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Psychiatric Nursing A2 Outline Answer

¶ … nurse working as a psychiatric-Mental health facility and have been asked to complete a suicide assessment on a client. What are the different areas you would need to assess? List at least two questions you would ask to assess each area.

Suicide assessment begins with understanding the behavior of the patient. A patient may be acting in a way that causes the nurse to question the possibility of risk. Questions to ask might be: Is the behavior unusual for this person? Has their behavior changed drastically after a tragic event? (Mohr,, 743). Next the nurse needs to establish a therapeutic relationship that is built on trust. This relationship should have begun prior to the behavior change. Nurses should ask about family, talk honestly about issues that the patient wants to hear about, and try to seek a common ground that will help build rapport. If the patient is in crisis they will trust someone with whom they have built a trust relationship. Specific areas to cover in the assessment include: feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, feeling of isolation or guilt, asking if the patient has made prior suicide threats, whether they are finalizing their will all of a sudden (Mohr,, 744). Engage the patient about specific plans to determine how serious their suicidal intentions are.

b. What affects can suicide have on those left behind?

People who have a loved one who has committed suicide are much more likely to commit suicide themselves than those in the general population (Gaering, Saini, & McNeill, 2007). But, that is not the only danger they face. People often blame themselves for the suicide because they believe that they could have done more. They will also not receive as much empathy as people who normally experience the death of a loved one. There is a negative stigma attached to a suicide (Mohr,, 748).

2. Many individuals experience a maturational crisis at some point in their life.

a. Provide an example of a maturational crisis. Identify a behavior that may be manifested in each crisis phase.

One of the best examples of such a crisis that most people face is leaving home, for the first time, to go to college, start a job, or start a family. Leaving the safe and comfortable confines of known shelter and sustenance can be a frightening event. According to the text a person will experience "increased anxiety," a "further increased anxiety" if coping mechanisms fail, reach out for help, and then goes through an active state of crisis (Mohr,, 753). In the case of a student far away from home, these phases could manifest as anxiety following a failed test or relationship, increased anxiety as grades continue to fall, seeking out a trusted friend or teacher, when all else fails they could experience suicidal ideation or drop out of the school.
b. Develop a list of resources available to an individual experiencing the maturational crisis that you specified.

A student in this crisis could seek out a college mental health counselor or one from the town, seek help in the class from a teacher's assistant or the professor, talk to admissions about dropping the class, seek help from trusted clergy, seek the advice of a friend, look for professional sources at the university or in the community that deals specifically with the issues of someone who is far from home for the first time (Knitzle & Bride, 2010).

3. After helping a client through a crisis, you become interested in the role of crisis intervener.

a. What are the most important skills for a crisis intervener and how these skills are implemented in a crisis?

The first goal of intervention is to build an instant rapport with the person by caring about the situation and validating the feelings of the person involved. After there is some trust built up, the intervention should focus on the problem and how to solve that and not the person who has the stress. To alleviate a crisis, the individual involved has to get the…

Sources used in this document:
References

Freedberg, S. (2007). Re-examining empathy: A relational-feminist point-of-view. Social Work,

Gaering, R.E., Saini, M., & McNeill, T. (2007). Experiences and implications of social workers practicing in a pediatric hospital environment affected by SARS. Health and Social Work,

Glass, J.E., Ilgen, M.A., Winters, J.J., Murray, R.L., Perron, B.E., & Chermack, S. (2010). Inpatient hospitalization in addiction treatment for patients with a history of suicide attempt: A case of support for treatment performance measures. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs,

Kintzle, S., & Bride, B.E. (2010). Intervention following a sudden death: The social work-medical examiner model. Health and Social Work,
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