Empowering mentally ill people: A new health promotion challenge?

• Main Author: Sakellari Evanthia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Professor Despina Sapountzi-Krepia 2008-01-01
• Series: International Journal of Caring Sciences
• Subjects: Μentally ill people; empowerment; health promotion
• Online Access: http://internationaljournalofcaringsciences.org/docs/Vol1_Issue1_03_Sakellari.pdf

During the past decades, psychiatric services have undegone a transition to community-based caresystems. People who are mentally ill need to regain power over their own lives, since they have been disempowered,due to, in some cases, many years of institutionalisation. Psychosocial rehabilitation services should aim towardsempowerment within the framework of the mental health promotion of each particular individual. This paper aimsto offer a review of the literature concerned with the empowerment of mentally ill people and to present the benefitsthat empowered people gain. Research has demonstrated that empowerment among mentally ill people offerslife satisfaction. Mentally ill people are in need of a rehabilitation model that encourages their empowerment, byemphasising the goals defined by them. Empowerment may refer to both outcome and process, that is, not only tothe outcome of the decisions an individual makes, but also to the essential feeling of being an active participant inthe decision-making process. Patient empowerment is a matter of self-determination, hence, it occurs when a patientfreely chooses his or her own path to recovery and well-being. It has been concluded that mentally ill people livingwithin the community should not be treated as mere passive objects of medical interventions. Thus, empowermentshould be a well-established part of mental health care and the base of psychosocial rehabilitation services. Nurses, inassociation with other health care professionals, should develop and implement adequate interventional programmes,which facilitate decision-making skills and promote self-esteem. Furthermore, empowerment sets new challenges forthe nurses’ education and it should, therefore, be the subject of studies in order to test the impact of empowermentinterventions and to develop future practice within the scope of the psychosocial rehabilitation of mentally ill people.