This chapter reflects a coming together of key issues and themes embedded in everyday work with consumers and carers. In recent times, the definition of a carer has expanded to include immediate family and friends, and may also include extended family members such as grandparents and cousins. In transcultural and other contexts, it is important to use humanistic language in line with a recovery approach; for example, the terms ‘support person/people’ and ‘support networks’ may be preferable to the term ‘carer’ in mental health practice and mental health nursing. This approach provides a foundation for human connectedness, and sets the consumer narrative as central to mental health practice and mental health nursing, specifically.The chapter introduces students to a narrative-based understanding of mental health and trauma-informed mental health care, as well as key concepts in mental health and mental illness. It discusses mental health nursing as a collaborative, specialised field of nursing.

This chapter outlines a developmental orientation to understanding the mental health of children and young people. It examines the implications for mental health in children and young people in relation to the environment, nature and nurture, and brain development in the context of vulnerability or risk, and resilience or protection. The chapter explores mental health promotion for young people, drawing from two real stories about bullying and altered eating patterns, including anorexia nervosa and bulimia, which include experiences of depression, anxiety and psychosis. Emphasis is given to prevention, awareness and early intervention for mental illness, including social media and e-mental health interventions for young people in relation to non-suicidal self-injury or suicide crisis, and popular public health initiatives to reduce suicide, such as R U OK? Day, headspace and other online services.

Composition, types, mechanism of action, efficacy, effectiveness, health risks, benefits, usage and follow up

Generally, a mainstream understanding of health is applied when mental health (illness) presentations are considered, assessed, and treated using a biomedical Western perspective and standpoint (Wilson & Waqanaviti 2021). This chapter explores mental health through an alternative First Nations lens, that of social and emotional well-being (SEWB). While there is a scarcity of national data that specifically measure the social and emotional well-being of First Nations people, data that are available paint a consistent picture: one of much higher rates of use of mental health services by First Nations people, compared to other Australians (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW], 2009).This chapter sets the context for further discussion regarding First Nations people and explores issues relating to social and emotional well-being and mental health. Colonisation and its history are discussed, as well as the subsequent decimation/devastation that followed and continues today. The resilience and struggle that has taken place, along with cultural recognition and renewal, ultimately shapes the present.

The interactive approach to contraceptive counseling and care is described going through the steps of need assessment, exclusion and inclusion of methods of shared decision making are explored

Addressing sexual health and sexual problems of patients, needs and education, and training in patient-centered, non-judgmental communication to help patients talk about intimate issues in an open way, thus providing emotional relief, feelings of acceptance and helping patients to understand the factors which contribute to problems, and the possible solutions

Prevalence of disease, risks, impact on fertility, Medical Eligibility Criteria 3 and 4, advantages, disadvantages, special considerations

This chapter introduces the concept of mental illness, how it is diagnosed, and the main diagnostic classification systems used in health practice. The experiences and symptoms of people living with mental illness – according to criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-5 – are reviewed. It is emphasised that diagnostic criteria can be considered within an overall framework for conversation and engagement between practitioners, consumers, and carers, with the overarching aim of exploring and understanding the best response to distress and treatment approach to promote recovery processes. Criticisms towards diagnostic classification systems are also summarised. Finally, potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and its implication for people’s mental health are presented.

Prevalence, pathophysiology, endocrinology, diagnostics, therapeutic options

Prevalence of disease, risks, impact on fertility, Medical Eligibility Criteria 3 and 4, advantages, disadvantages, special considerations

Contract tracing, referred treatment, partner-mediated treatment

Prevalence, forms of sexual violence, causes, care for victims, prevention