Qualitative case study on the relationship between the level of positive mental health and the experience of physical and mental diseases

Identifier:  TFG:2312

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TFG2312

Authors:  Fabregat Fibla, Tania

Abstract:
Introduction: Positive mental health represents a very important element in the coping capacity of people. The evaluation of this topic in people with physical or mental pathologies can be interesting and help to understand better as an influence in the coping of diseases. Objectives: The objective of our work is to try to emphasize the role of positive mental health in the disease process and to discover if there is any difference in coping according to the type of disease and its state at the time of the study. Methodology: A qualitative method of case study has been selected through interviews, and four people have been chosen based on comfort criteria. Two of them suffer or have suffered a somatic disease, and the other two, a mental illness. In addition, an assessment questionnaire of the level of positive mental health was provided based on the doctoral thesis of Maria Teresa Lluch. Results: The positive mental health level of the first respondent is higher than the rest of the cases. It has been observed that the interviewees who were in the acceptance phase of the Kübler-Ross model presented a higher positive mental health level. In three of the four cases studied, coherence was shown between the results obtained through the interviews and the score obtained through the positive mental health evaluation questionnaire extracted from the doctoral thesis of Maria Teresa Lluch. Conclusions: The level of positive mental health in the interviewees tends to decrease when the pathology that these suffer is in active phase or is accompanied by a depressive symptomatology. For this reason, it is concluded that future studies should address the relationship between depressive symptomatology and the difficulties it presents to develop a positive mental health.