Approach to Treatment Psychologist Use

Choose a case study and propose an approach to treatment that a psychologist might use. You will need to conduct some outside research for this project. Keep your answer between 500-1,000 words.

Case 1

The boy is 5 years old. When someone speaks to him, he turns his head away, and sometimes he mumbles unintelligibly. He dislikes sounds and does not communicate. In addition, he cannot relate to others and avoids looking anyone in the eye. He cannot use the toilet nor feed himself, and he actively resists others touching him. He often engages in routine manipulative activities, such as dropping an object, picking it up, and dropping it again. He repetitively plays with the same toys for months, lining items in rows; collecting objects such as bottle tops; and insisting on having two of all items, one in each hand. He shows a pathological need for sameness. While seated, he often rocks back and forth in a rhythmic motion for hours. Any change in routine greatly upsets him.

Case 2

A 73-year-old widow comes in with her daughter for an examination. The mother lives alone in another part of the city, 40 minutes from her daughter, and she continues to drive. The daughter reports that her mother has become more disoriented during telephone conversations. In addition, discussions with the mother’s friends reveal memory lapses and inappropriate decisions. Upon examination, the patient appears alert and cooperative, and she does not seem depressed. She denies any problems and minimizes wrong answers and memory lapses. The patient’s hypertension is treated with an ACE inhibitor. Her neurological examination comes back normal, and her gait appears normal as well. She shows no precipitous or stepwise decline in her mental function. Her symptoms have developed slowly, with memory, orientation, and drawing (construction) difficulties.

Case 3

The staff at a local hospital admitted the patient to the nursing home 3 weeks earlier, after she had sustained a fall and developed a urinary tract infection. On the ward, those who worked with her noted that she seemed confused. After admission to the nursing home, the patient became restless and combative with staff. She acted with particular hostility toward one male resident, the one whom she attacked. At night, she kept shouting, “Keep him away.” In addition, she often refused her meals and had lost 5 kg in weight. A visiting community psychiatric nurse performed the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) [1] on which the patient scored 16 out of 30 (normal score is 24 and above), but the nurse also noted she seemed distractible and distressed. The patient’s family became upset because their mother’s behavior did not match her usual character. They described her as “calm and always seeing the best in people.” The patient has a history of hypertension and probably neglected her treatment prior to hospitalization.

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ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

 

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
  • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.