MENTAL HEALTH

by: Nelson

WHAT IS MENTAL HEALTH?

Mental health is the ability of the individual to function effectively and happily as a person in one’s expected role in a group and in the society in general. He has self understanding and satisfactory interpersonal relationship.

Below are some characteristics by which can identify those who are mentally healthy:

1. Self-acceptance. Indicators of self-acceptance are:a. Self respect;b. Acceptance of one’s own shortcoming;c. Control over one’s emotiond. Ability to resign to the inevitable and to face the realities of life;e. Ability to laugh at one’s self, see one’s own mistakes and make

efforts to overcome them;f. Ability to look at one’s self objectively so that there is neither underestimation or over estimation of the self.

Some Characteristics of Mentally Healthy People

2. Acceptance of others. This includes.a. The ability to give love and to consider the interests of others;b. The ability to establish and maintain satisfying personal relationships;c. The ability to stimulate trust in other people;d. The ability to like and trust other people;e. The ability to respect individual difference;f. Respect for the individual’s human dignity and rights;g. Social adaptability and a sense of cooperation.

3.Ability to meet the demand of life. People who are able to meet the demands of life feel that:a. They can do something about their problems as these arise;b. They can accept responsibilities;c. They can share their environment at times but will have to adjust to it on other occasions;d. They are making use of their potentials and capacities;e. They are setting realistic goals fo themselves;f. They are able to think for themselves and make their own decisions;g. They are putting in their best efforts and deriving satisfaction out of whatever they are doing;h. Change is a part of life;i. Refusing to face problems is not the best way of solving them.

Role of Mental Health in Business and Industry

• Mental health is a factor that plays an important role in all life situations – in the relations between teachers and students, between hospital personnel and patients, between management and labor.

• It finds its simplest and most common expression in good human relations between individuals and between groups. The basic idea is concern for other people’s interest and feelings in contrast with the all – too – common tendency of people to be self-centered.

Mental Health Problems in Business and Industry

• The mental health problems in business and industry are countless and managers who are able to recognize and meet these problems have this much advantage over the less enlightened ones who allow these problems to worsen into outright manpower losses.

These are some the problems:a. Cliques in the work force – those informal

organizations that could hamper the smooth flow of the work if the mutual resentment remains unchecked

b. Wage increase. No matter who receives increases, there is bound to be some resentment because of the resulting disturbances in the status relationship among the workers c. Evaluation of workers. Is the evaluation to be

based simply on quality of work? Or should the human elements of willingness to cooperate,

conscientiousness, loyalty, and dependability also be considered? And how are these to be measured?

d. Work and assignments. In relation to the workers personalities, one worker may do well under a more permissive one. Some men workers may resist a woman supervisor no matter how able she is because this situation reverses the traditional role of women in society.e. changes – especially technological changes and changes of any kind, whether they be changes in location, in machines and processes, in products, or in management. Anxieties and frustrations often follow such changes and affect the work of the employees.

Principles of Mental Health Applied to the Operations of Business and Industry

The basic principle on mental health in business and industry is this – that the responsibility of management in any enterprise is not limited to the efficient and profitable production of goods and services. It also includes the satisfaction or the psychological wants of its workers.

The primary application of these principles so far has been in labor – management relations, with emphasis on providing services to assist workers make adjustments problems arising from their work.

WHAT IS MENTAL HYGIENE

Mental hygiene is a branch of psychology which ideas with the mental, behavioral and emotional adjustment through the application of principles and practices which have some scientific foundations or truth.

It consists of those patterns of living which promotes the development of wholesome and socially adequate personality and helps an individual get along with himself and with his fellowmen. Through it, the goal of mental health is achieved, so that mental hygiene may be considered as the means to an end.

There are three known ways t which the principles practices of mental hygiene are done.

1. The preventive approach. This is based on the principle that the best way to insure a well-adjusted invidual Is to surround him with environmental influences that will enable him to develop his full potentialities, to obtain emotional stability, and achieve personal and social/ adequacy.

2. The therapeutic method. The therapeutic aspect of mental hygiene is concerned with the attempt to correct minor behavioral adjustments through the various counseling and techniques of psychotherapy, or adjust to the social/ or physicalenvironment of the person in order to help him obtain the amount of emotional security and self-confidence necessary.

3. The curative approach. This phase of mental hygiene is sometimes called “preventive psychiatry.” It is concerned with detection and correction of serious but curative behavioral maladjustments. Although this is the work of a trained clinician or psychiatrist, it is helpful for the layman to have at least a fundamental knowledge of the major types of behavioral maladjustments in order that he may have basis in determining behavioral maladjustments that need the attention of competent specialists.

Role and Practice of Mental Hygiene in Business and Industry

The role and practices of mental hygiene in business and industry are concerned with the adjustments of human behavior necessary to bring about a better and harmonious relationship between employee-employer, employee-employee and their relations with the public. Another role deals with the dynamics of personality formation, human motivation, and emotional adjustments.

Also, it deals with the factor which causes or induces conflicts and interferes with the smooth flow of development, promotion and maintenance of good human relations between employees and empires and others.

Employer-Employee Relationship and Mental Hygiene

It is common fact that in every business concerns, the employees and employers . therein know one another. To some extent, familiarity exist between them. To maintain unity among them, there should be continuous harmony and mutual cooperation. No matter what condition is obtained, they enjoy contact as normal individuals. Cooperation between the employers and employees is indeed very essential particularly towards the operation of the business. Stress, tension, serious misunderstanding, conflicts of roles must not take place within the framework of their functions and organization. If the groups of personnel are prevent contradictory actions, duties, thoughts and convictions. Incentives and promotional work should be the tide in the office.

Employers and employees may well attain sound mental hygiene if they will consider the following salient points of view of mental hygiene:

1. Respect for one’s own personality and for one’s personality and for the personalities of others.2. Recognition of limitations in self and in others.3 . An appreciation of the importance of the cause sequence in behavior.4. A realization that behavior is a function of the whole individual.5. An understanding of the basic need that motivates behavior.