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Making sense of mental health problems
Making sense of mental health problems

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Conclusion

The subject of psychiatric diagnosis highlights some key debates in the world of mental health, which also apply to how to treat people with mental health problems. At the heart of these debates are questions that have helped inform this course about the nature of mental health problems, such as:

  • In relation to the medical perspective – what is the role of physiological, biological or neurological factors in causing mental health problems?
  • In relation to the psychological and social need perspectives – how important are psychological and/or social factors in causing or triggering mental health problems?

In this free course, Making sense of mental health problems, you have also been encouraged to start exploring the extent to which practitioners take account of all the different possible causes of mental health problems. For instance, when the psychiatrist, clinical psychologist and social worker discussed Mandy's case, they tried to make sense of the challenges that Mandy is facing.

If you have previously studied courses about mental health, you will have already started to explore questions related to the various perspectives in the field; however, this is something you will think about in more depth if you study K314 Approaches to mental health [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] at The Open University. If you are interested in Level 2 studies (instead of level 3), K240 Mental health and community may be of interest to you.

This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course K314 Approaches to mental health.