Mental Health Nursing: Therapeutic Communication and Coping Mechanisms

Flashcards to help students review key concepts in mental health nursing, therapeutic communication, and coping mechanisms from their lecture notes.

Reframing

A positive response in which the client redefines the situation to view both its positive and negative sides.

Defense mechanisms

Protect us against anxiety.

Denial

The defense mechanism used to block out painful or anxiety-inducing events or feelings.

Displacement

The defense mechanism that involves the discharge of intense feelings for one person onto a substitute person or object that is less threatening to satisfy an impulse.

Therapeutic response (reflecting client's thinking)

One that reflects the client's thinking back to the client and makes observations for the client to organize, reflect on, and validate or discount.

Therapeutic intervention (explaining clinic procedure)

One that explains the clinic's procedure to the parents and moves on from there.

Therapeutic communication technique (seeking clarification)

Used to facilitate the expression of feelings by the client.

Nursing intervention (dying client and spouse)

To help the client and spouse describe feelings that, left unspoken, might cause disruption and delay resolution.

Journal-keeping

Can help the client identify situations that produce stress and is a good way of improving one's health by identifying what seems to cause a strain in a person's life.

Posttraumatic stress disorder

A condition that work-related stress, if untreated, could evolve into.

Eustress

Demonstrated confidence in one's ability to master given demands or tasks with success, including positive motivating energy and purposeful movement.

Therapeutic statements (dying/grieving clients)

Statements that indicate a willingness to follow the client's lead.

Individual therapy (alcohol problem)

Best added to a treatment plan after 2 to 5 years of sobriety.

Therapeutic response (providing information)

One that provides information to the client about individual therapy.

Therapeutic response (reevaluating feelings)

One that reflects what the client says so that the client can reexamine his feelings in a more reflective context.

Communication technique of reflection

Encourages the client to further verbalize his thoughts and feelings.

Journaling (cognitive stress-management technique)

One in which one expresses oneself in written form, increasing self-awareness and improving the writer's capacity for coping.

Assertiveness

A good way to ease the anxiety and conflict that result from stressful interpersonal relationships, helping the client express opinions and feelings without using hurtful, aggressive language.

Therapeutic technique (summarizing and refocusing)

Used to focus the client on her own behaviors and desires in a neutral way, particularly when the client is taking a narcissistic and entitled approach to an intimate relationship.

Avoidance (coping mechanism)

A negative stress response when a client elects not to deal directly with negative feelings about a situation.

Therapeutic response (family meetings)

One that helps the client understand that the family meetings are educational, and provides openness and assurance of confidentiality to allay fears and build trust.

Group therapy

Especially effective in helping clients develop interpersonal skills, resolve family problems, and use community support effectively. Also used to solve everyday problems, express feelings and emotions, ask questions, and share experiences.

Hospice care

Includes holistic care that respects the client's dignity and control, provides pain-free support, and encourages choice while treating the client and family before and after death.

Bereavement support

A function of hospice services provided to the family after the client's death.

Intervention (adjusting to illness)

To promote (not discourage) social networking to provide needed information to the client.

Therapeutic statement (aiding sleep)

One that offers additional strategies to aid sleep and gauges whether the client can follow the suggestion.

Intake interview

The first contact with the client, intended to establish rapport, help the nurse understand the client's current problem and level of functioning, and formulate a nursing care plan.

Open-ended questions (intake interview)

Used by clinicians to elicit a comprehensive diagnostic picture of the client's problems and level of coping.

Immediate care for grieving family (catastrophic loss)

The nurse's plan to join the family will provide support to the family, and the nurse should call the family priest after ascertaining the family's wish to talk to a priest.

Therapeutic response (confirming feelings)

A statement that reflects back the client's verbalized feelings to clarify and confirm understanding.

Therapeutic response (exploring reluctance)

A statement that acknowledges a client's implied 'no' and invites them to explain their hesitation.

Completing medication

Ensures that an infection will be resolved.

Dysfunctional grieving (appropriate outcome)

The client plans to attend a community grief group.

Working phase of therapeutic alliance (helpful response)

A response that offers additional strategies (e.g., exercise) and seeks the client's input on whether they would work for them.

Priority intervention (dysfunctional grieving)

Assessing the client's risk for violence toward self and others.

Caregiving plan (bereaved persons)

Includes explaining that bereaved persons often describe intrusive thoughts of negative experiences with the deceased and then increasing the frequency of nurse-client visits.

Biologically based mental illness

Has many possible physical causes, including problems in the brain.

Anticipatory grief

A normal process for family members when a loved one is dying.

Least realistic goal (coping)

Expecting a client to stop blaming himself quickly for a loss of belongings when ineffective coping is identified.

Therapeutic response (feeling regret)

A statement that acknowledges and validates the client's expressed feeling of regret.

Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR)

A technique to ease stress that requires training sessions.

Tasks of mourning (completion indicators)

Can include purchasing a smaller car one is comfortable driving, placing a picture of the deceased on the bedside stand, and explaining to family that illness "took" the loved one.

Positive stress response (for avoidance and denial)

Problem-solving.

Therapeutic response (paranoia)

A statement that acknowledges the client's fear and prompts them to elaborate without confirming the delusion, such as 'It must be frightening to you. Has something made you feel that your food is poisoned?'

Identification (defense mechanism)

A defense mechanism where a person takes on the characteristics or behaviors of an admired person, such as styling one's hair like a favorite teacher.

Improvement (agoraphobia)

Indicated when a client is cooperative, shares with peers, and makes appropriate suggestions during group discussions.

Therapeutic response (living at home rules)

A statement that reflects the expectation of following parents' rules while living under their roof.

Therapeutic response (unappreciated partner)

A statement that reflects the client's feeling that their husband should treat them well in return for their good treatment.

Initial response (suicidal thoughts)

An open-ended question like 'Tell me what you mean by that' to encourage further verbalization.

Successful mourning

Indicated by statements suggesting renewal of interest and plans for the future, such as planning a trip.

Negative stress response (Wishful thinking)

Hoping for a problematic situation to resolve itself passively, such as hoping a spouse's bad habits will lead to their death to achieve freedom.

Assertiveness training (confrontation)

Instructions include asking for private time to talk, pointing out facts without being accusatory, and determining areas of mutual misunderstanding to request needed changes.

Normal grieving process (timeline)

By the end of a year, an individual is expected to be improving and able to redirect their energy.

Acceptance of impending death

Indicated by a statement such as 'I'd like to have my family here when I die,' suggesting planning and acknowledgment.

Renewal of interest after loss (timeline)

Most people are able to renew their interest in other people and activities by the end of a year.

Biofeedback technique (description)

A therapeutic modality that enables an individual to monitor skin temperature, muscle activity, heart rate, blood pressure, and other bodily functions, then learn to control these physiologic responses to stressful or challenging events.