Factors Impacting Mental Health

Online Course

The effect of lifestyle factors and personal experiences on mental health

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4-4.5 hours

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Course instructor

Andrea Sturm

Andrea is a neurological physiotherapist from Austria. She has a special interest in Ethics and Mental Health.

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Summarising

Summarising the latest research & evidence

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Introduction

It is crucial for healthcare workers to understand the effects of lifestyle factors and the adverse or positive experiences on individuals who face mild to severe mental health issues. Traumatic experiences, even if they took place in childhood, can continue to contribute to stress in adult life, with poor lifestyle options taken as a survival strategy or coping mechanism. These individuals can be at high risk for chronic diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease due to the side effects of medication, alcohol and smoking combined with a sedentary lifestyle. Exercise and diet are considered core elements of lifestyle modification and are essential to physical health. Another important factor is poor sleep quality as it can be a consequence of, or contributing factor to mental illness and can influence other lifestyle factors.

Aims

The aim of this course is to provide an understanding of the complex and multifaceted underlying causes and contributing factors of mental health disorders and how the clinician can use their own internal and external resources to promotes an individual’s health and well-being.

Outline

This course is made up of videos, reading, forum posts and a final quiz. The course content is split into the following sections:

Inside Mental Health Conditions
Lifestyle Factors
Childhood Experiences and Adult Inflammation
How to Support the Patient with Mental Illness

Target audience

This course is aimed at Physiotherapy and Physical Therapy clinicians, students and assistants. Other interested professionals such as athletic trainers, occupational therapists, nurses or medical doctors interested in this subject are also invited to participate.

Practicalities

Availability - this course is online and can be completed on your own schedule.

Hours of Learning - No deadlines are applied to this course and it can be started and completed in your own time according to your personal schedule. We expect the required elements to take around 4-4.5 hours depending on your schedule and learning style. Additionally there are many optional resources provided and if you choose to review these the course could take longer to complete.

Types of Activities - Watching videos, reading, a final quiz and participating in an international discussion forum.

Certificates - At the end of the course, when you have completed all of the required elements, you will be able to download a certificate of completion and 4.1 Plus points will be added to your personalised learning dashboard.

Requirements to complete this course

In order to complete this course and receive a course completion certificate plus CEUs/CCUs/CPD points you will need to:

Respect the Plus Community Culture.
Log all the required learning activities as complete (represented by the orange icons!).
Actively and appropriately participate in the course discussions.
Pass a final quiz with a score of 80% or more.
Complete a course evaluation form.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this course you will be able to:

identify at least five lifestyle factors or interventions for supporting good mental health
explain how adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) could lead to inflammatory processes or health risk behaviors later adulthood
describe the relationship between ACEs and resulting changes in the immune-system leading to inflammation processes contributing to mental health disorders and physical diseases
explain the relationship between the gut, diet and mental health
list the anti-inflammatory effects of physical activity/exercise
discuss how the different components and concepts of the Salutogenesis Model of Health can be applied within the management of a patient to support them towards health and well-being