mental hygiene is the area of medicine cares about the mental health defense.
It is a branch of medicine that sets standards that aim to care for diseases that affect the mind.
Mental hygiene is influenced by several behaviors. It is important to think positively, take care of self-esteem, stimulate the mind through exercise, exercise, eat healthy, maintain healthy social relationships, etc. Mental hygiene is essential for human beings to be in balance and interact in a healthy way with other people in their surroundings.
The axioms proposed by Clifford Whittingham Beers and the Swiss psychiatrist Adolf Meyer served as the foundation for the development of mental hygiene. Beers suffered from mental disorders, and even attempted suicide. After being admitted to some psychiatric institutions, he wrote the autobiographical work The Mind That Found Itself, which describes the abuses suffered in various institutions. Beers is considered the founder of the American mental hygiene movement and is honorary president of the World Federation for Mental Health.
These axioms are guidelines for mental hygiene, which consist of: creating norms for maintaining mental health; behaviors to prevent mental illnesses and congenital disorders; improvement of therapy and care given to mental patients; assistance to individuals in need to help them integrate into society and into the work context; increasing community awareness in relation to psychic conflicts in the context of economics, crime, education and human behavior.
The measures proposed for mental hygiene must be done through social assistance and encouragement of prophylaxis of mental illnesses. Another important area in mental hygiene is the training of specialized professionals who can work in this area.
There are some organizations that deal with mental hygiene, some national, such as the Brazilian League of Mental Hygiene, and international, such as the Mental Health Organization, a UNICEF and the UNESCO.
