How Can Nurses Improve Mental Health with a Holistic Approach?
Mental health has always had a negative stigma. Those who live every day with mental health are viewed as their disease, and not as a whole person. Holistic nursing is the embodiment of treating an individual person, considering their mental and social factors, and their whole being. Within our society alone we have over 450 million people suffering from a variety of diseases (“Mental Disorders”, 2011). The questions remain, how can nurses improve taking care of individuals with mental health while utilizing a holistic approach. Healthcare is ruled by the monopoly of the pharmaceutical companies. Even with the aid of the medications that individuals need to survive, there are other ways to treat a person as a whole (Frances, 2014, p.1). Medications do not handle the social, emotional, and connections of an individual. These needs must be meet, so the self-actualization stage can be reached. Self-actualization, according to Maslow, represents growth of an individual toward fulfillment of the highest needs for the meaning of life (McLeod, 2017, para.9).
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Nurses can give the prescribed medications to their clients, but it is the nurses’ jobs to ensure that their clients are reaching maximum potential. If a client is in crisis or a manic state, the nurse can provide different therapy techniques to calm them down or ground them to. It is priority for the nurse to keep their patient safe during an episode. It is pertinent for a nurse to be empathetic during the aftermath of the episode. After an episode of acute mania, a client may feel embarrassed or disoriented. A holistic nurse would use active listening skills and reassurance during this time to aid the client back into