Page 68 - SafeCert Approved First Aid for Mental Health at Work (Level 3) | Trainers Manual

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Administration

Mental health can affect how individuals think and feel about themselves and others, and how they

Teaching interpret different events. Mental health also has a strong impact upon an individual‘s physical health

because the way that we think and feel has a large influence upon our physical health.

Questions.

Please spend some time thinking about the questions below. When thinking about the answers to
these questions please use the mental health continuum diagram on page 9.

Please note: You will not need to share the answers to these questions with anyone else unless you
wish to. The purpose of the activity is to reflect on how mental health changes over time and in relation
to different situations and life stages.

1. Choose a point on the continuum you believe reflects your own mental health at the moment.

2. Think back to a time when you felt particularly distressed or anxious. This may have been due to
Administration 3. Now think about a time when you felt very well or settled. Again, this may have been due to life
a life event e.g. bereavement, work stress, financial difficulties. Which point on the continuum
reflects your mental health at that point in your life?

events or life stage. Where on the continuum do you consider you would have been at that time?

4. What do the answers to the above questions tell you about the changing nature of mental health
and well being throughout a person‘s life?

Mental Illness.

This is used to describe the most severe cases of mental disorder, more severe cases of depressive
4
illness, psychotic disorders and severe cases of Anorexia Nervosa for example‘
When someone experiences severe and/ or enduring mental health problems, they are sometimes
Lesson Plans described as ‘mentally ill or to have a mental illness’, but there are difficulties with this term.

They include:

illness.
It is sometimes difficult to decide what is normal behaviour and behaviour associated with mental
The label ‗mental illness‘ is highly stigmatising.

The term ‗mental illness‘ can misleadingly imply that all mental health problems are solely caused by
medical or biological factors.

Maintaining good mental health, as with maintaining good physical health requires positive action –
many factors can positively or negatively affect it.
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