Medical Model Of Mental Illness: Diagnosis, Treatment, And Social Work

Intersubjectivities in Narratives of Recovery

Population Approach to Mental Health

Question:

Discuss about the Intersubjectivities in Narratives of Recovery.

A mental model of illness is a set of procedures that mental experts to diagnose and treat mental disorders (Thomas et al., 2010). The model treats mental disorders to have physical cause. The model considers patient’s symptoms to be inner physical disorders. The symptoms can therefore be grouped into a syndrome which is the root cause of the mental disorder and a physical treatment administered. Therefore, a medical mental illness model is a tool of diagnosing causes of a mental disorder and physically treating the disorder to restore mental health to an individual (Wyder et al., 2015). The medical mental illness model makes three basic assumptions; first, the mental disorder has physical or organic cause. This assumes that the mental illness has organic or physical components that cause the illness. Secondly, the mental illness model assumes that mental illness has behaviors that can be identified as the symptoms of the mental disorder. The behavior is the outward symptoms to the internal physical disorder. Lastly, the model requires diagnosis to be based on the symptoms observed by the practitioner. A medical mental illness model should have the following key features; first, the model should contain a clinical interview. The feature requires a practitioner to create a relationship with the patient and involve asking questions. Secondly, a medical model of mental illness has to feature observation. This involves a careful observation of patient o client behavior and mood status. The practitioner is able to make judgment from this feature on abnormal behaviors exhibited by the patient. Third, the model has to feature client or patient medical record. This provided the medical history of the patient. Lastly, the model has to have psychometric tests. The psychometric tests enable understanding of the patient’s social economic life and environment (Gulliver, Griffiths, and Christensen, 2010).

The medical model of mental illness has both strengths and weaknesses. The medical model of mental illness is objective (Bland, Renouf, & Tullgren 2015). The model is based on scientific theories and principles. The model is also able to administer treatment quickly because it is easy, cheap and relative to alternative when administering (Wyder et al., 2015). The model has proven effectiveness when controlling serious mental illness. On the other side, the model treatment has serious side-effects. The model treatment by drugs can lead to memory loss. Drugs do not cure the mental illness but rather act as chemical straitjackets by reducing symptoms (Wilkinson, and Pickett, 2009). The mental illness model also fails to find physical causes that are convincing for most mental disorders (Nathan, and Gorman, 2015).

Depression as a Common Mental Disorder

Population approach to mental health has the following key features; first, is mental health promotion. This feature is aimed at promoting wellbeing of a population (Wyder et al., 2015). It includes strategies to solve problems, promotion of social inclusion, stress management etc. Secondly is prevention of mental illness. This feature targets the population to prevent any development of distress. This feature includes strategies such as equipping the population with life skills, creating an enabling environment for the population, and solving the problem existing in the population in advance (Hunt, and Eisenberg, 2010). Thirdly is treatment of mental illness in the population. This refers to evidence-based interventions to the population to reduce severity, duration, and reoccurrence of a mental disorder. The other feature is maintenance. Maintenance refers to offering support to a population to prevent relapse (LaMontagne et al., 2014).

Depression is defined as a mood disorder that prevents an individual from living a normal life (Kirmayer et al., 2011). Depression is a common mental disorder that causes serious mood disorder. Therefore, depression is a prolonged distress that affects an individual normal life. Depression has the following features; first, depression affects thinking. An individual is unable to make even simple decisions as a result of accumulated distress in the mind. The second feature of depression is a painful feeling that comes in waves. An individual feels grieved with mixture of negative memories that cause displeasure and low moods. Another feature of depression is inability to handles an activity. Depressed individuals feel worthless and think hopelessly that lead to inability to handle even basic activities. The recommended treatment for depressed can be by medication, psychotherapy or electroconvulsive therapy (Moulding, 2016). The medication treatment involves treatment of brain chemistry that lead to an individual being depressed. Psychotherapy involves talking to a patient with depression to help moderate from severe depression. It also enables an individual recognize distorted thinking to make changes in thinking and behavior. Social workers should be aware of the following social factors as part of the recovery approach; first is the family of the victim. The family can enable maintain and treat depression of its member. Another key social factor to be aware of is the environment. Environment refers to the workplace, home or institution where the depressed patient lives. The environment can be used to enable treatment and maintenance of the mental illness (Schlaepfer et al., 2013).

Listening to the experiences of mental health problems is an important aspect of social worker. The following points emerged important for me in relation to listening to consumer experiences of mental health problem as described in the course; first, listening to experiences enables a social worker take a holistic approach when diagnosing mental illness (Bland, Renouf, & Tullgren 2015). Listening to patient experiences enables the practitioner take a broader approach to diagnosing the mental illness affecting a patient. The holistic approach goes behold the medical model of mental illness hence providing more information to a social worker to make judgment. Secondly, listening to experiences of mental health problems is important to enabling a practitioner administer appropriate treatment. Listening to experiences the practitioner is not to be limited to symptoms of the mental disorder but rather be supported by illness history (Wilkinson, and Pickett, 2009). A social worker is thereby able to get a detailed report that supports the mental illness enabling accurate understanding of the mental disorder and thereafter appropriate treatment. Another important issue in listening to experiences of mental health problems is that it creates a relationship between the social worker and the patient. The relationship enables the social worker to understand subjective experiences of the patient’s mental illness (Moulding, 2016). The relationship also enables the social worker to understand social factors to consider as part of the recovery approach of the patient (Yegidis, Weinbach, and Myers, 2017).

Importance of Listening to Consumer Experiences of Mental Health Problems

The following are three ways that I can take account of consumer experience as a social worker; first, I can take account of consumer experience in treatment of the mental illness. The consumer experience gives more subjective information about the mental illness (Newcomb, and Mustanski, 2010). This subjective information from consumer experience and objective information from the medical model of mental illness enables a holistic approach to diagnosing and administering appropriate treatment of mental disorder. Secondly, I can take account of consumer experience preventing problem behaviors and development of distress. This involves formulating and implementing strategies that can intervene aiming at preventing the consumer disorder from causing more harm (Moulding, 2016). I can also use consumer experience to prevent development of distress as leading to depression. Lastly, I can take account of consumer experiences to maintain the patient’s condition. This involves supporting the patient from the reoccurrence of the mental illness. The support to prevent the relapse of the mental illness is enabled by the approached of recovery adopted as a result of information gathered from the consumer experiences (Kirmayer et al., 2011).

Social worker requires several skills of effective and ongoing engagement when working with clients who have mental health concerns. The following are key skills effective and ongoing engagement; a social worker should good organizational skills. These skills are important to a social worker on ongoing engagement with the client and will be required to prioritize and in other case multitask (Schomerus et al., 2012). Secondly, a social worker required to have interpersonal skills in order to relate well with the client and the client’s family. Interpersonal skills are important for creating and maintaining professional relationship between the client and the social worker (Moulding, 2016). Thirdly, a social worker requires good written and communication skills to be effective on an ongoing engagement with a client with mental concerns. The social worker is expected in several occasions to work with diverse people and different contexts that require both written and verbal communication skills (Slade, 2009). Another skill of a social worker is developed sense of empathy. Empathy enables a social worker to be committed in helping others of which without, it difficult to understand people’s problems (Boetto, 2016).

Social requires several skills when underrating a mental health assessment in their social work. First it key to have critical thinking skills. These skills are important when undertaking mental health assessment. A social worker is required to make judgment of the information collected on whether the patient is mentally ill and what disorder the patient suffering from. Secondly, a social worker requires note taking skills. A social worker should have ability to collect detailed notes when undertaking mental disorder assessment. The notes are important for analyzing patient’s condition and developing interventions of treating, maintain or preventing mental illness (Slade, 2009). Thirdly, a social worker requires active listening skills. Listening skills are important to collecting subjective information when undertaking mental health assessment. These skills enable a social worker to ask questions and seek clarification where appropriate to get accurate information from a client (Schomerus et al., 2012). Lastly, a social worker should have skills to understand human psychology. It important for a social worker to understand the how human mind when undertaking mental health assessment in order to make informed judgment about the client’s thinking, feeling and behavior (Zivin et al., 2009).

Skills for Effective and Ongoing Engagement with Clients Who Have Mental Health Concerns

The following write-up discusses the mental problems that young people faces in their life. Young people refer to young adult of age between 16 and 24 years old. These young people are mostly tertiary students. These young people face significant impact from mental health problems at the peak of their studies and they are unable to reach their academic goal and start their careers. The mental illness affects their wellbeing in school and outside leading to drop outs, drug abuse and careless behaviors (Elliott, Huizinga, and Menard, 2012). Young people are affected by the following mental health problems; depression, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorders, disruptive mood deregulation illness, attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorders (ASD), eating disorders and coping with traumatizing events (Zivin et al., 2009).

The population approach for young people with mental health problems has two parts; the contributing factors and all levels intervention approach to promote wellbeing of young people between age of 16 and 24 year of age (Schomerus et al., 2012).

Most young people between age of 16 and 24 years of age are in development stage of learning in tertiary level to acquire skills for their future careers. This group of population is faced by many factors in this stage of life that contribute to mental health problems. The first contributing factor to mental health problem is procrastination in young people. Young people do not know how to manage the anxiety that comes with procrastination. They spend time thinking about issues behold their control that cause distress in them. The second contributing factor is money and finances concerns (Boetto, 2016). Young people are faced with constrained budget since they lack access to credit facilitates and time to work and earn money. They are therefore strain to live with limited budgets that cause social discomfort leading to depression. Thirdly, studies and life balance contribute to mental problems. Young people are required to balance between studying and their personal life. This lead to young people spending much of time awake that cause attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and sleeping disorders (Kirmayer et al., 2011). Another contributing factor to young people mental health problem is high academic demands. Young people are required to get high grades in school to pass exams that causes stress in their lives leading to mental health problems (Schomerus et al., 2012).

There are four interventions that can be made to enable mental wellbeing among young people; first is mental health promotion. This is the primary level to preventing young people from mental health problems. This level involves equipping young people with life skills that enable them to control their thinking and behavior to avoid mental illness (Hunt, and Eisenberg, 2010). For example, young people can be trained on stress management skills, problem solving skills and academic skills. The second intervention is prevention. This intervention involves changing things either in school or outside that can stimulate mental health problems. For example, young people in school should be taught writing skills such as technical writing skills, plagiarism, doing assessment, personal resilience and creating an enabling environment that promotes mental wellbeing such as meals, sleep, and promoting general positive habits. The third intervention is treatment of mental health illness among young people. This intervention involves intervening to reduce durations, reoccurrence, and severity of mental illness among young people (Arseneault, Bowes, and Shakoor, 2010). For example, the government should allocate resources to treat mental disorders for young people in the society. The fourth level is maintenance intervention. This level of intervention is aimed at supporting young people to prevent relapse of the mental illness. For example, tertiary learning institutions should support students achieve their career objectives by seeking internship programs for the students as they enter the labour market (McGorry, Bates, and Birchwood, 2013).

Skills Required for Mental Health Assessment

References

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