The notion of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) stands for a health condition the patient struggles with when having faced a stressful experience that later affects one’s cognitive-behavioral patterns. In the following case scenario, Sam is dealing with mental health issues due to his traumatic experience during the Vietnam War, where he was forced to observe deaths and other actions that affect brain function. According to NIMH (2019), the major PTSD symptoms can be divided into avoidance, arousal, re-experiencing, and cognition aspects. In Sam’s case, some of the most widespread symptoms of the following categories are displayed:
- Arousal: aggressive behavior, violent outbursts;
- Re-experiencing: flashbacks, nightmares;
- Cognition: negative thoughts, the feeling of guilt, distancing from the family.
In order to address the issue properly, the following nursing care plan should be implemented. Assessment:
- Sam struggles with insomnia caused by the nightmares and flashbacks to the war;
- Sam is not able to control his behavioral patterns, displaying anger and physical violence;
- San is overwhelmed with subconscious guilt for his behavior, so he maintains a rather distant relationship with family and friends.
The patient is, hence, diagnosed with PTSD that requires immediate medical intervention and psychotherapy. The treatment plan includes the following aspects:
- In the course of the treatment, Sam will be able to control his emotions and anger streaks in particular;
- Sam will start communicating with family and friends in order to become more integrated into his current environment;
- Sam will reach out to the specialists every time he feels like therapy and medications do not help his mental state or sleeping patterns.
The intervention includes:
- Securing that Sam takes medications in time and according to the prescription;
- Checking Sam’s mental condition with a certain frequency;
- Ensuring that Sam is engaged in cognitive behavioral therapy.
Speaking of the latter, CBT is of crucial importance for the PTSD treatment due to its major goal to establish communicative patterns of the patient’s behavior. With such therapy’s help, the patient will no longer be caught up in the experience, focusing on the present experiences instead.
Reference
NIMH. (2019). Post traumatic stress disorder. Web.