CASE STUDY

Case study

Case study

Case scenario

It about a lady who is 29yrs old and has been refered to her local commmunnity mental health team by her GPfor an assessment. she is a single parent and works as a jounalist for a national newspaper. The letter states tha for the last four months stephanie''s mood has been low, her sleep pattern has been disturbed and she is starting to neglet her appearance. Because of the nature of her work stephanie works long hours and it is expected that she attends social events. She does have adequate support for her 14mnth old son Noel which is provided by her parents, friends and a day nusery. Over the last year stephanie has stopped drinking alcohol because "the long liquid lunches were begining to have an inpact upon her work performance". Stephanie has also stopped smoking and has cut down upon the amount of socialising she does.Stephanie has alwys been a hiogh flyer; she has very supportive parents who are evangelical christains and upuntil the age 15 was actively invovled in the church activities. stephanie was not happy at secondary school where she was bullied by a group of girls whodisliked her for being top of the class. This lasted for two yrs and affected her self esteem. As a result stephanie put her energyies in to groups at the school and developed an interest in literature. At the age of 15 stephanie changed schools, was much happier and won a scholarship to study classics at cambridge. Stephanie has had a number of relationships, she is currently single and there is no contact or support from Noel's father. Stephanie has had no previous contact with mental health services,although she did see a chu counsellor when she was fourteen as a result of the bullying.

Introduction

Recently stephanie has been promoted at work which increased the pressure upon her, she lost a stone in weight and told her mother that "she was a drain on all of those around her"intially the GPprescribed 40mg of Citolopram and stephanie experienced nausea,blurred vision, frequent moments of vertigo and then nightmares. Stephanie is still taking the medication but wants to stop.QestionA;Discuss the intial assessment,what needs to be addressed and how might this be done. Support your discussion with some evidence from literature. Consider what are the priorities and why?QB; Explore the mental health nurse''s role in relation to creating a caare plan. Disscus the potential impact on the client and consider ways to offer on-going assessment and support to stephanie and Noel.

We see this problem primarily as one of misunderstanding in relation to the non-quantifiable primary functions of the Psychiatric Nurse. Indeed research in mental health nursing has experienced difficulty conforming to the norms of traditional quantitative research, (Baier 1989). In order for this challenge to be addressed we believe that the separate register for the registration of Stephanie is an important aspect of the professional status of psychiatric nursing in ...