Rabeya Ferdous :
October 10 is the World Mental Health Day. This year World Mental Health Day focused on ‘Living with Schizophrenia.’ The overall objective of raising awareness of mental health issues around the world and mobilising efforts in support of mental health. This article will increase the awareness about mental health.
Mind is an important part in our life. If our mind well then everything well. Physical health and mental health both are interconnected each other. If one is not well then another is not well. When our mind is not good then we can’t provide attention in our work and can’t do anything smoothly. If our mind is better, then we get pleasure and motivation in our every activity. One study found that performance of a mentally fatiguing task prior to a difficult exercise test caused participants to reach exhaustion more quickly than when they did the same exercise when mentally rested. So ‘resting up’ and finding a peaceful mindfulness before a big day of physical activity is likely going
to help you feel better and last longer
during the day.
In Bangladesh if any one suffers from mental illness then we called ‘Mad’ and our country is not updated to treat mentally ill people. They don’t care about mental health. If we physically weak then we immediately take leave and goes to the doctor but if we mentally stressed or unhealthy then we ignore it. So, for raising awareness I have written this article about mental health.
The study 9 June 2011) by the National Institute of Mental Health shows that around 16.1 per cent of Bangladesh’s adult population is suffering from some form of mental health disorder, while one -fourth of the children in Bangladesh are suffering from some form of mental health problem.
Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Occupational therapy is a health care profession who can play important role to rehabilitate mentally ill people. Occupational therapists also may work with individuals who are dealing with alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, eating disorders, or stress-related disorders.
The aim of Occupational therapy is enabling people to live life to its fullest. A ‘full’ life means engagement in the activities that a person wants and needs to do, no matter what injury, illness, condition, disability, lifestyle, or environment stands in the way. These everyday human activities are what we call ‘occupations,’ and they are the building blocks of our physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual health. Occupational therapists help people to perform, modify, or adapt their skills and activities in order to live healthier, happier,
and more productive lives.
Why occupational therapy is
important for mental health?
During treatment of mental illness patient occupational therapist work with other
professionals in a MDT team
(Multidisciplinary Team)
It is important to rehabilitate the patient socially and reintegrate the patient in the community besides taking medicine.
Researcher found that, if we engage the patient in occupational and leisure activities then their aggressive behaviour gradually decreasing. To rehabilitate these patients occupational therapist plays
an important role.
If the patient involve in different group activities and also take medicine then
their social and interpersonal skill
develop day by day.
When a patient become mentally ill then his daily living activities also hampered. Such as feeding, dressing, bathing, grooming etc. Occupational therapist helps the patient become independent in their
daily living activities.
Occupational therapist makes a routine
of daily activities and helps the patient to
maintain the routine whole day.
They use activities include time
management skills, budgeting, shopping, homemaking, and the use of public
transportation. Following are some
common interventions:
Life skills training
Cognitive rehabilitation
Supported employment
Supported education
Social and interpersonal skills training
Life balance intervention
Modalities such as biofeedback and
mindfulness-enhanced
therapy
Occupational therapist work in different country and they carefully treat the mental illness patient. But in Bangladesh occupational therapist only works in physical health sector. They have limited opportunity to work in mental health sector. The big problem is people and government not aware about occupational therapy. They only think only psychiatrist or psychologist can solve this problem. But, besides this occupational therapy and clinical social worker also needed in this setting. If we work in a MDT team then we can get a good result. According to WHO report on mental health in Bangladesh, we need qualified manpower where occupational therapist also placed. Only 0.002 occupational therapists for 1 million people, which is very limited. So, I think government should take steps to solve this problem and also need to increase the qualified manpower in mental heath settings.n
October 10 is the World Mental Health Day. This year World Mental Health Day focused on ‘Living with Schizophrenia.’ The overall objective of raising awareness of mental health issues around the world and mobilising efforts in support of mental health. This article will increase the awareness about mental health.
Mind is an important part in our life. If our mind well then everything well. Physical health and mental health both are interconnected each other. If one is not well then another is not well. When our mind is not good then we can’t provide attention in our work and can’t do anything smoothly. If our mind is better, then we get pleasure and motivation in our every activity. One study found that performance of a mentally fatiguing task prior to a difficult exercise test caused participants to reach exhaustion more quickly than when they did the same exercise when mentally rested. So ‘resting up’ and finding a peaceful mindfulness before a big day of physical activity is likely going
to help you feel better and last longer
during the day.
In Bangladesh if any one suffers from mental illness then we called ‘Mad’ and our country is not updated to treat mentally ill people. They don’t care about mental health. If we physically weak then we immediately take leave and goes to the doctor but if we mentally stressed or unhealthy then we ignore it. So, for raising awareness I have written this article about mental health.
The study 9 June 2011) by the National Institute of Mental Health shows that around 16.1 per cent of Bangladesh’s adult population is suffering from some form of mental health disorder, while one -fourth of the children in Bangladesh are suffering from some form of mental health problem.
Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Occupational therapy is a health care profession who can play important role to rehabilitate mentally ill people. Occupational therapists also may work with individuals who are dealing with alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, eating disorders, or stress-related disorders.
The aim of Occupational therapy is enabling people to live life to its fullest. A ‘full’ life means engagement in the activities that a person wants and needs to do, no matter what injury, illness, condition, disability, lifestyle, or environment stands in the way. These everyday human activities are what we call ‘occupations,’ and they are the building blocks of our physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual health. Occupational therapists help people to perform, modify, or adapt their skills and activities in order to live healthier, happier,
and more productive lives.
Why occupational therapy is
important for mental health?
During treatment of mental illness patient occupational therapist work with other
professionals in a MDT team
(Multidisciplinary Team)
It is important to rehabilitate the patient socially and reintegrate the patient in the community besides taking medicine.
Researcher found that, if we engage the patient in occupational and leisure activities then their aggressive behaviour gradually decreasing. To rehabilitate these patients occupational therapist plays
an important role.
If the patient involve in different group activities and also take medicine then
their social and interpersonal skill
develop day by day.
When a patient become mentally ill then his daily living activities also hampered. Such as feeding, dressing, bathing, grooming etc. Occupational therapist helps the patient become independent in their
daily living activities.
Occupational therapist makes a routine
of daily activities and helps the patient to
maintain the routine whole day.
They use activities include time
management skills, budgeting, shopping, homemaking, and the use of public
transportation. Following are some
common interventions:
Life skills training
Cognitive rehabilitation
Supported employment
Supported education
Social and interpersonal skills training
Life balance intervention
Modalities such as biofeedback and
mindfulness-enhanced
therapy
Occupational therapist work in different country and they carefully treat the mental illness patient. But in Bangladesh occupational therapist only works in physical health sector. They have limited opportunity to work in mental health sector. The big problem is people and government not aware about occupational therapy. They only think only psychiatrist or psychologist can solve this problem. But, besides this occupational therapy and clinical social worker also needed in this setting. If we work in a MDT team then we can get a good result. According to WHO report on mental health in Bangladesh, we need qualified manpower where occupational therapist also placed. Only 0.002 occupational therapists for 1 million people, which is very limited. So, I think government should take steps to solve this problem and also need to increase the qualified manpower in mental heath settings.n
(Rabeya Ferdous is an occupational
therapist at CRP, Mirpur-14, Dhaka)
