FMH15 Increase the individuals capacity to manage negative or distressing thoughts and emotional states

Overview

This standard covers the alleviation of an individual’s stress, upset and frustration due either to their inability to cope, or their use of inappropriate ways of coping, with their difficult emotions. If individuals cannot manage negative feelings such as rage or fear, they are likely to act them out, especially if they have co-morbid mental disorders, impulsivity problems or feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. Increasing the individual’s capacity to manage distress decreases the risk of violence, gives individuals a sense of empowerment and forms a stable foundation for further recovery through therapeutic and occupational rehabilitation. It is essential that all members of the multidisciplinary team, through the Care Programme Approach, implement an agreed strategy to achieve clarity and consistency in their management of an individual’s difficulties. Users of this standard will need to ensure that practice reflects up to date information and policies. Version No 1

Knowledge and Understanding

You will need to know and understand:

1. mental health disorders
2. Learning Disability
3. psychopathy and personality disorder
4. self-harming behaviours, including ligation
5. offending behaviours, especially violent behaviour not related to mental illness
6. drug, alcohol or substance misuse
7. the range of treatments available at your own establishment
8. the effectiveness of different treatments, singly and in combination
9. psychological therapies used in your establishment
10. strategies individuals can use to cope with events and situations
11. inquiry reports on forensic mental health settings, including recommendations and analysis of practice in treatment
12. communication skills, including questioning, discussion and conversation
13. psychology applied to the relevant group (eg perception and its application to a patient group)
14. professional boundaries to be maintained
15. the religious beliefs of different cultures
16. the effects of culture and religious beliefs on individual communication styles
17. the different features services must have to meet people’s gender, culture, language or other needs
18. the effects of different cultures and religions on care management
19. the principle of confidentiality and what information may be given to whom
20. audit and governance
21. how information obtained from individuals should be recorded and stored

Performance Criteria

You must be able to do the following:

1. encourage the individual to talk about thoughts they find stressful, upsetting, frustrating or intolerable (eg grief, hopelessness, anger and rage)
2. identify with the individual the triggers and patterns of these thoughts and the onset of dysfunctional emotions
3. help the individual to become aware of how their emotional state and internal psychotic phenomena affect their behaviour (eg hallucinations, delusions, negative intrusive thoughts)
4. help the individual take responsibility for their thoughts and emotional states
5. adopt a non-judgmental approach to negative feelings
6. generate with the individual a range of coping strategies to help reduce the emotional impact
7. explore with the individual the benefits of managing distressing thoughts and emotions
8. positively reinforce the individual when they successfully manage a negative-impact, high emotional episode
9. help the individual recognise when they might need help and deal with factors that may interfere with their seeking help
10. evaluate and adapt the approach for its impact on the individual’s emotional state and your ability to work with them
11. maintain a dialogue with all those working on psychological issues with the same individual or their family
12. take into account other psychological therapies and treatments in order to avoid conflicts

Additional Information

This National Occupational Standard was developed by Skills for Health. This standard links with the following dimension within the NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework (October 2004): Dimension: HWB4 Enablement to address health and wellbeing needs