The psycho-social aspects of health care have assumed considerable importance in contemporary times. With the pandemic taking over the world on an unprecedented scale, health practitioners and caregivers around the world are slowly waking up to the detrimental effects of deteriorating mental health. It is important to understand the psycho-social aspects of care specific to mental health.
Over the years, several studies and research efforts have linked physical ailments to subsequent mental health problems. It has often been seen that people who have clinical physical health issues are more susceptible to mental health issues. Also, doctors around the world have woken up to the emergency of mental health. It is being widely believed that whereas physical health problems have manifest symptoms, mental health issues are more difficult to detect. However, mental health issues have become a crisis of tremendous proportions.
The Physical Effects of Psychological Disorders
Many people believe that psychological disorders and physical disorders are isolated problems. However, there is no dearth of studies to establish the fact that both types of ailments are intricately related to one another. Psychological disorders have impending effects on all aspects of the health of individuals. Most psycho-social ailments have a greater incubation period than most physical health problems. That is because a person might take time in understanding and differentiating the physical symptoms from the psychological symptoms.
Research findings by The Allen Lockhart foundation have suggested that psychological disorders can have long-term effects on the physical health of individuals or communities. Symptoms such as high blood pressure, palpitations, stress-induced health conditions, hysteria, dementia, delirium and several other physical problems are considered to be a direct result of psychological issues.
The Psychological Impact of Stressful Social Situations; Social Anxiety
Social anxiety or social apprehension is one of the most profound and direct causes of psychologically stressing situations. It has been observed that when people are persistently exposed to unfavourable social situations, over some time, they may develop social anxiety or social apprehension. When neglected over a long period, this social apprehension can culminate into social isolation. It is important to get a timely professional intervention to get treatment in this situation. The pressure from social relationships and social situations can trigger stress and anxiety in people. It can further lead to a growing sense of despair and disappointment. One of the most direct impacts of social anxiety is gastric disorders, neurological disorders such as schizophrenia, dementia and sleep disorders. Here, it is needed for health caregivers to provide complete health care to the patients while considering their health backgrounds.
Considering the Health Background of Individuals
One of the most difficult parts of providing health care for the psycho-social aspects of health is that it may not be easy for the health caregiver to identify the specific problems and ailments that the person is suffering from. The health caregiver is required to carry out a diligent look into the past health conditions and overall condition of the patient. Likewise, they must recommend social therapy, psychological counselling and medication as per the specific requirements of the patients. It is also the prerogative of the primary health caregivers to understand the action-reaction reflex of the patients to the situations. Due to the rigour of the subjects, students of psychology often need medical sciences assignment help through guided sessions to help them get a better understanding of the subject. Such services are provided by subject matter experts and can allow students to score top grades in their assignments.
How Social Anxiety Is Triggered?
Social anxiety can be triggered by different kinds of situations. Any kind of stress-inducing social scenario can have a deep impression on the consciousness of people followed by physiological changes in the physical and emotional processes that they go through. Everyone can have different triggers. Prolonger clinical problems, illnesses, fevers, changes in diets, financial situations of individuals as well as loss of loved ones are some of the most common triggers of social anxiety.
From the onset of anxiety to its manifestation, it can be quite a challenge for healthcare professionals to be able to identify the triggers of social anxiety. For this reason, charting an effective course of treatment can be quite a cumbersome process for the patients. This is one of the biggest problems faced by psychological health caregivers around the world. Psychotherapy has been used traditionally as one of the most prominent techniques of identifying social disorders in people. Likewise, it can be quite easy for health caregivers to recommend psychological counselling techniques to help patients in overcoming social fears and depression.
How psychosocial health care can help individuals get over anxiety and social isolation: There are several techniques and quantifiable treatment methods that fall under the gambit of psychosocial care. Here are some of the most effective psychosocial techniques:
Communication Therapy
Communication therapy is one of the classical psycho-social treatment therapies that have a proven track record in helping patients suffering from social anxiety and clinical mental health problems including latent and dormant forms of severe depressive disorder. Communication therapy uses verbal, spoken or written communication to help patients in putting across their thoughts, emotions and feelings to convey their overall health conditions to the primary health caregivers. This helps the psycho-social caregivers in devising an effective treatment planfor the patients by combining variegated elements of treatment and therapy.
Social Correlation therapy: Social correlation therapy draws parallels between different kinds of social situations being experienced by an individual. It studies triggers of the past that have led to social anxiety in people to understand their response to possible future situations. Here it is important for caregivers to understand the situations as a whole and to understand the exact triggers of anxiety and to mitigate possible solutions to solve the problem.
Another form of social correlation therapy is also related to community building. In this kind of social correlation therapy, people with similar experiences engage in constructive and explorative interactions with one another on either a one-to-one basis or through group activities to learn about each other’s situations and how other people worked their way through similar situations. This type of therapy is closely related to the humanistic school of psycho-social therapy. It helps individuals in overcoming stress disorders through collective experiential learning. It has been found to have limited success with people who are suffering from more profound mental health problems. Whereas people in the initial stages of anxiety problems or psychological problems may be able to overcome their problems with the help of social correlation therapy, individuals suffering from major depressive syndrome or bouts of clinical depression may need more effective treatment such as medication and counselling.
Bottom Line: How Psychosocial Health Care Can Help in Reducing Physical Ailments
Psycho-social health care can go a long way in solving the problems faced by individuals. It can help them achieve stability and emotional well-being to be able to live a stable life, have jobs, family lives and relationships. Across the world, psychologists have also found another rewarding use of psycho-social care. It is being increasingly used to ensure that people who have been suffering from social anxiety or depressive disorders in the past do not have to deal with a relapse. The techniques of psycho-social care are especially used by child psychologists to provide counselling and therapy to young children who have had traumatic experiences in the past.
Receiving timely and adequate psycho-social care can ensure that not only is there no relapse in the depressive disorders but also the overall health condition of the patient remains robust. Psychosocial health care has several benefits for people from all walks of life who require psychological intervention in helping them live happy and fulfilling lives.