Mental disorders or personality disorders are very relatable to every Human being on Earth. Either Psychosis or Neurosis, we may likey fall into it at some time in our life.
Mental health plays a vital role in our overall health condition. This is primarily because the body, mind and soul is dead without the proper functioning of the brain. Everything happens at the brain. The Neuro-transmitters are responsible for the proper functioning of the brain. Without the brain , impulses and signals cannot be passed to other parts of the body.
Psychiatric Nursing is not only for the mentally deranged, but it studies the whole behavioral pattern of an individual, it studies attitudes, psychology, different personalities, etc.
I have been on my Clinical experience to a mental facility and I must say,I have learnt a whole lot about how the brain, the mind and the whole human system works and in this articles, and subsequent articles, I will be sharing insights of Mental Health, how to promote and protect our mental Health as well as how to Prevent and cure Mental illness and Personality Disorders.
Subsequently as we go on, you'll appreciate your mental health and knowledge the category of Personality you might Fall into.
Hold up, just so you think, we are talking about Mentally deranged people here, Sigmund Freud, Brought about the Psychoanalytical theory , which covers all human behaviors.
Historical Development of Psychiatric/Psychiatric Nursing
The beginning of psychiatry as a medical specialty is dated to the middle of the nineteenth century although one may trace its germination to the late eighteenth century. The history of mental illness is probably as old as the origin of mankind. People suffering from mental disorders were mentioned in the holy books of various ancient religions, such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism. The term psychiatric is a Greek word which literally mean "Medical treatment of the soul" and this was coined by Dr.John Christian Reil in early 19 century mental asylums were established during the medieval period.
Actually psychiatric started developing from the 18th century. In the early years when psychiatry was still in its infancy, studies were limited to violent and/or aggressive mental patients who had to be kept quarantined, mostly in mental asylum or hospices-during this period most of the client had serious or severe forms of psychotic or neurotic disorders which "soul" or "mind" physician of that time were not able to effectively treat.
The used of medicine and psychotherapy together with other adjective treatment modalities such as art-therapy after series of research by the pharmaceutical companies pave way for patient recovery and re-integrate into the society.
Historical review also entail the primitive belief which for cast mental illness as:
Individual had been dispossessed of his/her soul
Broken a taboo or sinned against another individual or gods, evil spirit or supernatural/magical powers has enter the body.
Historical development of psychiatric nursing began in 18th century which saw the development of psychiatric mental health nursing and shift toward compassionate/kindness- the advancement of caring now replaced punishment which the mentally ill used to go-through during the process of treatment.
During the period 1860, psychiatric treatment was by custodial care whereby untrained person control mentally ill patient. There was no concept of psychiatric care. Later Florence Nightingale developed her philosophy of treating a patient as a member of the family and part of the society, thereby laid the foundation of psychiatric nursing, which she emphasized on:
- Holistic care
- Therapeutic communication
- Sensitivity to human emotion
- Development of independence in patients
Psychiatric nursing deals with the promotion of mental health, prevention of mental illness care and rehabilitation of mentally ill individual both in hospital and community. Psychiatric nursing as a specialized area of nursing practice employing theories of human behavior as a science and the purposeful use of self as an art in the diagnosis and response to actual or potential mental health problem (ANA 194).
IMPORTANT MILESTONE:
1773: First mental hospital in the us was built in Willamburg-virginia
1793: Philip Pineal removal of chain continued. The chain from mentally ill patient confined in Bicester a hospital outside Paris i.e the first revolution in psychiatric.
1812:first American textbook in psychiatric, was written by Benjamin Rush, who also referred to as the father of American psychiatric
1812: Clifford Beers, an ex-patient of mental hospital wrote the book “The mind that found itself’, based on his bitter experience in the hospital late 18th century led to the advent of moral treatment which was characterized by Kindness Compassion Human treatment of mentally ill patients
1912:Eugene Bleuler,a.SNISS psychiatrist, coined the term schizophrenia
1927:Insulin shock treatment was introduced for schizophrenia
1936: Frontal lobotomy was advocated for the management of psychiatric disorder
1938: Electro convulsive therapy (ECT) was used for treatment of psychosis
1939: Development of psychoanalytical theory by Sigmund Freud led to concepts in the treatment of mental illness.
1949: Lithium was first used for the treatment of mania
Hildegard E. Pepleu -is the mother of psychiatric nursing and developed the first graduate psychiatric nursing programmer in 1954, at Rutgers University.
- Her emphasis was on the nurse-patient relationship
- First to identify psychiatric nursing as an essential element of general nursing and as a specialty area.
- First to described the nurse patient relationship as the foundation of nursing practice
- Her model represented a shift from traditional treatment to interpersonal relationship model of practice.
- She also defined the therapeutic roles that nurses might play in the mental health setting.
- She also described the skills and roles of the psychiatric nurse in her book ”Interpersonal relation in nursing”.
It was the first systematic and theoretical frame work developed for psychiatric nursing Linda Richard-is the first psychiatric nurse graduated in the United States in 1882 from Boston City College.
1952: Chlorpromazine was introduced which brought about a revolution in psycho-pharmacology.
1963:The community mental health centre Act was passed
20th century: Experience two opposing views regarding mental illness which are
(A)Biological view stated that mental illness was due to biological causes and could be treated with physical treatment.
(B)Psychological view: Stated that mental illness was due to factors such as social stress.
1955: Denis martin and John Pipp and, commenced the first therapeutic community that took place at clay bury hospital with about 2,000 patient and hundreds of staff.
1970: The name migrate from psychiatric nursing to mental health nursing
This is a Brief summary of How Mental Health Came About, in our Next article, we shall dive into other various aspects of Mental health.