Essay Sample on Assessing Patient Cases: Depression, Dementia, Adoption, and Substance Abuse

Introduction

The patient presents depression symptoms; hence the assessment will help in finding whether the patient has depression. The following are the things to consider in the assessment of the patient. Does the patient have interpersonal and social issues such as difficulties in creating friendships with other people, such as frequent conflicts? How long has the patient been able to sustain friendships, and how often does the patient make new friends (Cohn et al., 2018)? The history of the patient's mental health is also important to understand whether the patient has suffered from mental illness before. If the patient has a mental illness history, then the mental illness is easily diagnosed. DSM-V will determine the action to take in helping the patient deal with depression.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Understanding the environment where the patient lives is important; family challenges and the environment might contribute to mental health diseases like depression. The other factor in the assessment includes the cognitive assessment where the ability of the patient to think clearly, mental reasoning, and recall information is evaluated (Cohn et al., 2018). The three factors are affected by depression, where the basic functioning of the brain of the patient is affected. The interventions to help the patient recover from depression include medication by different antidepressant drugs that are used in treating depression. Another intervention is psychotherapy which includes dealing with issues causing depression.

Latino Male, Age 75, Living in Dallas, Texas, Presenting with Dementia.

The Latino patient presenting dementia symptoms needs to be assessed to determine and verify that the patient has dementia. The parameters to be assessed include the concentration span, communication skills, and the awareness of the environment by the patient. The assessment will evaluate the damage extent of the patient's brain through a medical examination (James & Jackman, 2017). The assessment will be done by asking the patient for information to check whether the patient is able to remember information. The questioning period will also help in guiding the concentration span of the patient.

The DSM-V criteria will influence the choice of questions to ensure ethical standards are maintained during the assessment. The potential needs of the assessment include a family member of the patient to help in clarifications where the patient is unable to answer questions (James & Jackman, 2017). The dementia impact on DSM-V diagnosis is that the treatment option will be based on the findings from the assessment. DSM-V helps in determining the best treatment option.

Same-Sex Couple in Relationship Five Years, Living in Bangor, Maine, Considering Adoption.

Maine law allows LGBT individuals to adopt a child, whether they are married, unmarried, or single (American Adoptions, 2020). As a social work practitioner's supervisor, it is important to ensure that you ethically conduct the couple's biopsychosocial spiritual assessment. The social work practitioners should not be biased when asking the couple questions and should not judge them based on their sexual orientation but rather on their ability to love and take good care of the child. Regardless of someone's sexual orientation, some requirements should be met. Therefore, the assessment of a couple considering adopting should be based on ascertaining whether the couple meets all the requirements. The Adoption Process for same-sex child adoption is not different from that of heterosexual couples. Therefore, the social workers should ask questions regarding the age of the couple and the criminal background. In Maine, you have to be at least 21 years old to adopt a child. Anyone with a criminal record of child abuse, for example, is restricted from adopting.

Couple in Blended Family Dealing With Substance Abuse

To deal with substance abuse, social work practitioners have to work closely with the parents to assess the problem's adversity and the best intervention (Volkow, 2011). They should assess the reason for substance abuse and whether something has been done to address the problem. During the assessment, the social work practitioner will ask questions on the patient's signs and symptoms. Some of the signs of substance abuse are increased hyperactivity, slowed coordination, deterioration of health and physical hygiene, drug craving, tremors, and paleness. For a patient to be diagnosed with substance abuse disorder, he/she should exhibit two to three symptoms (Hasin et al., 2013).

Family-based therapy is one of the interventions applied to help adolescents and adults struggling with substance abuse disorder (Volkow, 2011). This approach involves the patient and one or more significant people in his/her life, such as a parent or a spouse. The aim of engaging the parents is to educate them on the behavior strategies that they should apply. They are encouraged to create behavior goals aimed at discouraging or preventing the use of the substances. In this intervention, the family is actively involved in the process, and together with a healthcare professional, they review the patient's behavior. The reviews' objective is to ascertain whether the previously set goals have been accomplished and if they have, then there is a reward to reinforce the changes. The effectiveness of this approach is attributed to the patient’s participation throughout the process.

I will challenge my supervisees to use different approaches for the four different patients because the patients suffer from different diseases, and the patients will respond differently. The supervisee needs to also observe how the patients react and respond to the questions asked. I will also caution the supervisee on asking personal and sensitive questions that might make the patient biased in the responses.

References

American Adoptions. (, 2020). American Adoptions - Maine Adoption Requirements | Requirements to Adopt in ME. Americanadoptions.com. https://www.americanadoptions.com/maine-adoption/maine-adoption-requirements.

Cohn, J. F., Cummins, N., Epps, J., Goecke, R., Joshi, J., & Scherer, S. (2018). Multimodal assessment of depression from behavioral signals. In The Handbook of Multimodal-Multisensor Interfaces: Signal Processing, Architectures, and Detection of Emotion and Cognition-Volume 2 (pp. 375-417).

Hasin, D. S., O’Brien, C. P., Auriacombe, M., Borges, G., Bucholz, K., Budney, A., ... & Schuckit, M. (2013). DSM-5 criteria for substance use disorders: recommendations and rationale. American Journal of Psychiatry, 170(8), 834-851.

James, I. A., & Jackman, L. (2017). Understanding behaviour in dementia that challenges: a guide to assessment and treatment. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Volkow, N. D. (2011). Principles of drug addiction treatment: A research-based guide (Vol. 12, No. 4180). DIANE Publishing.