The Peer Work Cert IV has resumed after a break for the holidays, and sadly I am not enjoying it at all. I am so upset about some things that happened that I’m mulling over whether to make a complaint. I shan’t go into them here as I suspect that would be seen as a breach of confidentiality. We ended the day by being asked to create an artwork or collage to represent the Stress Vulnerability Model of mental health. The gist of the model is that mental illness is the result when a collision of inherited vulnerabilities and environmental risks occur in someone’s life (similar to the diathesis-stress model). From the point of view of preventing a relapse in those conditions that are episodic, such as psychosis, the model suggests that risks that compromise mental health need managing, and protective factors that enhance it need to be maintained/introduced. This is what I created:

Risk vulnerability model

Some risk factors

A protective factor

It’s not perfect. The ‘passions’ protective factor illustration for example, could be seen as a gardening hobby, or could suggest that this person stalks the streets and digs up random trees. Ah well. 😉