Risk Assessment Scenario
Part 1
Brenden is a 16-year-old who has been forcefully admitted into a rehabilitation center to stop drug addiction and abuse (Hom et al., 2016). He has been abusing drugs and substances for the last five years, causing his parents to take him to rehabilitation centers to achieve proper health. Based on his information to the specialists, he has been using hard drugs, including cocaine, bhang, and heroine. Ideally, he is prone to experience various withdrawal symptoms as a result of his treatment plan. Therefore, specialists are concerned that these symptoms may affect positive outcomes.
Ideally, Brenden is exposed to treatment practices that allow him to radically stop using drugs and substances to regain a healthy state. While this process is significantly helpful, social workers and psychologists need to perform a risk assessment for various reasons continually. The risk assessment focuses on the possibility of suffering harm or loss directly with the patient and other individuals in their surroundings. Essentially, Hom et al. (2016) inform that youths and adults are prone to committing suicide, especially when denied access to drugs. The majority of this population is identified to abuse drugs to escape their daily struggles and frustrations. In this case, Brenden may experience suicidal thoughts or commit suicide. Regular risk assessments enable the professionals to track and monitor the evolving suicide risk in the patient and determine the degree of probability of occurrence. This way, they can create relevant frameworks to protect Brenden from experiencing that feeling.
Hom et al. (2016) identify that the rehabilitation environment often leads patients to experience depression an increased stress levels. Usually, these centers focus on ensuring that the patients are separated from the societal members and drug abuse. This framework is identified to enable patients to pursue the desired goals conveniently. Despite that, since the members are isolated from their daily activities and people, they are prone to feel lonely. This situation results in depression and high-stress levels, which is fundamentally not healthy for Brenden. Depression affects an individual’s well-being by causing them to have poor dietary and sleeping patterns. Thereby, Brenden will be less productive in his personal relations and activities. Most often, such patients are prone to experiencing mental illness linked to their depression and stress episodes. In this case, the professionals need to assess the possibility of stress or depression in Brenden (Hom et al. 2016). Through constant assessments, they can track the patient’s behavior and identify the extent to which they experience such symptoms. This way, they will achieve a practical treatment plan that is relevant to the patient’s needs.
Also, drug rehabilitation can cause the individual to engage in violent activities. Hom et al. (2016) inform that the rehabilitation program often exposes individuals to experience mood swings that cause an individual to act impulsively. This situation can cause harm to not only Brenden but also the people and things surrounding the patients. This way, he is prone to engaging in practices that may affect their health or another person. Also, Hom et al. (2016) inform that the combination of withdrawal symptoms like mood swings, anxiety, sleeplessness, and depression have adverse effects on patients’ mental health, especially when not effectively addressed. Thereby, Brenden is exposed to various health risks that may affect his mental health. This way, they require thorough assessments to keep up with their various behaviors and identify any potential health risks.
In most cases, a single withdrawal symptom may not cause serious risks to the patient. However, these symptoms, when combined, result in significant risks that may affect the mental and physical concerns of Brenden. Such risks affect the patient’s recovery process since they have greater consequences on the human body (Hom et al. 2016). Thereby, most counselors and specialties focus on maintaining a constant dialogue with their patients by asking them questions and engaging them in various discussions. This process enables them to track their performance and identify any potential risk from a patient’s treatment. Also, Constant communications help the patients to avert negative thoughts like suicide and wrong behavior. Finally, regular communications provide a support system to the patient, enabling them to experience fewer cases of loneliness and seclusions. This way, they will experience low-stress levels and depression cases.
Despite that, this patient’s treatment process relies on constant assessments to understand possible risks (Hom et al. 2016). In most cases, patients reflect various forms of risks which are relative based on their circumstances. Regardless, these risks often cause negative consequences to the patients and their environment. Therefore, counselors and other specialists need to engage in various approaches to conduct relevant risk assessments. This will enable then to manage the present issues exposed to patients by creating a sustainable healthcare plan.
Part 2
Poor sleeping habits
Ideally, sleeping patterns define an individual’s physical and emotional situation. This way, a counselor or specialist can identify if a person is depressed (McEvoy et al., 2016). For instance, depressed people often experience insomnia, a conditional that causes sleeplessness. They stay awake or sleep for fewer hours during the night and often wake up repeatedly. Such behavior can help a specialist realize that a patient is experiencing depression, thus ascertain the possibility of risks associated with depression.
Vague complains to the healthcare specialists.
Most often, patients report various aches and pains that are barely established by healthcare providers. McEvoy et al. (2016) identify that this is a common scenario, especially among individuals that struggling with various problems. Primarily, unexplained pain and aches are key symptoms of depression. If this condition is diagnosed, a specialist can help the patient manage possible risks created by the condition. However, in cases of rehabilitation, a patient may complain of vague symptoms to express discomfort in the institution. This way, a counselor is able to establish the risks that are associated with this behavior. This includes suicide, depression, or violent activities to express their emotions.
Anti-social behavior
Some patients often experience withdrawal, whereby they choose to be alone. Thus, they avoid social interactions and activities, or even their friends (McEvoy et al., 2016). This includes the company and activities they previously enjoyed interacting with. Such activities enable counselors to identify that their patients are experiencing depression. Most often, this behavior results in suicidal thoughts or potential risk of harming themselves. This way, they can prevent extreme safety risks among patients.
Part 3
Essentially, assessing the client’s risk probability focuses on behavioral assessment. Flanagan & Shaw (2017) identify that patients do not always express their emotions through one on one conversations. This way, counselors need to track their behavior to determine their emotions or thoughts. Through behavioral psychology, counselors track their client’s behavior and associate them to various environmental conditions. This involves a continuous study of behavior patterns to predict a patient’s actions. In most cases, behavior influences thoughts and feelings, which reveal an individual’s attitude and values. Some behaviors may be more consistent since they are associated with an individual’s personality and temperament (Flanagan & Shaw, 2017). However, at times, an individual’s behavior may be shaped by their environmental conditions. This way, counselors can study an individual’s behavioral attitudes and establish informed approaches toward understanding clients.
Also, counselors engage their clients in direct conversations that enable them to assess them. Most often, specialists do not have sufficient time to track their clients’ behavioral patterns (Flanagan & Shaw, 2017). Thereby, one on one conversations will be integrated into the assessment process to gather relevant information. These conversations mostly involve random topics that are usually initiated by the counselor. For instance, the specialist may focus on questions like, “have you seen a counselor before?” Based on the client’s response, a counselor can structure the conversation, which essentially focuses on ensuring the client is comfortable enough to engage in the conversation. The counselor then continues to talk about the problem by first identifying how the client feels about their condition. This may result in questions like “how does the make you feel?” Once the counselor establishes a general understanding of the problem from the client’s perspective, he is required to initiate more questions to understand the client’s emotional aspect (Flanagan & Shaw, 2017). This way, he is prone to asking questions that touch on the patient’s mood and the things the patient would want to change in their lives. Thus, the counselor may ask the client questions like “Do you mind describing your mood” or “In case you had magic, what would you change in your life.”
Notably, the conversations are not necessarily limited to the client’s condition Flanagan & Shaw, 2017). This means that the counselor can ask questions regarding topics that are not parallel to the client’s problems. This way, he could focus on topics like politics, books, climate change, or any discussion that pleases the client. This approach enables the counselor to obtain sufficient information from the client to identify relevant approaches in assessing potential risks. Additionally, these topics help the counselor and client to connect and build trust with one another. This enables the client to open up and reveal his natural emotions easily.
The risk assessment process follows a protocol that is based on a client’s reaction. Usually, the counselor initiates the process by asking random questions to ascertain a discussion that is more relatable to the client (Flanagan & Shaw, 2017). Based on the client’s responses, the counselor can continue with a discussion or change the topic to that which is more favorable with the client. For instance, the counselor may ask the client, “how was your day?” The client may respond that the day was well or bad. With that, the counselor would ask the activities the client engaged in or, instead, what made the day good or bad. Such a protocol enables the specialist to sustain a productive conversation, which essentially focuses on the client’s perspectives.
During then, the specialist is supposed to document the conversation by using practical methods. Primarily, the counselor may note significant points in a notebook (Flanagan & Shaw, 2017). This enables the specialist to record vital information that could be used later for study and analysis. However, this process may make the client feel uncomfortable, especially when the specialists ask many questions. Also, the counselor may consider other documentation processes like recording the conversation without knowing the client. This process is more practical since it allows the conversation to occur naturally without any fear of scrutiny or investigation. Afterward, the information can be later studied and analyzed to assess possible risks.
Resources
Hom, M. A., Joiner Jr, T. E., & Bernert, R. A. (2016). Limitations of a single-item assessment of suicide attempt history: Implications for standardized suicide risk assessment. Psychological Assessment, 28(8), 1026.
McEVOY, J. O. H. N., & McGUIRE, B. R. I. A. N. (2016). Risk assessment. In The handbook of intellectual disability and clinical psychology practice (pp. 847-878). Routledge.
Sommers-Flanagan, J., & Shaw, S. L. (2017). Suicide risk assessment: What psychologists should know. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 48(2), 98.