Mental Health Professional Report

The prolific success rates of mindfulness-based therapeutic techniques among the body of evidence only highlights how we can further incorporate mindfulness into not only psychological treatments, but also into our daily lives as preventative measures against unnecessary distress. The cognitive perceptual and interpretive control afforded via mindfulness practices seems to influence the appraisal of the situation at hand affects our reaction and response to it. The advantageous ability to objectively reflect on an issue before responding is not confined only to the realm of treating psychological symptoms.

Our progress in learning the causes and treatments for mental illness has been steady as we build on the medical model of mental illness, which Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman (2010) describe as a model that, “views emotional and behavioral problems as a mental illness, comparable to a physical illness (pp. 341). Only in modern times have we been able to effectively treat mental illness with behavioral therapy, social support, medicine, and other research-based programs. However, there is still much work to be done in regard to access, proper facilities, policy and a host of other challenges that affect this issue.

Self-Care. Self-care is a crucial part of holistic nursing. As holistic nurses in practice, we should protect our personal health and safety in order to have the sustenance to be able to effectively and therapeutically care for others. Coping mechanisms are an immense help when it comes to preventing burnouts. A study published in the Journal of Pediatric Nursing (2015) examined 38 Pediatric ICU nurses who participated in a 5-minute mindfulness meditation before each work-shift for one month to investigate change in nursing stress, burnout, self-compassion, mindfulness, and job satisfaction. This exploration found that brief interventions that support on-the-job self-care and stress-reduction might prove useful in critical care hospital settings. Death and dying is something that is experienced throughout the human experience, yet in a beautiful twist everyone’s experiences with the process are different. On a stroke unit death sweeps the census on a regular basis. As a leader on my unit I have to be in tune with the nurses I am working with as well as the families who maybe struggling with the decision to change a code status to DNR, to cease escalation of care, or maybe to participate in organ donation, to ensure that my nurses remain professional and empathetic and the families are accommodated appropriately. It is important for

Jordan (2009, p. 168) defines mindfulness “as an individual learning process characterized by a heightened awareness of the specific circumstances in a given situation”. I work with Veterans and each patient is unique in their own past experiences and things they have been exposed to. I am mindful in order to deliver safe, quality, and effective patient care. I recover anywhere from 9-19 veteran patients a day, each with different backgrounds and I have to be mindful on how I approach them as they recover from anesthesia. Some veterans awake with flashbacks, and need special patient specific assistance. Upon discharge home, I review their discharge instructions on a level that the patient understands. I am flexible in my teaching and communication based on each patient. Traumatic brain injury, PTSD, and other neurologic disorders are all taken into consideration and my mindfulness allows me to be patient, flexible, and non-judgmental. Being mindful and compassionate allows an excellent healing environment for our patients to be cared for.

Did you know that 19.9 percent of adult Americans had some sort of a mental illness, according to the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (samhsa.gov, 2015, Para. 3). This is a total of 45.1 million adults in America suffering with mental health disorders (samhsa.gov, 2015, Para. 3). There are also currently 20.8 million adults in America who suffer from substance use disorder ever year (NAMI.org, 2015). Both of these are alarming statistics of the wellbeing of the American citizens. To make matters worse, these two groups intertwine to a population of people known with a co-occurrence of mental illness and substance use or, more commonly known as, dual diagnosis.

In 2012, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported an estimated 9.6 million adults in the United States had a Serious Mental Illness. Of this 4% of the population, 4.9% were female, 3.2% male. Race varies greatly with about 8.5% of the population being American Indian/Alaska native. Hispanics, whites, and those identifying as two or more races make up about 4.3% each. Black is 3.4%, Asian 2%, and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander is 1.8% (Serious Mental Illness (SMI), 2012.). Of the individuals that have a mental illness, not all experience disparity in treatment access..

Statistical data reveal that 25% of adult Americans have a mental illness, and more than half of the U.S. population will develop a mental illness at some point during their lifetime (CDC; APA). "Major Depressive disorder is a leading cause of disability for ages 15-44. Major depressive disorder affects approximately 14.8 million American adults, or 6.7 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older in a given year” while anxiety disorder affects …40 million…adults ages 18 and older…” (NIMH; APA). Comparatively, cardiovascular, diabetes, epilepsy, obesity, cancer, and asthma, and other chronic diseases are surfacing with increased frequency among the mentally ill (CDC; APA). The aforementioned finding elicits question about medical

If anyone were to take a look at The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, 4th edition, (DSM IV), they would discover that nearly every human being could relate to “symptoms” required for some form of mental disorder. The need for effective mental health services in this country is essential, not only for general society, but also within the criminal justice system. These days it seems that more and more people are being diagnosed with some form of mental disorder or disability. It’s important that those who provide mental health services be properly trained and certified so as to

In a study collaborated between Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin at Madison and Jon Kabat-Zinn, long-term meditators were shown to have more left hemispherical dominance in their baseline than those who didn’t meditate, and that shift in anterior activation was also correlated with an enhanced immune functioning (Davidson et al., 2003; Davidson & Kabat-Zinn, 2004). Davidson & Kabat-Zinn (2004) show that people who engage in mindfulness practice cope healthier with their emotions with approach rather than withdrawal (Siegel, 2007, pp.

Seppala, Cendri A. Hutcherson, Dong TH. Nguyen, James R. Doty and James J. Gross has a goal of finding a way to increase compassion which would in turn help both the healthcare provider and the patient. The article starts by going over the background that highlights the underlying cause of the lack of compassion. The lack of compassion in healthcare comes from a place stress and worry.The background of this article goes over the fact that medical training is a very stressful experience for most people and it also continues in the residency years and after. This high level of stress is one of the reasons that is keeping the providers from providing optimal care for the patients. It is very evident that the lack of compassion does exist in healthcare because sixty four percent of patients have agreed to have received less than compassionate care. Compassion is not just a mere preference. Compassion leads patients to better comply with the doctor’s instruction which leads to faster recovery from whatever they are suffering from. It also creates a trust between the provider and the patient and so the patient is more likely to be more honest with the provider leading to better healthcare. In this study, the researchers wanted to see how would a ten minute long loving-kindness meditation (LKM) help with social connectedness with the patients. The LKM condition was then compared with the neutral

It has been estimated that for every research study on Transcendental Meditation there may be as many as 100 such studies on mindfulness meditation. It would be beneficial to investigate why mindfulness meditation appears to have been more widely accepted than Transcendental Meditation within the short 15-year time-frame. Many of the supportive clinical trials on Transcendental Meditation were carried out over 30 years ago and indicates a need for more clinical research. It is, however, interesting to note that the Peter G. Dodge Foundation recently announced that a grant of $225,000 has been awarded to the David Lynch Foundation for a feasibility study on Transcendental Meditation to establish whether the technique is useful in preventing relapse following inpatient treatment for alcohol use

Before considering how mindfulness relates to task performance in organizational and occupational settings, it is worth observing that previous research points to a variety of non– task performance outcomes of mindfulness. For example, evidence indicates that mindfulness enables individuals to effectively cope with a range of experiences, including those associated with strong emotions or physical pain Mindfulness has also been shown to reduce depression and anxiety and enhance vitality .Although issues involving the physical and mental health of organizational members are important, from a managerial perspective they are perhaps not as foremost a concern as performance-related outcomes. Yet, as noted, there has been little scholarly investigation

In another study, normal healthy working adults who participated in Mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) training, showed improvement in behavioural, psychological, and physiological outcomes measured. This study assessed the effects of a shortened (low-dose [ld]) work-site MBSR intervention (MBSR-ld) on indicators of stress in healthy working adults to determine if results similar to those obtained in traditional MBSR could be demonstrated. Participants were randomized into MBSR-ld and wait-list control groups. Self-reported perceived stress, sleep quality, and mindfulness were measured at the beginning and end of the 6-week intervention. Salivary cortical was assessed weekly. Significant reductions in perceived stress (p = .0025) and increases in mindfulness (p = .0149) were obtained for only the MBSR-ld group (n = 22). Scores on the global measure of sleep improved for the MBSR-ld group (p = .0018) as well as for the control group (p = .0072; n = 20). 4

Mackenzie, C. S., Poulin, P. A., & Seidman-Carlson, R. (2006). A brief mindfulness-based stress reduction intervention for nurses and nurse aides. Applied Nursing Research,19(2), 105-109. DOI: 10.1016/j.apnr.2005.08.002

Siegel, Germer, and Olendzki (2009) present a systematic overview of mindfulness in their book chapter. The chapter covers basic contents of mindfulness, including its construct, Buddhist origins, practice forms, and implications in psychotherapy. Using the definition of Kabat-Zin (2003), the authors approach mindfulness as a practice of full, purposive, persistent, and nonjudgmental attention on present moment of life.