Answer To: NSG2PHN: Primary Health Care Nursing 2021 XXXXXXXXXXWritten Assessment. School of Nursing &...
Sutrishna answered on Sep 08 2021
Community mental health nurses (CMHNs)
2
COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH NURSES (CMHNs)
PART A: Nurses role in primary healthcare
1. Purpose and responsibilities:
Nurses are an irreplaceable group of individuals in community health care settings. The Australian nurses belong to different groups: school nurses, maternal and child health nurses, correctional services nurses, women’s health nurses, and community mental health nurses (CMHNs). The CMHNs are the less discussed despite holding a central position in community-oriented psychiatric care. They are a combination of public health nursing and psychiatric nursing. According to Kudless and White (2007), they serve in diverse behavioral health care settings. These settings include detoxification centers, programs for residential substance abuse, group homes for mentally disabled patients, and community health centers.
Therefore, according to Svensson and Bjorkman (1999), their purpose and roles can be broadly summarized as providing individual support daily, supporting the patient’s relatives, managing the function and rehabilitation of patients suffering from long term mental illness. This role makes CMHNs a distinguished public health care (PHC) role, involving acute and chronic patients and their families, demanding immense emotional labor and therapeutic interactions in emotionally intense situations that mandate effectiveness.
2. Importance of this role in achieving PHC outcomes at various levels:
According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2018), mental illness affects more than 45% of all Australians at some point in their lifespan. Providing psychiatric and comprehensive mental health care at their residence or work is the basis of community mental health care. As per the Ministry of Health (2019) information, since the last decade, there has been a significant shift towards community-based mental health care and delivering services based on principles of primary health care. As per the Ministry of Health (2019) information, since the last decade, there has been a significant shift towards community-based mental health care and delivering services based on principles of primary health care. The CHMNs and the friends, family, employers, neighbors, and the community also have roles to play in the recovery and the quality of life of mentally distressed individuals. For better service delivery, improved community understanding of psychiatry, and for implementation of changes in policies, resources, and procedures, the CMHNs need to support the community. In times of need, the CMHNs may also have to advocate on behalf of a mentally ill person. Besides, people’s health also depends on the actions and policies formulated by various government and non-governmental organizations, industry, media, and local government. To achieve positive individual and community mental health outcomes, the CMHNs may have to coordinate and mediate between the agencies as mentioned above.
The CMHNs emphasize the collaboration of the individual with the health service providers and their families. They help in identifying the strengths of the individual suffering from the illness. There are various approaches through which the CMHNs achieve this. Hungerford et al. (2015) state that to plan their recovery, the CMHNs require to know the factors influencing an individual’s health. They do this with the help of the individual and other family members when required. It is called a comprehensive mental health assessment. This assessment identifies the individual’s social and personal circumstances, goals, needs, and hopes. The information gained acts as the basis for recovery planning and maintaining the person’s mental health. According to Tse et al. (2016), one approach to do this is through a strength-based approach. Apart from the initial assessment, this approach emphasizes the role of the interpersonal relationship...