Sandra’s mental illness, bipolar affective disorder, also known as manic depression, is a common psychiatric disorder (Otto 2011). Bipolar disorder often includes natural periods of remission but commonly relapses if adherence treatment is poor (Grande et al 2016). As shown in Sandra’s case, bipolar affective disorder is characterised by both manic and depressive episodes that is severe enough to cause substantial personal distress, impairment to daily living, social functioning and the ability to think clearly; Mania is characterised by personally or socially harmful behaviours, caused by a feeling of high energy and abnormal thinking; and episode is a period when the bipolar person’s mood is either so high or so low that they …show more content…
(2016) point out that nurses should anticipate and comprehend family stress associated with the client’s mental condition. Denham et al. (2016) suggest that nurses should initiate conversation and establish relationships with the family to understand their experience and situation. To help reduce the stress and burden of family, nurses can provide the family with emotional support resources, information about the client’s condition and progress towards recovery, and knowledge about how to communicate with the clients (Denham et al. 2016). Although nurses might not be able to solve all issues of a family, they can maximise therapeutic outcomes by offering clear and consistent explanations to a family, and promoting the exchange of patient information with the nurses (Denham et al. 2016).
Conclusion & Action plan
My learning experience through watching the documentary series provided an opportunity to rethink about mental health care, and aroused my interest in mental health care. In addition, it provided an opportunity to research on mental illness, especially about bipolar affective disorder, and mental health care as a nurse regarding as well as care for a family of the client. broaden my perspective on the concept of family strengths and family diversity, which would help me provide proper care for the best health outcome as a nurse in the future. This experience will help me provide meaningful person-centred care as a nurse in the future.
My future practice will