Mental ill‐health among adult patients at healthcare centres in Sweden: district nurses experiences

Abstract

Working as a DN requires formal and informal competence when encountering patients with complex health needs. The findings revealed that the DNs could feel insecure regarding how to deal with patients with mental ill-health due to lack of knowledge. Assessment of patients with mental ill-health is time- and energy-consuming and calls for improved teamwork at HCCs as well as effective collaboration with psychiatric specialist care and other care givers. The DNs responsibility to fulfil their work considering the increasing number of mental ill-health among people that seeks help at HCCs needs to be acknowledged and met by the PHC organisation.

Capturing the Unsaid: Nurses’ Experiences of Identifying Mental Ill-Health in Older Men in Primary Care—A Qualitative Study of Narratives

“…Based on our results we also stress the importance of collaboration with other professions and patients' relatives to identify mental ill-health in older men. This is in accordance with a Swedish study that states that identifying adult patients' mental ill-health is time-and energy-consuming and requires teamwork [41].…”

District nurses’ experiences of giving initial health care assessment to young adults applying for mental illness in primary care: a qualitative interview study

“…This placed higher demands on the district nurses' ability to identify the young adults. Several studies confirm this experience that patients come to the health centre booked for a physical ailment but that it later emerges during the visit that the real cause was mental illness (Obando-Medina et al, 2014;Janlöv et al, 2018;Lundvall et al, 2019). believe that some patients who applied for mental illness were ashamed to talk about their problems, which was shown by the fact that they first did not talk about the real reason why they called.…”

“…Lundvall et al (2019) confirm that conversing with young adults means searching for their innermost thoughts and feelings much like a detective. In Janlöv et al (2018), the district nurses looked for both verbal and non-verbal signs of mental illness in the meeting, which was perceived as particularly important when the patients were emotionally careful and hesitant. Difficulties could be associated with a feeling of shame and guilt due to the stigma surrounding mental illness .…”

“…Those who worked in the lifestyle clinic at the health centre experienced greater opportunities to be able to make a difference. Janlöv et al (2018) describes how mental illness among young adults is often related to lifestyle issues such as stress in working life or various forms of addiction. Gall et al (2016) demonstrated that a healthy lifestyle can promote mental health.…”

Forced to move on: An interview study with survivors who have lost a relative to suicide

“…Primary care deals with an unsorted and varied patient flow (Björkman & Salzmann‐Erikson, 2018 , 2019 ), and health care professionals who work in primary care find it difficult to meet the needs of patients with mental illness within an organization, that is, not designed for their care. It is felt that these patients are hard to accommodate due to lack of time, staff and competence (Janlöv et al, 2017 ; Obando Medina et al, 2014 ). Despite these challenges, the support of primary care is valued by the survivors.…”