Mental Health - LPNI
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Mental Health
LPNI
Health Topic – May 2020
Mental
Health
As I perused the
internet, I noticed that both the US CDC (Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, www.cdc.gov, and Healthline. www.healthline.com, listed Mental
Health as a focus for May. How
appropriate in this time of turmoil within our global scope of care!
As we know from
our nursing training, mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and
social wellbeing. Our mental health
affects how we think, feel, and act. This
same mental health also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others,
and make healthy choices. Our mental
health and our physical health are equally important. We know that a person’s mental health can
change depending on many factors. And as
I write this, with the pandemic in the world, it is most certainly a factor.
As Parish Nurses,
we promote good mental health. This
involves actions to create living
conditions and
environments that support mental health and allow people to adopt and maintain healthy
lifestyles. These include a range of
actions to increase the chances of more people experiencing better mental
health, such as social support for elderly people, reaching out to the ones
affected by traumatic events (such as the coronavirus pandemic), and helping
people to develop strategies to maintain their mental and physical health. As you care for yourself and others, and as you
connect with your peers and parishioners, ask yourself and them some questions.
The answers might indicate that perhaps
you or they may need to revisit your/their mental health care plan.
Do you feel a
little flat or off for more than a few days? Have you been exercising and
looking outside of
yourself, but still feel ‘not right’? Have
your sleep habits changed … more or less? Are you eating more or not feeling like eating
at all? Are you having a hard time relating
to your family and friends in a meaningful, productive way? Do your emotions remain raw with extreme
crying or anger? The answers to these
questions might bring to light the need for specific mental health care.
Here
are some resources in the United States that might help you as you continue to
serve as Parish Nurses.
National Alliance
on Mental Illness www.nami.org
Do not conform to
the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind. Then you
will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and
perfect will. For by the grace given me I say to every one
of you: Do not think of yourself
more highly than
you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with
the faith God has distributed to each of you. (Romans 12:2, 3)
Karen Hardecopf,
RN, Certified Lay Minister-Parish Nurse
USA
khardecopf@gmail.com