Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Mentally Ill

Globally, focus on mental health promotion is gaining a lot of traction. With that said, health organisations and professionals are also very keen on the early detection of mental illnesses and developing evidence-based rehabilitation protocols. In this article, you will learn about the popular prevention strategies for mental illnesses and the rehabilitation techniques used by practitioners. 

Prevention of mental illness

The idea behind prevention strategies for mental illnesses is to protect vulnerable populations. Besides, the aim is to prevent the recurrence of mental ailments and dodge associated disabilities. The two pillars of preventive strategies in mental health practice are reducing exposure to aggravating factors and helping the patient strengthen their coping mechanisms to tackle situations effectively. In practice, preventive strategies for mental illnesses are multi-dimensional. They very commonly involve enhancing protective factors, gradually reducing exposure to risk factors, and directly targeting causal mechanisms like neurotransmitter imbalances. 

There are several techniques used in psychotherapy that facilitate the same. Primarily, there are two major fields of mental health prevention. They are:

Universal prevention strategies

Since preventive strategies do not just focus on preventing the recurrence of mental illnesses, there needs to be a generic plan to ensure that the general population does not experience mental ailments either. Awareness regarding mental health programs across the globe is highly disparate. Only a community-based prevention strategy can make universal mental health illness prevention a success. The factors responsible for the most common psychological illnesses should be addressed, and conservative methods of tackling them should be made available to people globally. 

Mental health problems are on the rise globally, and hence the importance of universal prevention strategies increases manifold. Since people are still unwilling to give mental health the importance it deserves, the biopsychosocial model of well-being can come into the picture to deliver universal prevention strategies. According to the biopsychosocial model, health and wellness cannot be ensured by just prescribing medications or performing surgeries to correct some physical ailment or pathology. The person should be encouraged to feel healthy from the inside by modifying their thinking and mental processes. This should be combined with a good enough strategy for social integration. 

These components might sound a little theoretical, but there is ample evidence of the successful use of biopsychosocial techniques, ranging from neurological to orthopaedic cases. Therefore, making patients aware of their good mental health while undergoing an existing treatment protocol makes it easy for practitioners to prevent illness. 

Since universal preventive strategies are not tailored for a particular patient or illness, these are very simple to understand and practice. Seemingly ordinary habits like sharing your daily experiences with family members or ensuring that everybody eats together can go a long way in keeping the mental state healthy and sound for everyone. 

Selective preventive interventions 

Simply speaking, specific mental illness prevention techniques are created for people who are highly vulnerable to developing a specific mental illness owing to the environment in which they live. Two examples of the same can be a teenager whose friend circle is known to have victims of substance abuse or a child whose parents have a history of severe mental illness. 

Delivering such specific mental illness prevention interventions is an urgent need. This is because the chances of vulnerable individuals developing illnesses are much higher than the general population. If we take the case of children whose parents have any mental illness, like psychosis, it is observed that at least 10% of them develop psychotic symptoms very early in life. 

Specific intervention strategies in such cases need not be very apparent. Like in the case of parental mental illness history, by improving the outcomes of parental symptoms, it is easy to prevent the development of symptoms in children. Therefore, an aggressive approach to managing parental mental illness is in itself a specific intervention strategy for the children. 

Rehabilitation interventions for mental illness

Cognitive behavioural therapy

Cognitive behavioural therapy is a form of psychotherapy wherein the main goal is to help the patient understand their abnormal thinking patterns and then bring about behavioural changes. One of the guiding principles of cognitive behavioural therapy is that the underlying cause behind several psychological problems is unhelpful thinking. More importantly, it posits that when patients are taught to cope with their stressors effectively, the intensity of the mental illness and its symptoms subsides. 

Group therapy

Another technique that falls under the purview of psychotherapy, group therapy is where a single therapist or multiple therapists hold sessions with several patients together. The choice of patients and the creation of a group is key here. Patients with similar conditions and willingness to participate are the most important criteria. 

The biggest benefit of group therapy is that the patient becomes able to seek support and encouragement from others who have experienced similar conditions. Further, group therapy gives each person a source of motivation as the group is created such that the individuals are on different levels of recovery. So, some serve as an inspiration to others, which is always positive reinforcement. 

Vocational training

Vocational training can serve as a great technique to offset mental triggers. When people are trained in a particular vocational skill that helps them find a job, the exposure to the primary risk factor reduces on its own. The monetary benefits are noteworthy too. 

Family counselling

Considering that a person spends maximum time with their family, preparing them to manage a mental illness is a big part of rehabilitation. Family counselling sessions are where the opinions of every member are considered, and key behavioural changes are suggested to everybody. This can go a long way in managing mental illness effectively. 

Conclusion

Although the focus on the prevention and management of mental health disorders has increased considerably, there is still a long way to go. People need to understand the possible risk factors for specific and general mental conditions and also make others aware of the same to achieve community-level success.