AY Honors/Mental Health
Overview
The Challenging Part
The most challenging requirement of this honor is probably this:
12. Accompanied with a responsible adult, visit and help a person with a mental deficiency and describe what special care is needed for their specific disease.
[[AY Honors/Mental Health/Requirements|Tab Name/Printable Version]]
1. Have the Brain and Behavior honor.
2. Define the following terms:
- a. Disorder
- b. Etiology
- c. Diagnosis
- d. Cognitive
- e. Therapy
- f. History
- g. Protective factor
- h. Risk factor
- i. Psychosis
- j. Prevention
- k. Promotion
- l. Intervention
- m. Psychopathology
- n. Psychology
- o. Psychiatry
- p. Impulse
3. Define what is health and what is disease. Read Genesis chapter 3 and Patriarchs and Prophets chapter 3. What relationship exists between these texts about the origin of disease?
4. What is mental health and why is it so important? What should you do to enjoy adequate mental health?
5. Find out what date World Mental Health Day is celebrated, make a report showing what activities are realized that day and indicate which organizations and health professionals are involved in these activities.
6. What is mental disease and what factors cause or trigger it?
7. Research and mention at least two disorders for each of the following categories:
- a. Infant, child, and adolescent disorders
- b. Delirium, dementia, amnesic disorders and other cognitive disorders
- c. Disorders related to substances
- d. Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders
- e. Mood disorders
- f. Anxiety disorders
- g. Sexual disorders and sexual identity
- h. Eating behavior disorders
- i. Sleep disorders
- j. Impulse control disorders
- k. Personality disorders
8. Based on requirement 7, choose a disorder and extensively research it. Prepare an audiovisual presentation to show your church, school, or community.
9. What is anxiety, how is it produced, what are its symptoms, and how should it be treated? What can you do to help someone who suffers from this disease?
10. What is depression, how is it produced, what are its symptoms, and how should it be treated? What can you do to help someone who suffers from this disease?
11. What Bible verses or Spirit of Prophecy citations would you use to help someone with anxiety or depression?
12. Accompanied with a responsible adult, visit and help a person with a mental deficiency and describe what special care is needed for their specific disease.
13. What are psychotropic drugs? What are side or adverse effects? Mention some symptoms caused by its use in the treatment of mental diseases.
14. What relationship exists between the fourth law of Pathfinders and mental health? Make a promise to care for and keep your mind free from disturbing influences.
Printable Answer Key Tab Name/Edit Answer Key
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For tips and instruction see Brain and Behavior.
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A mental disorder, also called a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a diagnosis by a mental health professional of a behavioral or mental pattern that may cause suffering or a poor ability to function in life. They can be ongoing or a single episode. For a mental state to classify as a disorder, it generally needs to cause dysfunction.
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Etiology is the study of why things occur, happen, or what is the cause.
2c
Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of a particular or certain phenomenon. In mental health, this would be identifying a disorder by its symptoms.
2d
Cognition is the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses. It encompasses processes such as knowledge, attention, memory and working memory, judgment and evaluation, reasoning and "computation", problem solving and decision making, comprehension and production of language, etc.
Thomas Aquinas divided the study of behavior into two broad categories: cognitive (how we know the world) and affective (how we understand the world via feelings and emotions). Consequently, this description tends to apply to processes such as memory, association, concept formation, pattern recognition, language, attention, perception, action, problem solving and mental imagery.
Empirical research into cognition is usually scientific and quantitative, or involves creating models to describe or explain certain behaviors.
2e
Better known as psychotherapy, it is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change and overcome problems in desired ways. Psychotherapy aims to improve an individual's well-being and mental health, to resolve or mitigate troublesome behaviors, beliefs, compulsions, thoughts, or emotions, and to improve relationships and social skills. Certain psychotherapies are considered evidence-based for treating some diagnosed mental disorders.
There are over a thousand different psychotherapy techniques, some being minor variations, while others are based on very different conceptions of psychology, ethics (how to live) or techniques. Most involve one-to-one sessions, between client and therapist, but some are conducted with groups, including families. Psychotherapists may be mental health professionals such as psychiatrists or psychologists, or come from a variety of other backgrounds, and depending on the jurisdiction may be legally regulated, voluntarily regulated or unregulated (and the term itself may be protected or not).
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A history of a client is the result of a process where a clinician working in the field of mental health systematically records the content of an interview with a patient. It is also the past or ongoing diagnoses of or interventions provided for a client. These are usually termed medical or psychological record.
2g
Protective factors are conditions or attributes (skills, strengths, resources, supports or coping strategies) in individuals, families, communities or the larger society that help people deal more effectively with stressful events and mitigate or eliminate risk in families and communities.
In the field of Preventative Medicine and Health Psychology, Protective factors refer to any factor that decreases the chances of a negative health outcome occurring.
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Almost exactly the opposite of Protective Factors, a Risk Factor will increase the chances of a negative health outcome occurring. It can be examined how many Protective factors and Risk factors contribute to the likelihood of an illness occurring.
Risk factors are correlational and not always causal. This means that they are associated with certain symptoms, but don't always cause the symptoms. For example, being young cannot be said to cause measles, but young people have a higher rate of measles because they are less likely to have developed immunity during a previous epidemic.
2i
Psychosis is an abnormal condition of the mind that involves a "loss of contact with reality". People experiencing psychosis may exhibit personality changes and thought disorder. Depending on its severity, this may be accompanied by unusual or bizarre behavior, as well as difficulty with social interaction and impairment in carrying out daily life activities.
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World Mental Health Day is observed on the 10th of October every year, with the overall objective of raising awareness of mental health issues around the world and mobilizing efforts in support of mental health.
The day provides an opportunity for all stakeholders working on mental health issues to talk about their work, and what more needs to be done to make mental health care a reality for people worldwide.
It is observed in more than 100 countries through local, regional and national commemorative events and programs. Activities include:
- Officials signing the World Mental Health Day proclamation.
- Public service announcements.
- Educational lectures and the distribution of research papers on mental health issues.
- Awards to individuals or organizations who made significant contributions in improving mental health issues.
World Mental Health Day is an initiative of the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH). The World Health Organization (WHO), which is the UN’s directing and coordinating authority for health, supports this event. The Mental Health Foundation is another organization that is proactive in promoting World Mental Health Day.
World Mental Health Day is a global observance and not a public holiday.
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Here are just a few Bible verses:
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Here are some citations from Ellen G. White's writings:
She presents the view that there exists an intimate relationship between the condition of the body and spiritual discernment: "Anything that lessens physical strength enfeebles the mind and makes it less capable of discriminating between right and wrong." - Christ's Object Lessons, pg. 346.
"The brain nerves which communicate with the entire system are the only medium through which Heaven can communicate to man and affect his inmost life. Whatever disturbs the circulation of the electric currents in the nervous system lessens the strength of the vital powers, and the result is a deadening of the sensibilities of the mind." - Testimonies for the Church, volume 2, pg. 347.
She recommends the reading of the Bible and books related to it as the best mental food for the development of the mind and that reading other material will weaken the mind: "Many of the youth say, 'I have no time to study my lesson.' But what are they doing? Some are crowding in every moment to earn a few cents more, when this time pressed into work, if given to the study of the Bible would, if they practiced its lessons, save them more than the amount gained by overwork ... That mind is ruined which is allowed to be absorbed in story-reading. The imagination becomes diseased, sentimentalism takes possession of the mind, and there is a vague unrest, a strange appetite for unwholesome mental food, which is constantly unbalancing the mind." - Messages to Young People, pg. 290.
Too much time spent seeking education and making it a priority above all also weakens the mind: "There are many who are crowding too many studies into a limited period of time. They are overworking their mental powers; and as a consequence they see many things in a perverted light ... They become unbalanced in mind ... but in overburdening the mind, they bring upon themselves life-long physical infirmities that cripple their powers, and unfit them for future usefulness." - Fundamentals of Christian Education, pg. 350.
She states it is important to rest the mind also: "Proper periods of sleep and rest and an abundance of physical exercise are essential to health of body and mind." - Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, pg. 247.
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References
Content on this wiki is generated by people like you, and no one has created a lesson plan for this honor yet. You could do that and make the world a better place.
See AY Honors/Model Lesson Plan if you need ideas for creating one.
