Mental Health Notes – Midterm 1
Lecture 1 – What is Mental Health
- State of emotional and psychological well-being o Use of cognitive and emotional
capabilities o Ability to function in society
o Ability to meet the demands of every day life
- Psychotherapy: subjective - Neuroscience: objective
- Mental health includes ability to :
o Understand oneself and one’s life
o Relate to other people and respond to one’s environment
o Experience pleasure and enjoyment o Handle stress and withstand discomfort
o Evaluate challenges and problems o Pursue goals and interests o Explore
choices and make decisions
These basically transcend every culture
Mental Status Examination
- Many psychological tests (observations, structured questions, & tests of concentration,
memory, and other mental functions) o Ex. Arithmetic calculation (subtract a number
from another until you no longer can) // Rorschach, ink-blot, test
- Cross-sectional view: only one brief point in time o Means you’re looking at a fixed
point in time
o Mood states can change almost instantaneously, whereas we don’t see this kind
of drastic change with function/skill
- There are fluctuations in various facets of mental health
- Influences include the environment, stressors, life events, substance use
Brain vs. Mind
Degeneration vs disease
Brain
- Physical organ of the body that produces mental activity
- Computer hardware
- A physical “object”
Mind
- Set of functions and experiences resulting from a combination of brain activity and the
environment in which it operates
- Overall function of computer with several software programs operating
- A “construct”
1
, - Schizophrenia, autism, all in the mind (the physical degeneration)
Factors that influence the development of the mind:
Perspectives on Mental Health: Physical Sciences vs. Social Sciences Physical:
- Emphasis on function of the brain, neurotransmitters, and endocrine system
- Explore factors that may affect the function of these biological systems (ex. genetics)
- Popular in the 19th century; again, in the second half of the 20th century Social:
- Effects of family life, culture, society, and political and economic environments -
Popular in the mid-20th century
- It depends on the lens on which we look at mental health – emotional or intellectual
capacity
- Reductionist – if a part of something is broken, you can fix it and the whole will be fixed.
When it comes to mental health, it doesn’t totally work out. It’s not so black and white.
Reductionist thinking can happen when shifting between these two perspectives like a
pendulum swing
Problems with Reductionist Explanations
- Example: Depression
o Biological explanations in the second half of 20th century would find that
depression is a chemical imbalance of the brain
Ignores other factors (ex. relationships, loneliness)
, Narrows treatment options to include only prescription of medication or
other biological treatment to alter brain’s chemistry
- Traditional Mental Health and Spiritual Practices o First Nations, Inuit, and Métis
Practices for mental and spiritual health
ritual chants, ceremonial dances, drumming, ritual journeys, communal
sweats (Kirmayer & Valaskakis, 2009)
Historical Treatment of Mental Illness in Canada
- 19th century: mental illnesses caused by physical disease or damage to the brain (not
clear) o Established residential asylums
- Increased Use and Acceptance of Psychotherapy o circa1950s “psychoanalysis” popular
in North America as treatment for common mental health problems. Commonly
accepted that average person likely to experience emotional problems.
- Number of psychiatric beds (ex. Quebec) peaked in the 1960s Contandriopoulos, Fortier,
Lesage, Morissette, & Reinharz, 2000 o Deinstitutionalization: governments to
decrease the use of psychiatric hospitals and replace these with community-based
treatment
o Factors: financial (budget) and broad social issues
Mental Health of Candians: a Statistics Canada study showed that most people have very good
to excellent mental health (….okay…??? lol)
Epidemiology and Mental Health
- Epidemiology (the study of the distribution of health and illness within populations)
- Prevalence: the proportion of individuals in a population that have a particular health
condition o Point-prevalence // One-year prevalence
ex. 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) reported one-year
prevalence of mood disorder in Canadian adults to be 5.4% (Statistics
Canada, 2012)
- Incidence: the proportion of people who have a new case of the condition being studied
- Epidemiology – can happen at the micro (clinical) or macro (social, working at the WHO
for example) level
- Prevalence – the % of people that have a condition
- Incidence – how many times a condition happens at a given time (recent)
- Years Lived with Disability (YLD) o Number of years of life that have been accompanied
by a disability due to a disease or injury
o Depression estimated to be responsible for greatest number of YLD worldwide
(Health Canada, 2002)
- Years of Life Lost (YLL)
o Measure of the number of years of life lost due to premature mortality in the
population
3
Lecture 1 – What is Mental Health
- State of emotional and psychological well-being o Use of cognitive and emotional
capabilities o Ability to function in society
o Ability to meet the demands of every day life
- Psychotherapy: subjective - Neuroscience: objective
- Mental health includes ability to :
o Understand oneself and one’s life
o Relate to other people and respond to one’s environment
o Experience pleasure and enjoyment o Handle stress and withstand discomfort
o Evaluate challenges and problems o Pursue goals and interests o Explore
choices and make decisions
These basically transcend every culture
Mental Status Examination
- Many psychological tests (observations, structured questions, & tests of concentration,
memory, and other mental functions) o Ex. Arithmetic calculation (subtract a number
from another until you no longer can) // Rorschach, ink-blot, test
- Cross-sectional view: only one brief point in time o Means you’re looking at a fixed
point in time
o Mood states can change almost instantaneously, whereas we don’t see this kind
of drastic change with function/skill
- There are fluctuations in various facets of mental health
- Influences include the environment, stressors, life events, substance use
Brain vs. Mind
Degeneration vs disease
Brain
- Physical organ of the body that produces mental activity
- Computer hardware
- A physical “object”
Mind
- Set of functions and experiences resulting from a combination of brain activity and the
environment in which it operates
- Overall function of computer with several software programs operating
- A “construct”
1
, - Schizophrenia, autism, all in the mind (the physical degeneration)
Factors that influence the development of the mind:
Perspectives on Mental Health: Physical Sciences vs. Social Sciences Physical:
- Emphasis on function of the brain, neurotransmitters, and endocrine system
- Explore factors that may affect the function of these biological systems (ex. genetics)
- Popular in the 19th century; again, in the second half of the 20th century Social:
- Effects of family life, culture, society, and political and economic environments -
Popular in the mid-20th century
- It depends on the lens on which we look at mental health – emotional or intellectual
capacity
- Reductionist – if a part of something is broken, you can fix it and the whole will be fixed.
When it comes to mental health, it doesn’t totally work out. It’s not so black and white.
Reductionist thinking can happen when shifting between these two perspectives like a
pendulum swing
Problems with Reductionist Explanations
- Example: Depression
o Biological explanations in the second half of 20th century would find that
depression is a chemical imbalance of the brain
Ignores other factors (ex. relationships, loneliness)
, Narrows treatment options to include only prescription of medication or
other biological treatment to alter brain’s chemistry
- Traditional Mental Health and Spiritual Practices o First Nations, Inuit, and Métis
Practices for mental and spiritual health
ritual chants, ceremonial dances, drumming, ritual journeys, communal
sweats (Kirmayer & Valaskakis, 2009)
Historical Treatment of Mental Illness in Canada
- 19th century: mental illnesses caused by physical disease or damage to the brain (not
clear) o Established residential asylums
- Increased Use and Acceptance of Psychotherapy o circa1950s “psychoanalysis” popular
in North America as treatment for common mental health problems. Commonly
accepted that average person likely to experience emotional problems.
- Number of psychiatric beds (ex. Quebec) peaked in the 1960s Contandriopoulos, Fortier,
Lesage, Morissette, & Reinharz, 2000 o Deinstitutionalization: governments to
decrease the use of psychiatric hospitals and replace these with community-based
treatment
o Factors: financial (budget) and broad social issues
Mental Health of Candians: a Statistics Canada study showed that most people have very good
to excellent mental health (….okay…??? lol)
Epidemiology and Mental Health
- Epidemiology (the study of the distribution of health and illness within populations)
- Prevalence: the proportion of individuals in a population that have a particular health
condition o Point-prevalence // One-year prevalence
ex. 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) reported one-year
prevalence of mood disorder in Canadian adults to be 5.4% (Statistics
Canada, 2012)
- Incidence: the proportion of people who have a new case of the condition being studied
- Epidemiology – can happen at the micro (clinical) or macro (social, working at the WHO
for example) level
- Prevalence – the % of people that have a condition
- Incidence – how many times a condition happens at a given time (recent)
- Years Lived with Disability (YLD) o Number of years of life that have been accompanied
by a disability due to a disease or injury
o Depression estimated to be responsible for greatest number of YLD worldwide
(Health Canada, 2002)
- Years of Life Lost (YLL)
o Measure of the number of years of life lost due to premature mortality in the
population
3
