How can nurses help both patients and caregivers work through mental blocks and depression associated with an illness or injury?"

Nurses are also handy in helping the patients or the caregivers to overcome the mental barriers and the depressions that come with the illness or the harm. Here are several ways nurses can provide support:

 For Patients:

 Active Listening and Empathy:

 Engage in Conversations: Let the patient have a caring environment in which the patient can elaborate on his or her own situation with no form of ridicule. It also makes the patient to have the feeling that he or she has been heard and therefore Increasing his or her confidence.

 Validate Feelings: It is therefore important that the patients are able to be understood and their feelings are to be recognised as real. This is in a bid to minimize on loneliness and frustrations that one may be having.

 Education and Information:

 Provide Clear Information: Educate patients about their disease including the kind of treatment that is available to them and the prognosis of the disease. _ Perhaps, knowing about it can reduce stress and fear because of the unfamiliar.

 Set Realistic Goals: Counsel the patients to have a realistic expectation and make them appreciate the little achievements they make. This can enhance the level of control and motivation of the participants because they can change the environment within which they work.

 Psychosocial Support:

 Referral to Mental Health Professionals: If necessary then one should suggest that the patients should consult psychologists, counsellors or other support groups.

 Encourage Participation in Support Groups: Make sure that the patients are taken through group counseling so that they can share with other patients.

 Coping Strategies:

 Teach Stress-Reduction Techniques: Recommend to patients methods of relaxation, for instance, deep breathing, mindfulness or meditation in an effort to minimize stress.

 Promote Physical Activity: Encourage the physical activity as it can has the ability to improve the mood and in turn the mental health of the patient.

 Regular Follow-Up:

 Monitor Mental Health: The following should be done often; Review the patient’s mental state and condition more often. Be on the lookout for any signs that depression is worsening, or that the writer is stuck.

 Adjust Care Plans: Revise the care plans in conformity with the patient’s mental status as well as the impact of care plans on the patient.

 For Caregivers:

 Education and Support:

 Provide Information: Last but not the least, educate the care giver on the sickness or the accident that the patient has and give them a guideline on how to handle the patient. Knowledge is one of the ways that can assist people to overcome or at least reduce the feelings of powerlessness.

 Support Caregiver Well-being: Describe to the caregivers the importance of self-care and tell them that they also need to take a break and seek help from other people.

 Emotional Support:

 Active Listening: Try to listen to caregivers and their concerns and how exhausted they feel. At times this may be all that the affected person requires, a chance to talk to someone who will not interfere.

 Encourage Open Communication: Make sure that the patients and caregivers are in a position to present their concerns in order to reduce on the pressure they undergo.

 Referral to Resources:

 Suggest Support Services: Suggest that one should get or look for company of other people like joining caregiver support groups, seeking counseling services or using respite care to help with the stress that is associated with the job.

 Provide Practical Assistance: Provide a list of references of certain organizations or centers that can assist in the caregiving services.

 Stress Management:

 Teach Coping Strategies: Some of the ways that people can avoid stress and take care of their mental well-being include the following; engaging in mindfulness activities or planning.

 Encourage Self-Care: Especially, the caregivers should be informed that they also have to take care of themselves as well as engage in activities that they love to do.