Research Paper on Health and Mental Health Integration in Social Work

Introduction

In many instances, a rise in high blood pressure, fall in blood sugar level, a splitting headache, a rumbling stomach among the vast health issues, are treated as the viruses, bacteria or lifestyle disorders that they are while in real sense, it takes more than the pathogens to get someone down on a disease. The internal and external environments within and around an individual play a significant part in the wellbeing or not of an individual. The emotions, beliefs, thoughts, and attitudes can incredibly alter our standard biological functions and these coupled up with other environmental and geographical factors contribute to the health of people. The connection between the body and the mind is one that should never be intercepted as it is essential as surviving is. Coincidentally, what the body consumes, or gets involved in can affect the mental abilities and status, and this calls for a balance between the psychological and the anatomical health. Theorists, scientists, and psychologists sought to establish a link between health, behavior, and beliefs and to no surprise, there is a significant correlation between the three. Albert Bandura, for instance, came up with the social cognitive theory that lined behavior directly to the environmental stimuli, rewards, punishment, and consequences (Hayden, 2014). This theory brings together self-efficacy, self-regulation, expectation, and expectancies, modeling, emotional arousal, reinforcement, behavioral capability and locus of control. The health belief model presents health in six dimensions or rather concepts; perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived barriers, perceived benefits, self-efficacy, and cues to action (Glanz, Rimer & Viswanath, 2015). This paper will be exploring the mind-body connection linked with health beliefs to maneuver around the borderline personality disorder.

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Borderline personality is the ideal representation of the connection between the mental health and physical health, and the inseparable companionship between the mind and the body. The disorder accrued its nomenclature from the fact that it is a condition that borders neurosis and psychosis. However, it is not limited to the borderline but exhibits a lot more than the psychosis or neurosis. It is a critical condition signposted by a pervasive trend of dysregulation in entirely all aspects of functioning, and the individual exhibits episodes of emotional outbursts and in many instances incur suicidal and non-suicidal self-injuries (Sharp, 2014). By virtue of the patients presenting instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image and affects and also show impulsivity, this disorder falls under the social cognition domain, and it can only be through the same domain that the interventions might be derived from. Many of the patients have low self-esteem and self-efficacy as a result of past failures or through their low societal status, and this no doubt guides them right through depression, frustration, mood swings, disappointment and the feeling of "nobodiness." When these feelings gradually eliminate the significance of their existence, they try to exclude themselves too.

Going by the self-efficacy domain, bandura presented it as the self-belief in one's abilities, skill, and cognition, and when there is a lack of it, any individual no matter how skilled is bound to fail in accomplishing a task. For an individual with an unstable emotional status, a lack of self-belief often makes them feel belittled, insignificant and irrelevant, and some may gradually withdraw from the society while others might feel it better if they never existed. To most of them, their expectancies are negative making them shy away from undertaking activities that could rejuvenate their abilities or at least their belief in their capabilities. The perceive susceptibility of these individuals in harming themselves, getting hurt by simple emotional happenings and feeling withdrawn from society is immeasurable. While recommending conventional measures for such patients, more so those experiencing suicidal episodes, it would be wise to look at the perceived severity of the case. This could be through the lethality of their perceived mode of suicide, with an instance of using a gun viewed as highly lethal while the taking of pills a low fatality (Yang & Linehan, 2017). The imminence of the patient's plans also comes in handy, as this will draw on the severity of the condition. Imminence translates to the immediacy to which the victim thinks of harming themselves and the span of time it takes for them actually to resort to self-induced pain.

Behaviour is one face of the three faceted reciprocal dynamism that presents behavior as a sum reaction towards one's environment and personal factors. Many BPD occurs in individuals with nasty pasts, or present stressors like academic expectations and demands, workplace burnouts among many other environmental factors. Weakened by their low self-esteem, these individuals often succumb to these pressures thereby directing their behaviors towards negative emotions, impulsive decisions, and destructive activities like abusing drugs. The locus of control within the individuals is the primary of internality as they often attribute their failure and social dysfunctionality to their incompetence and "good-for-nothing" existence. With so many instances of self-blame, self-reprimand and self-destructive thoughts, these individuals drown in a pool of depression and suicidal attempts. It is quite regular for these individuals to think "I must punish myself" and often overlook the contribution of the environment around them. It could be that the exam was difficult, or the nature of the work is stressing yet they only attribute their incompetence to their 'worthless' beings.

An intervention to BPD could be through the perceived benefits that these individuals would accrue upon adjusting their attitudes, adapting to healthy emotions and rejuvenating their self-worth. They could also do it by eliminating the cues of action, be it an academic failure, workplace incompetence of relationship disasters. Human beings do not hold all the buttons of life, as they are products of the environment too. Trying to control the uncontrollable only piles up tons of failure, disappointment, and deprived esteem. Among the many symptoms of BPD includes binge eating, and this makes the individuals susceptible to other nutritional disorders. Gradually adjusting the perspectives of these individuals through behavioral therapy helps them heal from within and subsequently treating the outside as well.

Conclusion

The social cognitive theory is applicable in almost every aspect of life, and now it has found its way into healthcare. Some of the health beliefs align with this theory, and through the study of the patient's behavior, it is possible to draw a bold line between those behaviors and their attitude and environment. The borderline personality theory is the emotional withdrawal of an individual from the society, filling them with chronic emptiness and demeaned self-worth. Inasmuch as it is a psychological disorder, the mind-body connection binds these effects to the body as well, and in this case, it involves physical harm as well. Attempting to treat the body prove futile, and therefore, the mind must be adjusted for the body to heal.

References

Joana Hayden (2014). Introduction to Heath behavior theory. Jones and Bartlett learning LLC. PP 173-182

Karen glanz, Barbara K rimer, viswanath K. (2015). Heath behavior theory research and practice. Jossey bass a Wiley band. Pp. 75-89

Sharp C. (2014) The Social-Cognitive Basis of BPD: A Theory of Hypermentalizing. In: Sharp C., Tackett J. (Eds) Handbook of Borderline Personality Disorder in Children and Adolescents. Springer, New York, NY

Yang J. & Linehan M. (2017). A Case Study of Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder.