unit 4 AOS 2

Level of functioning:

  • The ability for individuals to complete day to day tasks in an independent and effective manner

High LOF:

  • Carry out basic day to day tasks

  • Adapt to changes 

Low LOF:

  • Struggle to carry out basic tasks 

  • Unable to cope with changes 

Resistance: 

  • The ability to cope with and manage change and uncertainty

High:

  • Seeks solutions to problems 

  • Use appropriate coping strategies 

Low: 

  • Rely on unhelpful/unhealthy coping strategies 

  • Unable to adapt to change 

Social wellbeing:

  • The ability of individuals to form meaningful bonds with others and adapt to social situations

High:

  • Strong network of friends 

  • Effectively communicate with others

Low:

  • Isolated or lack support from others

  • Difficulty forming or maintaining relationships

Emotional wellbeing: 

  • The ability for an individual to appropriately express control and express their emotions

High:

  • Experience a wide range of emotions

  • Express emotions at an appropriate time

Low: 

  • Express emotions at inappropriate times 

  • Unable to express certain emotions




SWEB framework:

Holistic: an approach to wellbeing that considers the whole person, including their mental, physical, spiritual and social needs 



Connection to mind and emotions: 

Includes mental health disorders and the importance of positive feelings and wellness

  • Belonging, mindfulness, accessing support to manage stress and overcome trauma

Connection to body and behaviors:

Includes physical health and considers the importance of optimal functioning

  • Activities on country, access to culturally safe services, sports and exercise

Connection to family and kinship: 

Includes family and kinship relations, systems of reciprocity and caring

  • Learning family history, sharing experiences with other aboriginal people

Connection to community:

Includes cultural structures of responsibility and obligation

  • Having aboriginal mentors, role models, advisers and elders 

Connection to culture:

Includes cultural expressions and activities, cultural knowledge and cultural identity 

  • Learning about, involvement and participation in cultural activities and knowledges 

Connection to land and country:

Includes the experience of belonging to country, a traditional spiritual connection to kin

  • Belonging to country as a way of healing the body mind and spirit

Connections to ancestors and spirituality:

Includes indigenous knowledge and belief systems, traditional and cultural practices 

  • Accepting traditional and evolving expressions of indigenous and spirituality 



Stress: 

  • A physiological and psychological experience when an individual encounters something of significance that demands their attention

  • Typically know stimulus 

Anxiety:

  • A psychological and physiological response that involves feelings of worry and apprehension about a perceived threat 

  • Typically unknown stimulus 

  • Usually future orientated 

Specific phobia:

  • A type of diagnosable anxiety disorder that is characterised by excessive and disproportionate fear when encountering or anticipating an encounter with a particular stimulus 

  1. Significant anxiety

  2. Irrational fear 

  3. Intense fear

  4. Dysfunction

  5. Conditioned

  6. time



GABA Dysfunction: 

 Insufficient neural transmission or reception of GABA

Due to…

  • Low levels or production of GABA

  • An insufficient transmission of GABA across the synapse

  • An insufficient reception of GABA by the postsynaptic neuron

Contributes to the development of a phobia…

  • Low levels of GABA makes individuals unable to regulate anxiety as neurons may start to fire uncontrollably 

  • Recurrent stress response to specific stimuli 

  • People with low levels of GABA tend to have their fight-flight-freeze triggered more easily



Long-Term-Potentiation:

The relatively permanent strengthening of synaptic connections as a result of repeaeted coactivation

Contribution to the development of a phobia…

  • LTP can strengthen the association between a phobic stimulus (CS) and a fear/anxiety response (CR) to the phobic stimulus through repeated activation of the same neural pathways 



Precipitation by Classical Conditioning  =  increases susceptibility ( Development to phobia)

Perpetuation by Operant Conditioning   =  inhibits recovery (maintenance of a phobia)

  • When someone avoids the phobic stimulus they feel a sense of relief, this is negative reinforcement as it will increase the likelihood of avoidance behaviours 

  • When someone encourages a behaviour this increases the likelihood of the fear response or avoidance behaviour being repeated, this is positive reinforcement 



Memory bias:

Refers to knowledge, beliefs and feelings distorting our memory of experiences.

Catastrophic thinking:

Occurs when an individual repeatedly overestimates the potential danger of an object or event and assumes the worst



Specific environmental trigger:

Stimuli or experiences in a person's environment that evoke an extreme stress response, leading to the development of a phobia

  • Direct confrontation

  • Observation

  • learning/indirect confrontation



Stigma: 

Refers to the negative labelling of mental disorders 

  • Individuals may be ashamed and hesitant worried about judgement   




GABA Agonists/Benzodiazepines::

  1. Benzodiazepines bind to GABA receptor site on post synaptic neuron

  2. Benzodiazepine increase the effectiveness of GABA when it later binds to the same receptor site and mimics its effectiveness

  3. GABA is able to have inhibitory effects, reducing the likelihood that the neuron will fire . This acts temporarily to reduce neural communication in turn reducing anxiety



Breathing retraining:

  1. Learn to control breathing with a therapist 

  2. Apply techniques when near phobic stimulus which causes sympathetic nervous system responses 



CBT:

A form of psychotherapy that encourages individuals to substitute  dysfunctional cognitions and behaviours with more adaptive ones

  • Identifying negative thoughts and feelings about the issue and replacing them with more positive ones 

  • Identifying negative behaviours relating to the issue and replacing them with more positive ones 

  • Therapist helps challenge irrational or unhealthy thoughts to help individuals feel less anxious and engage in more healthier ones 



Systematic desensitisation:

  1. Learn relaxation technique 

  2. Create a fear hierarchy (least fear inducing to ost fear inducing)

  3. Gradual exposure to each stage of the hierarchy  while practising the relaxation technique  until they no longer experience physiological responses  and move to the next stage 

  4. Continue this until the last stage and phobia is eliminated 



Psychoeducation

Teaching families and supporters of individuals with mental health disorders how to understand, deal with and treat their disorder : 

 

Protective factor:

Influences that enable individuals to promote and maintain high levels of mental wellbeing and therefore decrease the likelihood of developing a mental disorder

Risk factor:

Play a role in increasing the risk of an individual experiencing low levels of mental wellbeing and therefore increase the likelihood of developing a mental disorder



Adequate nutritional intake and hydration:

  • Ensures sufficient nutrients to allow your body to carry out all the processes required to maintain high levels of physical and mental wellbeing

  • Provides the body with enough energy to go about daily life and adapt and overcome stressors



Adequate sleep:

  • Adequate quality and quantity of sleep is beneficial for mental wellbeing

  • Promotes positive mood, improves cognition and improves ability to cope with normal daily stress



Mindfulness meditation: 

The practice of observing the present moment, suspending judgements and focusing on something calm and peaceful

Attention component - a person focuses on their breathing, whilst thoughts, feelings and sensations are experienced freely as they arise….

Acceptance component - ….without judgement or reacting to them, promoting feelings of calmness



Cultural determinants:

Determinants of wellbeing refers to factors that influence wellbeing on individual and community levels 

  • Cultural continuity is the ability to preserve the historical traditions of culture and carry them forward with that culture into the future 

  • Self determination for aboriginal people is the right to make decisions on matters that affect their lives and communities