[ANSWER]A2 Managing Yourself While Caring for Someone with a Mental Illness

[ANSWER PREVIEW]Conversely, countertransference involves a reflection of a clinician’s feelings and past experiences on the patient with a Mental Illness

Transference is defined as the process by which a patient develops interest in the person of a health professional as a result of substantive improvement occasioned by the with a Mental Illness professional’s care (Parth et al., 2017). The patient unconsciously redirects their feelings to the nurse or caregiver. Components of the feeling holistically mirror the past relationships in which the patient engaged (Piedfort-Marin, 2018). While the phenomenon facilitates the progress of care, these benefits are only temporary and, with time, transference becomes a major obstacle for the process of therapy (Parth et al., 2017).

Conversely, countertransference involves a reflection of a clinician’s feelings and past experiences on the patient with a Mental Illness (Prasko et al., 2010). Countertransference can either be positive or negative, with the former benefiting the nurse-patient relationship while the latter becomes utterly detrimental to both parties (Linn-Walton & Pardasani, 2014) with a Mental Illness. Both phenomena operate on the same underlying principle of the tendency of human beings to recognise and respond to happenings in their external environment. They demonstrate how memories of past events can be triggered by current experiences. The only difference lies in the direction of the feelings.

Countertransference: A Case Study I once experienced the worst form of unconscious negative countertransference as a new Registered Nurse (RN) in an acute mental healthcare setting. Rachel, a 22-year old homeless woman, was brought to my attention after trying to throw herself over a bridge. She was weak, frail, and hopeless with bruises all over her body. Rachel reminded me of my best friend who had committed suicide after suffering from acute PTSD and drug use with a Mental Illness. I shed a tear when I saw Rachel.

Assessment revealed that she was suffering from major depressive disorder with psychosis. To suppress her thoughts, she had turned to substance abuse and had been using heroin since she was an adolescent. Probing her further, I realised that she lost her parents in a grisly accident and their home too, which marked the onset of her with a Mental Illness…[Buy Full Answer for Just USD 9: 3258 WORDS]

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