MHW510 Ethics and Cultural Diversity

Questions

Answers

Part 1

Q1. What are the current trends in mental health and wellness?

Mental health and wellness field is constantly changing with time. The Following are some of the trends in the field.

Online Counseling

Online counseling is increasingly becoming popular among many counseling providers

It is one of the top trends in meant health and wellness. It is the process of providing counseling services through the internet. The main therapies involved in online counseling are Skype therapy email, therapy, and video conferencing therapy among others. As a result of online counseling, mental health and wellness service users can meet with a counselor online at the comfort of their homes; it therefore overcomes barriers that may prevent some people from seeking counseling services (Barak & Grohol,2017).  These services are also easily available 

Focus on Nutrition

The debate on nutrition and its role in mental health and wellness continue to range on between professionals and common citizenry on the role of nutrition in mental health and wellness. Among the issues, professionals seek to unravel is the relationship between bad diet and mental health disorders (Olfson, Druss & Marcus,2015). There are those of the idea that bad dietary choices lead to mental health disorders and those of the idea that mental disorders such as stress make people yearn for bad diet.

Q2. How do these trends influence the practice of mental health professionals?

Trends such as the emphasis on nutrition have enabled professionals to become more effective in their practice by creating avenues for understanding the interrelationships between dietary choices and mental health. This has enabled them to have a deeper understanding of mental disorders that come as a result of poor diet choices including those related to obesity as well as creating a deeper understanding of the role of correct dietary choices on the correct functioning of the brain. Online counseling has also allowed professionals to offer their services to wider audiences with much ease (Olfson, Druss & Marcus,2015).

Part 2

Q2. Online Counseling trends

Shifting to Skype for Online counseling sessions

According to recent studies, counseling service providers relying on the internet are shifting towards the use of video conferencing to provide their services to patients. Skype has become the main method of choice for many psychologists and psychiatrists. The popularity of Skype has partly been because of the flexibility that it comes with it for both clients and therapists, it also minimizes travel expenses hence enabling therapists to charge fewer fees and reduces chances of appointments being canceled due to various reasons and facilitates continuation of services even after relocation of a therapist(Barak & Grohol,2017).  

Online Group therapy

As a result of online counseling, online group therapy concept has also emerged. Online group therapy is used to refer to a form of psychotherapy in which a group of patients comes to discuss their problems supervised by a therapist in an online setting. Online group therapy brings together under a therapeutic setting people sharing similar experiences and might be an effective strategy for people with limited resources. Online group therapy has also adopted the use of online group chats and messaging to facilitate comprehensive discussions among members of the group (Olfson, Druss & Marcus,2015). 

Reference List

Barak, A., & Grohol, J. M. (2017). Current and future trends in internet-supported mental health interventions. Journal of Technology in Human Services, 29(3), 155-196.

Olfson, M., Druss, B. G., & Marcus, S. C. (2015). Trends in mental health care among children and adolescents. New England Journal of Medicine, 372(21), 2029-2038.