Description of developmental, age, socioeconomic, and cross-cultural aspects that should be considered during the gathering of subjective and objective data and for the provision of health care
Adolescents and college going young people are likely to be still living with parents or guardians. The age of the patient can affect the tolerable stress level and the ability to look intrinsically for motivation for behavior change. The cultural background and age can affect the view of authority and influence the responses given by the patient. When observing, practitioners should look at dressing, tidiness, skin, nails, facial features and any other indicator of the condition of the patient. During the subjective data collection point, practitioner can confirm whether age of the adolescent and socioeconomic claims match up to observation. Therefore, practitioners must be aware of the effect of the patient frame of thinking when interpreting subjective and objective data. The socioeconomic background can affect the patient’s comfort and influence objective data. Overall objective of collecting data is to situate problems and make a diagnosis. The practitioner is seeking to see if patient can read, see clearly and express their needs. Observations help to point out source of any agitation and confusion. This will then inform practitioner to include or avoid other procedures to reflect needs of the patient. Issues like grooming and facial expressions provide an overview of an adolescent’s lifestyle, and help to understand subjective data collected about their mental status.
Expected findings and related findings
The expected outcomes for adolescents are rebelliousness and diversity in meaning and experiences with harmful behaviors. Harmful behaviors may include smoking and alcohol abuse currently and in the past. They are likely to have a history of dropping out of school or doing poorly in their current studies. They may not take part in extracurricular activities. Income levels of their households will be low to deprive them some of their social related needs. They may have dependents or other medical conditions that are costly to manage. The adolescent will exhibit loss of alertness, and defects in judgment and thought. There may be poor regulation of emotions as the adolescent goes through observations and interviews by a health practitioner. The adolescent patient is also likely to be depressed and tired because of lack of sleep or drug use (O’Keeffe, Gavin, Cullen, & McNicholas, 2012).
The mental status assessment findings show unkempt appearance and incoherent speech as an indication of lack of personal value. Patients appear helpless in their situation and have no awareness of their ability to intervene in their conditions. Crying uncontrollably is an indication of being unable to control emotions, and confirms expected behavior of mental status assessment. Saving of medicalization for a potential overdose was also observed and is a confirmation of a harmful habit that associates with depression; it is also a defect in judgment, as the patient is unable to rationalize a healthy way out of the present condition (O’Keeffe, Gavin, Cullen, & McNicholas, 2012). Practitioner can combine the objective data obtained from the adolescent and use subjective data to come up with an appropriate teaching plan as the one proposed in the following section to deal with the mental status patient.
Proposed teaching plan
The objective is to have patients understand their situation, develop high self-esteem, and achieve the sufficient intrinsic motivation to influence change in their harmful situation. This objective is an adaptation of the World Health Organization (2004) recommendation of promoting mental health by strengthening the individual.
One of the interventions used for teaching will be to respond to all situations in a kind way that does not blame anyone and does not point fingers in any way to the choices, behaviors, and abilities of the patients. The idea here is to avoid making the patient defensive of their self or the persons and institutions that are part of their situational story, such as an abuser. This intervention also communicates the beliefs of the intervener on what the patient is saying. It will also help to yield the patient’s trust in the response. The second intervention is to help the patient realize the dynamics of the situation and make a decision to change or seek change. Here, the teaching program will use examples, listen to patient versions of ideal lifestyles that do not have any harm, and provide cues and examples for patients to use when making up their preferred lifestyle outlook. The last intervention is to point the patient to the appropriate path, while encouraging self-resolution to change. This will include different pointers for the different cases.
The outcomes will include the following. The patients will discuss their personal journeys. The patients will provide examples of health care behaviors that promote their healthy well-being. After getting information about various options for receiving help, patients will identify what is likely to work for them, based on their major weaknesses. They will ask for help in regards to access and support for their commitment to change. This will include asking for an alternative advisor. These outcomes will follow the principles of motivational interviewing, which include expressing empathy, promoting self-efficacy, rolling with opposition and developing incongruity (Gold & Kokotailo, 2007).
References
Gold, M. A., & Patricia K. Kokotailo. (2007). Motivational interviewing strategies to facilitate adolescent behavior change. Adolescent Health Update, 20(1).
O’Keeffe, N., Gavin, B., Cullen, W., & McNicholas, F. (2012). Child and adolescent mental health; Diagnosis & management. Web.
World Health Organization. (2004). Promoting mental health. Retrieved from WHO: Web.