Objectives of CMHN
- To promote and maintain mental health of family through preventive and promotive interventions
- To enhance the potentials of community people to use their strength to provide essential competence for positive mental health
- To educate family members regarding identification of various stressors and coping mechanisms to deal with problems
- To help the family members to recognize that the social, cultural and situational aspects have an influence on behavior and how it can affect the individual person's behavior in the family
- To teach the community people to monitor their mental health and that of community.
Community mental health care includes:
Mental health promotion and Stigma removal
Psychosocial support and Rehabilitatory services
Prevention of harm from alcohol and substance use
Treatment of the ill, using primary health care system
Principles
It is distinguished by unique conceptual framework, clinical process and intervention strategy
It must consider social setting and conditions where family members experience stress, and it should be based on the potential and capabilities for the promotion of mental health and prevention of mental disorders
It uses holistic approach
It provides special kind of mental health services as the social and professional role of nurse converges to have better outcome of services
It should have primary concern for targeted population, and social and community networks It should have focuses on interrelationship formed in group context as they interact in daily living activities
Issues in CMHS
Limited manpower
Uneven distribution of resources
Low priority in national budget for mental health
GPs are not comfortable to manage people with mental illness
Lack of awareness in the community
Poor access to care
Poverty
Poor availability of medications
Traditional healing techniques.
COMMENTS