Determinant Of Health Case Study

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I believe that personal health practices and coping skills have been a very evident determinant of health on unit 56B. Many of these patients are admitted with a major depression, suicide attempt, schizophrenia, or psychosis. I believe that in order to overcome and manage these diagnoses, coping strategies must be in place for this to come together. On my first day in psychiatric emergency, I worked with a young girl who was admitted with suicidal gestures, as she threatened to jump out of her window, not to kill herself but instead to prove a point to her parents. Upon further exploration, I found out that this young girl appeared to come from a very dysfunctional family, where the parents rarely engaged their children in social

I find that organizing complex illnesses in such way allows me to grasp the bigger picture and see things from a more broad perspective. A basic example of this could be…my patient has a diagnosis of schizophrenia, she experiences tardive dyskinesia, but this is well managed by Vitamin E. From this, I know that if she is not compliant with her medications, these symptoms may arise, which in that case would require me to problem solve and collaborate with my patient on ways that we can alleviate her symptoms (ie. Talking with the doctor… Because we do a lot of that). Since we are on a mental health unit and most of these patients are mentally ill rather than physically ill, critical thinking goes beyond the pathological conditions but rather ways to personally manage symptoms. For example, if a patient is diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and based on their personality, perhaps cognitive behavioral therapy would positively impact the patient. However the decision to use this as a form of therapy requires critical thinking and consideration of the various factors that affect this person’s life. If a patient has a strong language barrier, perhaps putting them in a room full of people may do more harm than good (overwhelming, difficult to understand, misunderstandings, ect.). We had a patient on the unit who spoke only Vietnamese. Not only was it hard for the nurses to engage in conversation and work with this person therapeutically, but it appeared difficult for this person to engage in social situations/groups, etc. Thankfully this individual has a family member who spoke English and could translate, however it still appeared very challenging for everyone involved in the