INTRODUCTION
PHS 205: Community Mental Health focuses on the study of mental health and psychiatry as an aspect of community health and it is designed to afford you the opportunity to apply the knowledge of community health to the care of patients in any setting. It is also designed to help you develop such skills as required of professionals to handle interpersonal and group problems.
It is believed that primary groups are essential to the welfare of individuals thus; attention is paid to the role of the family in the care of the sick. Because the three aspects of healthcare (preventive, curative and rehabilitative) are complementary, you will have the opportunity to participate in rendering these three aspects to your clients/patients.
Psychiatry is a branch of medical science that deals with the study and treatment of mental diseases. It deals with the mind, emotions and behaviour of man scientifically; the least understood aspects of the human/animal.
Psychiatry, also known as psychological medicine, is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mental illnesses. Psychiatric illness is characterised by a breakdown in the normal pattern of thought, emotion and behaviour. Psychiatric symptoms, problems and illness of all kinds are extremely common throughout life while community mental health is a specialised branch of community health in which the community health practitioner utilises his/her own personality, knowledge of psychiatric theory and the available environment to effect therapeutic changes in patients’ thoughts, feelings and behaviour. The ability to effect these changes varies according to experience and education. The therapeutic role of the community health psychiatric officer cannot be described only in terms of attitudes, feelings, relationships and understanding. What the nurse brings as a person to the treatment situation is directly related to his/her therapeutic effectiveness.
Psychiatry is concerned with the promotion of mental health, prevention of mental disorders and the community health care of patients who suffer from mental disorders. Thus, community health psychiatry is the process whereby the community health practitioner assists persons either as individuals or in groups, in developing a more positive self-concept, a more harmonious pattern of interpersonal relationships and a more productive role in society.