Mental Health in Residential Housing: Tips for Staff

Let’s face it; our society has many challenges. Mental health issues rank among the major stumbling blocks that are fearlessly threatening our existence. Most people would agree that a person living with a mental illness needs treatment.

One place that has seen a rise in mental health challenges is residential housing. The staff who manage housing units are increasingly under pressure to find help for and solutions for residents living with mental illness.

Here are some tips that residential housing managers, service coordinators, and other staff can help residents who are in need of help. These tips may end up saving a life or giving a person who is struggling a new sense of hope.

According to the 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Mental Health Findings, which was carried out by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), mental illness is a leading health concern across the globe. In the USA for example, 61.5 million adults report mental health concerns each year. Among the youth, particularly in the United States, about 20% of teens between 8 to 13 years old suffer from severe mental health issues every year.

Drug and substance addiction is a leading cause of mental illnesses. In fact, a survey by the Open Society Institute shows that 23.5 million Americans are addicted to alcohol among other drugs which eventually results in severe mental illnesses and disorders.

THE ABOVE STATISTICS CALL FOR ACTION!

Learn the signs and symptoms

It’s important to be proactive about interacting with and engaging your residents. This way you can recognize any behaviors that may indicate a mental health challenge. Some of the things to look out for include:

• Talking loudly or silently to one’s self or/and making weird comments.
• Adopting some practices that adversely affect the peace of other residents or his/her family and friends including physical violence accusing, issuing threats, harassing, and bullying, among others.
• Deteriorating personal hygiene and health as the person appears to take no action.

Further assessment skills that you can use

As you continue to develop relationships with your residents, apply the following assessment skills. They will help you to investigate whether someone is experiencing mental health problems. If you notice any significant sign of mental illness, then immediate action should be taken.

By asking yourself the following questions, you can more accurately tell if a resident is experiencing deteriorating mental health.

Appearance

• Is the resident’s style of dress a cause of alarm? Is his/her dress code appropriate for the weather?
• Do you notice any unusual dirt or stains on the person’s clothing?
• Can you smell any unusual odor while conversing with an individual? The odor may be from urine, failure to take a bath, overdone perfume, or drugs.
• Is the person’s head groomed appropriately? Look out for unkempt hair or untrimmed beards for men.
• Is he or she wearing excessive make-up? Also, is the make-up applied to the right areas?

Cognition

• Is the resident disoriented or too oriented to time, dates, or particular locations?
• Is the resident indicating signs of short-term memory while you converse? Test this by asking a question about something you recently discussed. See if he/she remembers.
• Does a resident make statements and/or express ideas that indicate paranoia? People who are struggling sometimes visualize awkward events like attacks, or a stranger trying to kidnap them, among others.
• Is the resident forgetting or resistant to making rent payments? A person suffering from mental illness or disorder may refuse to pay rent, deposit the rent money to the wrong accounts, or simply forget the whole rent payment idea.

Physical

• Analyze the actions of the given resident.
• Is the person becoming hostile, agitated, or fidgety for no apparent reason?
• Is the person wringing his/her hands profusely?
• Is the resident experiencing involuntary and fast mouth/tongue tremors and movements?
• Look at their face. Is he/she lacking or hiding expressiveness?
• Are their actions in line with his/her feelings? One indication of mental health challenges is that the person will laugh when sad or act confident when worrying.
• Is the person maintaining a comfortable distance while conversing with you? A person suffering will either come too close or move far away from you while you speak to him/her.

Speech

• Is the person replying to your questions correctly? Ask simple questions like, “How have you been”?
• Is his/her response unusually fast, hesitant, or agitated?
• Consider the tone and pitch of a resident’s voice. Is it too soft or too loud?
• Is the resident’s conversation logical?
• Is the person changing topics unusually?
• Is the resident using unusual or sensitive language? Look out for uncalled-for insults, and swears, among others.

Eye Contact

• Is the person maintaining close eye contact with you consistently for a long time? Or is the resident shying away every time you look at him/her?

Mood

• Does a resident appear anxious, sad, or depressed?
• Is he/she crying uncontrollably for no sufficient reason?
• Is the person hostile, angry, or fearful?

Assessing the possibility of suicide or self-harm

Whenever you realize that an individual resident may have a mental illness, the next immediate step should be assessing whether the person presents a risk to him/herself or the other residents.

Look out for the following signs of self-injury, suicidal behaviors, and thoughts as well as desire to harm others:

• Threatening to kill or injure him/herself.
• Looking for means to kill or injure themselves.
• Speaking or writing about suicide, death, or dying.
• Engaging in life-threatening activities or acting incredibly recklessly.
• Increased drug and substance abuse.
• Withdrawal from society, family, or friends.
• Expressing anger, frustration, anxiety, or agitation.
• Expressing a gradual mood change.

If you think that there is a high risk of the person committing suicide or causing harm, take the steps in the next section.

Involving partners in helping someone

Occurrences that call for the involvement of other helpful partners in helping a mental health victim:

In the event of the following occurrences or observations, it’s critical that local mental health practitioners, protective services, the police, and spiritual leaders, among others become involved:

• When the person exhibits risks of suicide and harm to him/herself as well as other people, Contact the police, protective services, family members, mental health experts, or the local spiritual leaders. Ensure that you put away any object that the victim may use to cause harm to him/herself or others.
• If the person acknowledges or expresses depression, anxiety, or physical stress. Contact a mental health expert or organization for the victim’s assessment, treatment, and follow-up.
• If the resident is unable to take care of him/herself in the best way and safely- Contact the family members or the nearest mental health service organization for immediate intervention.

Don’t listen to the person if he or she tries to stop you from consulting the helpful bodies.

How should you approach residents who are struggling

It’s human nature to feel unwanted or unloved whenever we are experiencing various challenges. Often, people who are struggling with mental health issues tend to isolate themselves from their families, friends, and society. Again, due to failure to accept their condition, whenever someone approaches them with the aim of offering a helping hand, they tend to devalue themselves or get angry. So, what’s the best way to approach a person for positive results?

Address him/her politely. Again, don’t go straight to the point. You may start by narrating a story related to the person’s challenge. Make the story positive and show the person that it’s possible to get help and go back to his/her normal life.

Ensure that you talk about the positive side of getting help. Again, it’s wise to encourage the person to see the great potential that lies in him or her. This way, you will make the person comfortable and open to discussion.

When they start talking comfortably about their issues, ensure that you listen nonjudgmentally. By putting yourself in your residents’ shoes, you make them feel understood, accepted, and respected. Ensure that you nod often, maintain healthy eye contact with the affected person, and maintain a proper body posture.

By applying these strategies, you can be sure to achieve great results in helping the person.

Strategies to encourage that boost mental wellness

Residents with mental health challenges have the power to facilitate their wellness and recovery. After approaching the affected person in the best way, you can discuss some of the vital support and self-help techniques that they can apply to promote mental well-being and recovery.

Some of the effective practices that you should help residents adopt include:

• Meditation and relaxation – This can be achieved by attending yoga classes or relaxing on a comfortable bed or seat.
• Exercise – The resident should involve him/herself in morning walks, enroll at the local gym, and buy exercise accessories for use at home.
• Involvement in peer support forums and groups – You should help the affected residents join in the well-established peer support forums and groups. There, they will find great help. Also, they will mingle with other people living with mental illness, share their problems and help each other achieve optimum mental health.
• Reading self-help books based on behavioral therapy.
• Engaging with friends, spiritual leaders, family, as well as other social networks.

Through the mentioned self-help strategies, residents will learn to support themselves. They will also learn to appreciate themselves. Even more, residents with mental illness will have things to do rather than staying idle to feel sad, neglected or hating themselves.

In closing…

Minding the well being of those around us is a healthy practice to keep. As a person who lives with a mental illness, I want you to know that it feels great to know that someone out there is concerned about my life and health.

In addition to your job in housing, it’s your responsibility always to ensure that all your residents are mentally well. It costs absolutely nothing to speak to your residents or tenants. By doing so, you can analyze their mental wellbeing through the discussed strategies above.

Ensure that you take all the necessary steps to ensure any resident who is struggling in a housing unity gets the best care possible. It’s wise to save contacts of the local mental health organizations, police as well as spiritual leaders around your area. The contact details will be of utmost help to you in the case of an emergency.

Encourage your residents to steer clear of drug and substance abuse, as it is the primary cause of mental illness. Again, encourage them to speak out about the various challenges in their lives to prevent the problems from resulting in mental illness.

The discussed tips to recognizing and dealing with people living with mental illness are not limited to residential housing. They can be applied by anyone out there aiming to help someone in need. Apply them today and prove to the society that there is hope.

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