Mental health nursing interventions for the promotion of self-concept of the person with mental disorder: integrative literature review

Background: Self-Concept is a broad, multidimensional, and multifaceted construct, with increasing relevance in the field of Mental Health. Its components include: self-esteem, identity, role performance, and body image. In the Person with mental illness, one of the components may be altered, affecting Self-Concept. Aim: Identify, analyze, and synthesize the Mental Health Nursing interventions for the Self-Concept of the Person with a mental disorder. Materials and Methods: Integrative review of the literature. Research at EBSCO, CINAHL complete, and MEDLINE complete databases, in June 2021, with descriptors and Boolean operators: Mental disorder AND Self-Concept AND Psychiatric nursing. Included studies between January 2011 and January 2021, Portuguese or English language, People with mental illness, between 13-64 years, that addressed Mental Health Nursing interventions which enhance Self-Concept’s improvement, in any setting of Nursing Care. From an initial sample of 648 articles, a final sample of 2 articles was obtained. Results: Quantitative, observational, prospective longitudinal articles. Nursing interventions were directed to the self-esteem of the Person with mental illness, in a group intervention and recovery context. None of the studies addresses Self-Concept in all its dimensions, revealing a significant improvement in self-esteem after the intervention programs. Conclusion: The specialized Mental Health Nursing interventions identified and synthesized in this integrative literature review, for the dimensions of self-esteem and self-image, are: psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring, and behavioral techniques, based on a cognitive-behavioral perspective.