Society is often confronted with illnesses that have explanations or can be outwardly interpreted and noticed. However, the situation is changing for mental disorders because it is a more complex group of illnesses. Support for mental health continues to be an urgent task for public health: Diagnostic and treatment guidelines are being developed, practical guidelines are being created, and medications are being introduced. People with mental disorders wait for support and help because they may not even be aware of their illness. This paper aims to explore the specifics of an unstable mental condition based on Health People 2030 strategies and propose a plan for meeting the educational need.
Patient Scenario
Healthy People 2030 identifies a problem in the Mental Health and Mental Disorders sector. Two goals have been set: getting people with substance use problems help and treatment and increasing health care for screening depression in adolescents and adults. Unfortunately, only a baseline is achieved for both goals, so care management and coping activities are needed. This scenario will offer a look at an adolescent who is diagnosed with major depressive disorder and an assessment of their learning needs and readiness to learn.
An extensive set of symptoms characterizes the major depressive disorder. In the proposed scenario, the adolescent girl has symptoms similar to major depressive disorder. She reports having difficulty gaining weight and sleeping poorly: she is haunted by anxiety in her sleep. Additionally, sleep does not bring relief, and fatigue and energy loss become even more pronounced after sleep (Mullen, 2018). The girl says she has increased irritability and almost lost interest in any activity. She cannot concentrate on her studies and has poor grades that lead to feelings of worthlessness. The girl says she seeks help because she has suicidal thoughts. She believes she needs depression treatment but does not know how to deal with anxiety and sadness properly. She has not taken screening tests because she does not trust tests on the Internet. She chose to take walks to counteract her symptoms, but the bad thoughts continued to haunt her while walking.
In this scenario, the adolescent is aware of the problem, making assessing the condition more manageable. The teenager needs training in techniques to cope with anxiety and suicidal thoughts. In addition, the need for sleep is impaired, so the girl needs ways to fall asleep and sleep peacefully. Assessment is based on dialogue with the patient, so knowledge of her condition must be conveyed and suggested ways to treat her. The child’s understanding of tests and usefulness is impaired, so a logical intervention would be to practice self-training and self-testing.
Patient Education/Teaching Plan
- Teaching the adolescent the causes and background of the illness. When a clinician collects data about a patient’s condition, he or she must understand why the person became ill and what the underlying conditions were. In treating major depressive disorder, the person must understand what conditions may have led to his or her illness. Based on this, the adolescent will be given data about what causes the disorder. For example, a fact sheet will be compiled that will outline the cause of the development of the illness. The adolescent will be able to identify and compose their triggers, and the nurse’s task is to learn how to avoid them or reduce their impact.
- 2Enriching knowledge about the disease. The next step is to enlarge the teenager’s understanding of how the disease manifests itself. The child should know the signs of complications during the disease and distinguish the preconditions for the oppressive symptoms. It will help the teenager be prepared and avoid the unstable condition. For example, a teenager begins to feel unreasonably tired during the day and realizes that he will be haunted by a lack of sleep at night. He or she undertakes in advance techniques for a good night’s sleep and understands how to prevent the symptoms in the future. The nurse’s task is to teach the teenager to recognize triggers and manage them before the condition worsens.
- Ways to cope with a severe condition. Sudden panic attacks or sharply increased anxiety causes a teenager to be unable to cope with his or her environment. In addition, the child may constantly feel uncomfortable or have suicidal thoughts. The nurse’s job is to teach the child how to cope with these conditions. Specifically, the training will focus on practicing reflection and self-reflection. The nurse should also teach techniques for proper breathing, meditation, and keeping a thought journal. It is also important to impart knowledge on how to take medications correctly and how to determine their effectiveness.
Description of mHealth app
An app that will be helpful to this teenager is the CBT Tools for Healthy Living, Self-Help Mood Diary. It is a unique app that allows one to track one’s health goals and overcome anxiety. The app’s purpose is based on cognitive behavioral therapy techniques to change behavior and gradually reduce the severity of symptoms of depression and anxiety (Excel at Life, n.d.). The app will help a teenager track changes in his or her condition and record them to track the retreat of the disorder visually. Judging by the reviews, the app’s audience is primarily young people under 30-35, but teens are also quite common. The app is on Google Play and is available for Android users. For iPhone users, a side application of this developer is available – CGT: Thought Diary.
References
Excel at life. (n.d.). CBT tools for healthy living. Google Play. Web.
Mullen, S. (2018). Major depressive disorder in children and adolescents. The Mental Health Clinician, 8(6), 275–283. Web.