# MHApps Take Control – Reduced Guide – Shine Concise Guide To Mental Health And Your Options

At A Glance
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- At a Glance
- The reduced guide This guide gives you basic information about mental ill health, the services and supports available and an introduction to your options.
  Shine is the national organisation supporting people affected by mental ill health.
  Shine supports people in a number of different ways by providing information, education, support groups, rehabilitation, advocacy and counselling.
  The Mental Health Act 2001 is the law that relates to people with a mental disorder.
  A Vision For Change is a document that details a comprehensive model of mental health service provision for Ireland.
  At the centre of these is a clear focus on the “best interests” of the person (Mental Health Act 2001) and the principle of recovery to guide and deliver those best interests for each individual.
- What is mental ill health? “… a state of mind of a person which affects the person’s thinking, perceiving, emotion or judgement and which seriously impairs the mental function of the person to the extent that he or she requires care or medical treatment in his or her own interest or in the interest of other persons.” (Mental Health Act 2001)
  All of us experience varying degrees of mental health. These are the normal ups and downs of life. Mental ill health is complicated and, like many physical conditions, the experience of it is unique to the individual.
  One central principle of the concept of recovery is that the person’s own unique experience is the starting point for all actions. It is, therefore, very important, as you look for information and educate yourself, that you acknowledge your own feelings and experiences, identify your own needs, and try to match your exploration of the information to those.
- Diagnosis In order to receive a diagnosis, we must experience a number of symptoms over a period of weeks. The important bit to remember is the diagnosis we receive is a general classification only, and a person will not experience all the symptoms. However, they will have to deal with the ones that are limiting how they live their life at this present moment in time.
- Why me? No one single thing causes mental ill health. Many things may play a role. Like other illnesses, a combination of hereditary and life experience can come together and make it very hard to get on with day-to-day living.
- What is recovery? Recovery is not a panacea – rather it is a philosophy that respects the individual’s right to achieve wellness on his or her own terms, in his or her own time.
  In practical terms, recovery can be described as two processes:
  1 Spiritual recovery – involving acceptance of who we are
  2 Practical recovery – the supports and actions we need to stay well
- Information Gathering the main things you need or want to know.
- Medication Is prescribed by your doctor. Medication helps a lot of people. It works best when combined with other things, such as counselling, good lifestyle, healthy eating, hobbies and staying in touch with family, friends and groups.
- Talking therapies Counselling of different sorts. Ask for more info from your doctor, Shine helpline 1890 621 631 or your Shine Regional Development Officer.
- Life style Accepting that we are all different and need to find out exactly what suits us best as unique individuals is important to our mental health. A “daily checklist” listing your own needs could be helpful, for example, talking to people you can trust, perhaps going for a walk, or just doing something active that you enjoy. Eating and drinking sensibly, doing things that will help you to feel good about yourself and who you are, will all contribute to a healthy lifestyle.
- Nutrition Eat well. Cut down on sugar and fat. If you treat yourself and have chocolate, go for a walk to burn it up.
- Rehabilitation The role of the rehabilitation services is to provide education, training, resources and supports that foster the recovery process. Rehabilitation should serve to provide a meaningful range of occupations and lifestyles so that the person can have an acceptable quality of life.
- Work People who experience mental ill health want the same things as everyone else. A place to live, money in their pocket and friends to socialise with.
  Knowing what you want, setting realistic targets and working with someone who can guide you to the best training, education or voluntary experience are still vital first steps. Remember too, work is not the only way to fill a day. Living life in a personally meaningful way, for at least as many days as we can, is a wholly reasonable thing to do.
- Housing Making sure that you are on the list and have “ticked” all the necessary administrative boxes is very important. Seek assistance, don’t try to do it alone.
- Spiritual, Social, Personal We are often defined by our material and physical wealth. The first question in a social setting is frequently “What do you do?” This is a very limited way of thinking about ourselves. Looking at life in a spiritual way is about seeing a greater meaning or purpose in life above the daily routine.
- Relationships Relationships are based on a lot of things. We all make judgements about people consciously and unconsciously, good and bad for all sorts of reasons. It has been said that 95% of what we think about a person is decided within the first five minutes of meeting them. Communication happens in different ways; body language, the expression on our faces, eye contact, clothes and of course talking. Understanding how we are seen by other people can be very important in building and maintaining relationships. If a person is not happy with themselves, or is only interested in themselves, other people will instinctively see this. So, having a good selfimage is half the battle in being able to relate to others.
- Advocacy Advocacy is about providing information and support so that the person can decide which route to take. Helping with the route or map, an advocate can ‘ride tandem’, and will sit on the back seat, leaving the person in control at the front and will sit in the front seat when asked to.
- Stigma and the media Media pieces can also contribute to the misinformation surrounding various mental illnesses. For example, schizophrenia is often confused with multiple personality disorder and split personality in media portrayals. Media portrayals often fail to get the message that recovery from mental ill health is possible and that there are supports available. There is a need for the true experiences of people with mental ill health to be told. If you see, read or hear something in the media, which you feel is stigmatising to people with experience of mental ill health, there are a variety of actions you can take and organisations to which you can make a complaint.
- Knowing your rights All people with mental health difficulties have rights. Some rights are absolute such as the right to life, with the State having an absolute duty to protect the right to life of the person. Other rights such as the right to health are qualified, and may be subject to available resources to the State.
  Your Human Rights
  · The right to life
  · The right to liberty
  · The right to bodily integrity
  · The right to privacy
  · The right to home and family
  · The right to an education
  · The right to be heard
  · The right to health
  · The right to work
  · The right to non discrimination
  · The right to express your opinions
  · The right of access to justice
  · The right to vote
- Supporting life Suicide is about ending the pain. The many and complex theories that surround the act of suicide can sometimes distance us from the simple idea that no one takes their own life unless there is something very wrong with it. It is often said that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary situation. Many survivors of suicide speak of their desire to end the deep and desperate pain they felt not necessarily to end their lives. At the time though, they could simply see no other way out.
- My role: recognising my best me The tools, methods, supports you employ to build a kindly and accepting sense of self are personal. Recognising and meeting your best self half way is an essential and endlessly worthwhile activity.

- “We spoke to every politician, housing officer, social welfare officer, priest, doctor, housing agency in the phone book. Eventually we found a place for Andrew, however he was plagued by every stray and waif in the town. He felt because he knew what it was like to be homeless; it was his duty to help others. He became what’s known as a soft touch, the house became a drinking den, and he was kicked out, became homeless again and now is back living with us at home, which in all honesty suits nobody only the services I think.”

- “I really appreciate the support my family offered me. Being able to live with my parents is a God send, although I do get lonely, it is something everybody in the group talks about, the loneliness. How difficult it is to make new friends. So, the group as well as being supportive is a bit of a social as well. It connects me with other people in the world, which is important when I am remaining well and proceeding along the route of recovery. For me, recovery is all about my choices being mine.”

- What does recovery look like? How different will the person be? Is there an end point to all of this?

- “When I look back on my life, I am now conscious that if I did not have a mental health difficulty, I would not be the person I am today. Life could have been easier, but I feel I really understand myself. I now can see clearly who I am. Recovery for me is being able to have a better input into the decisions which affect me and my life.”

- “We used to look at recovery as cure or when Mary would be able to go back to college, now we are happy that Mary is happy with being able to get up in the morning. We understand that other aspects of Mary’s life will fall into place as she makes her own choices. Of course she may well re-experience symptoms, but she will have learned which skills she needs to use, to deal with things as they occur. We have learned from other relatives that recovery is an important belief for the family to hold as well. Mary’s life may or may not change, but as family members our role is to support Mary to achieve what she wants to achieve, and not try to push her towards what we want.”

- It would be very nice if we had a happy ending but in real life happy endings are relative to the individual’s expectations. That is not to say it has an unhappy ending, it is about how you see it. Recovery will happen, sometimes in spite of ourselves. Knowing what it looks and feels like and deciding to work at it, is all part of the journey.

At A Glance
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