The document outlines 12 principles of mental health nursing. These principles include accepting patients as they are, using self-understanding and consistent behavior to increase patient security, giving subtle reassurance, changing patient behavior through emotional experience rather than rational interpretation, avoiding increasing patient anxiety unnecessarily, objectively observing patients to understand their behavior, maintaining a realistic nurse-patient relationship, avoiding force as much as possible, caring for the patient's personhood rather than just their symptoms, explaining routines at the patient's level of understanding, and modifying procedures while keeping basic principles the same.

1. PRINCIPLES OF MENTAL
HEALTH NURSING
PREPAREDBY,
Vipin Chandran

17. 5. Patient behavior is changed through
emotional experience and not by rational
interpretation

32. 1) Accept the patient exactly as he is
2) Use self- understanding as a therapeutic tool
3) Use consistent behavior to increase patient emotional security
4) Give reassurance to patient in subtle and acceptable manner
5) Change patient behavior through emotional experience and
not by rational interpretation
6) Avoid unnecessary increase in patient anxiety
7) Demonstrate objective observation to understand and
interpret the meaning of patient’s behavior
8) Maintain realistic nurse- patient relationship
9) Avoid physical and verbal force as much as possible
10) Provide nursing care to the patient as a person and not on
control of symptoms of the disease that he has
11) Explain routines and procedures at patient’s level of
understanding
12) Many procedures are modified but basic principles remain
unaltered