Towards functional-contextualistic understanding of health problems

Stanisław Malicki , Joanna Dudek-Głąbicka , Paweł Ostaszewski

Abstract

The article focuses on the role of general practitioners and pediatricians in prevention and treatment of children’s mental health problems. The authors emphasize the role of communication between clinicians and parents of child patients. Practitioners’ attitude to and understanding of the nature of treated problems is thought to have a significant impact on children, their parents and other caregivers, and can be crucial for treatment outcomes. Nowadays, the most popular understanding of psychiatric and psychological disorders, which is shared by care providers, patients and their families, is the biomedical model. Modern medicine delivers the message that psychological problems are similar to medical illnesses. Physical health is seen as the absence of disease and, similarly, mental health is seen as the absence of abnormal processes. Current approach to mental health may result in stigma, rejection, devaluation and labeling of patients. The purpose of this article is to introduce an alternative, functionalcontextualistic approach to mental health, which situates psychological problems within the context of personal history and current life circumstances of an individual. Presented symptoms are seen as behaviors which have developed in the course of life as an apparently unsuccessful way of coping with life problems. The paper presents fundamentals of functional-contextualism and contains a discussion of their implications for understanding of health problems. The article concludes with advice regarding practical applications of functional-contextualistic philosophy of health to the relationship between clinicians and parents.