Medications & Psychological Interventions
The two main types of treatment for mental illness are medications and psychological interventions.
Medications are not a cure. Many people take medication indefinitely to prevent relapse and keep symptoms under control. Medications can:
- restore the chemical balance in the brain to stabilise moods and reduce symptoms
- restore the hormonal balance in the body to reduce symptoms
- reduce the symptoms of mental illness which will improve the effectiveness of other treatments
Other treatments can include counselling, diet, exercise, alternative and complementary therapies.
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Psychological treatments can help people to regain a sense of control and pleasure in life, and help people work through stressful events that may be contributing to their illness. Psychological treatments can also:
- teach coping techniques and problem solving skills
- help people understand and gain control over behaviours, emotions and thoughts that exacerbate the illness.
Carers can become frustrated with treatment. Common frustrations include:
- mental health services being under-resourced
- a lack of access to services (or accessibility of services)
- carers feeling blamed by mental health workers for the mental illness, or for the treatment not working
- carers not being included in developing treatment plans
- carers concerns not being heard
- the care recipient being ‘ping-ponged’ between services to treat dual diagnoses
- a lack of carers support
- confidentiality preventing carers from accessing the information that will help them provide necessary care