Consumer-centered Mental Health Education Health, Medicine Essay (Essay Sample)

Consumer-centered Mental Health Education
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Consumer-centered Mental Health Education
Schizophrenia is the most serious and common type of mental illness, it is also debilitating, disabling, recurrent and chronic. An estimate of 1.1 percent of adult population globally is affected by schizophrenia that equals to over 50 million people (Hasan et al., 2015). 80 percent of this global estimate is reported to have been diagnosed with the condition just before the age of 25 years (Hasan et al., 2015). A definite cause of schizophrenia is unknown; however, studies have hypothesized vulnerability to stress as one of the causes. According to Schennach et al. (2012), imbalance between socio-environmental stress factors or physical factors and biological vulnerability have a role in the cause and presentation of schizophrenia. Biological vulnerability could be due to viral infection, physical injury or even genetics while physical factors such as stressful life events that emotionally overwhelms the patient causing them to conform differently to the situation to obtain some sense of “normalcy” (Bäuml et al., 2006).
Research have proven that drug treatment alone is ineffective in controlling the condition due to increased cases of medication discontinuation among the patients. A study done by Schennach et al. (2012) estimated that over 50 percent of schizophrenic patients under drug therapy suffer more than one relapse each year since discharged from the care facility. It is considered that adherence to medication for schizophrenic patients is influenced a great deal by the patient-healthcare provider relationship. To foster this relationship psychiatric nurses should implement evidence-based measures that inform patients about their illness and treatment while involving them in each process of care. Psychoeducation interventions are customer-centered care that can be offered to schizophrenic patients and their families. The paper herein discusses the benefits of psychoeducation for schizophrenic patients, examines the skills nurses require to provide effective education, considers potential barriers to providing education and discuss how I can apply the findings to my own nursing practice development.