Mental health nursing has undergone several changes in the post-modern era. Postmodernity is the state or condition that exists after modernity. Modernity on the other hand is the Enlightenment or Progressive era. Giddens (1990) says that modernity can be defined as a condition or rather a state in which most institutions undergo changes that have a direct impact on the social and political aspects of a community (p. 60). The phenomenon began in the 1950s. Postmodernity thus is the culmination of this process where constant change is the status quo and the progress notion is obsolete. The changes have influenced people’s perception of the major aspects of health care providers to mental health patients. This is due to the replacement of traditional cultural structures by the commoditization of social living, consumption, and failure to support the mental health needs that result in psychopathology. Some of the mental health needs include alienation, depression and anxiety, materialism and existential health. The desire for identity and personal growth as well as transcendence has proved to be generated when cultural frameworks become outdated. According to Kirmayer and Minas (2000), this modernity affects psychiatry in three ways; effects on identity, the impact of economic inequalities in mental health and dissemination of psychiatry knowledge itself (p. 67). Because of the human being’s nature as a social being, once that bond is destroyed and they live as individuals, many emotional and spiritual ills take place. Additionally, materialism and consumption in modern society are a way of life on emotional well-being. It promotes self-centeredness, lack of generosity to others later becoming less happy and less satisfied with life as a whole. When one gets to this stage in life, they become depressed which according to Murray and Lopez (1997) is the leading cause of disease burden (p. 1500).
The modern self has been alienated from society and consumables become the only way of self-identity. Schumaker states, “moderns have become distanced from the communal operations that historically have immunized members from a range of psychopathologies” (2001, p. 28). This in return evades the real meaning of existence leading to dissatisfaction. Additionally, competition is an example of the effects of modernity on mental health. The modern person has devalued co-operation and success is based on another person’s failure. This robs individuals of empathy, creating a more rugged individual leading to poor relationships. It eventually leads to isolation and socially alienated individual with no cooperation. World Bank’s statistics show that mental health problems cause a great loss of quality life-nearly 10% (1993, p. 45). Risks like terrorism as pointed out by Howson et al. are likely to have an immense impact on mental health in the world at large (1998, p. 589). Postmodernism has led to a more interactive relationship between the client and me as a mental health worker. This is so because before there was a boundary that dictated how to work and how far to go but with post-modernity, there is the feeling of belonging in the community that I work with. It makes it positive to offer services not as a servant to a master’s bidding but as an expert who knows what is expected. There is also the freedom to ask questions as well as resist practices contrary to the interests of the community and the profession.
Modernity and globalization have some deep-rooted consequences on mental health. The demand for psychiatrists is increasing day in day out. In addition, only the rich have access to proper treatment because of globalization. Unfortunately, the delivery of mental health services has not been equally provided irrespective of where the patients come from. Due to the increased ethnic and cultural diversity of service users, attitudes in relation to mental illnesses have broadened. Social-economic changes have also led to an increase in mental disorders. Globalization has already brought about crises of different forms including the social, economic, democratic and spiritual crises that make people view God as bread due to poverty. Finally, globalization will eventually increase the rates of depression with time.
References
Giddens, A. (1990). The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Howson, C. P., Fineberg, H.V. & Bloom, B. R. (1998). The pursuit of global health: the relevance of engagement for developing countries. Lancet, 351, 586– 590.
Kirmayer, L. J. & Minas, I.H. (2000). The future of cultural psychiatry: an international perspective. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 45, 438– 446.
Murray, C. J. L. & Lopez, A. D. (1997) Alternative projections of mortality and disability by cause 1990–2020: global burden of disease study. Lancet, 349, 1498– 1504.
Schumaker, J. (2001). The Age of Insanity. Modernity and mental health. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers Inc.
World Bank (1993). World Development Report 1993: Investing In Health. New York: Oxford University Press.