in comparison to the patients dealing with
the physical health constraints. According to the Banfield et al. (2011), the need for respect for
the voice of the mental patients is crucial in the present care scenario. Even with the consent
procedure providing the mental patients with an opportunity to voice their personal references,
there is still need for providing these patients with the respect and dignity entitled to any human
being; that can only be facilitated if more importance is given to their voice, in care planning and
in policy (Burgess et al., 2011).
Partnership and communication:
It has to be mentioned that the last principle of the recovery framework is the partnership and
communication. In this principle the main focus is on the patient. It has to be mentioned that this
recovery principle facilitates each individual is an expert of their own and hence the patients also
have a right to be involved in the each decisive area for the care of the patient. According to
Health.gov.au. (2018), this principle is implemented in the practice scenario by the means of
sharing relevant information with the patient and involving them in the care planning and
implementation practice. This principle helps the care providers to engage in a mutually
respectful relationship with the patients which exercises optimal inclusion in the decision making
procedure with the patients and helps them be the expert of the care they are going to receive. It

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has to be mentioned that the integration of the recovery framework has helped revive the
importance of consumer voice in the mental health practice, especially in Australia (Robinson,
Hills & Kelly, 2011).
Conclusion:
On a concluding note, it can be mentioned that the recovery of the mentally ill is critically
linked with their ability to voice their state of mental health and wellbeing and if the patients are
not able to voice their needs and challenges the mental health programs will not be able to
provide optimal results for the patients in any way. Hence, recovery frameworks will need to put
the consumer voice of the mentally ill patients to the centre of the entire policy protocol. So that
the mentally ill individuals are given the right to voice their mental state, preferences and desires
in order to avail a mental care that will help them recover with utmost dignity and respect.

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References:
Banfield, M. A., Griffiths, K. M., Christensen, H. M., & Barney, L. J. (2011). SCOPE for
Research: mental health consumers' priorities for research compared with recent research
in Australia. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 45(12), 1078-1085. Doi:
10.3109/00048674.2011.624084
Burgess, P., Pirkis, J., Coombs, T., & Rosen, A. (2011). Assessing the value of existing recovery
measures for routine use in Australian mental health services. Australian and New
Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 45(4), 267-280. Doi: 10.3109/00048674.2010.549996
Health.gov.au. (2018). Department of Health | Principles of recovery oriented mental health
practice. [online] Available at:
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/publications/publishing.nsf/Content/mental-pubs-n-
servst10-toc~mental-pubs-n-servst10-pri [Accessed 22 Mar. 2018].
Lindwall, L., Boussaid, L., Kulzer, S., & Wigerblad, Å. (2012). Patient dignity in psychiatric
nursing practice. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 19(7), 569-576. Doi:
10.1111/j.1365-2850.2011.01837.
Purdie, N., Dudgeon, P., & Walker, R. (2010). Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice. Retrieved from
https://research.acer.edu.au/indigenous_education/33/
Reavley, N. J., & Jorm, A. F. (2011). Young people's stigmatizing attitudes towards people with
mental disorders: findings from an Australian national survey. Australian & New Zealand
Journal of Psychiatry, 45(12), 1033-1039. Doi: 10.3109/00048674.2011.614216

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Robinson, T., Hills, D., & Kelly, B. (2011). The evaluation of an online orientation to rural
mental health practice in Australia. Journal of psychiatric and mental health
nursing, 18(7), 629-636. Doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2850.2011.01712
Ryan, C., Callaghan, S., & Large, M. (2014). Communication, confidentiality and consent in
mental health care. doi: 10.5694/mja13.11313. Retrieved from-
https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/2123/12618/1/MJA-
Communication_confidentiality_and_consent-2014.pdf