Case Study of Mark: Trauma Informed Care and Substance Abuse

Running head: CASE STUDY OF MARK
CASE STUDY OF MARK
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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CASE STUDY OF MARK
Introduction:
Trauma informed care is not a therapy, intervention or a specific action. It is mainly an
approach that helps in engaging people who have histories of trauma. This help to recognize the
presence of trauma symptoms and acknowledge the role that trauma had played in the lives of
the patients. Trauma can be described as the extreme stress that overwhelms the ability of an
individual to cope (Hales et al., 2017). This can be an event as well as the series of events or a set
of circumstances that harm the physical or emotional well-being of a person. This assignment
will show how mental healthcare professionals can use the trauma informed care and practices
called TICP to provide quality care to patients and help them develop quality lives through the
analysis of the case study of Mark.
Three issues identified that led to problematic use of substance abuse:
One of the issues that were identified to be one of the concerns that led to substance
abuse disorder is the lack of idea about what had happened with his health. During that time,
there was lack of awareness among the people in the communities about occurrence of mental
health disorders and that there were interventions which could help in overcoming it. Hence, the
lack of awareness among people as well as within Mark himself resulted in the failure of
identifying the mental health disorder and as such no treatment was conducted to help Mark
overcome this condition (Kirst et al., 2017). This particular situation of not being able to
understand what about the correct interventions that could help made Mark confused as well as
restless. This uncertainty of the health issues resulted in a mental pressure on Mark. Therefore,
he might have tried to overcome such feelings of uncertainties and for this reason he must have
taken the help of substances like cocaine. Many of the studies have revealed that often

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individuals take in the habit of taking drugs for escaping their reality as drugs help them to
overcome the stress and provided an alternative reality of pleasure of the individuals. In such
situation, the important principle of trauma informed care is ensuring transparency and
trustworthiness. This principle talks about the importance of providing full and accurate
information to the client about what is happening to the patient and what it is likely to happen
next (Weiss et al., 2017). Studies are of the opinion that when healthcare professionals share
enough information to the patient about their present health condition and what they might face
next time results in overcoming stress and anxiety among the client. Getting information at the
right time about his health issues would have helped Mark to feel aware of her mental health
condition and this could have helped him to understand how to cope with the situation. Hence,
this principle of TICP could have helped him to develop mental stability and he would not have
abuse cocaine to overcome the stress.
Another issue that could have contributed to the development of substance abuse disorder
is the development of mental illness which actually took away his urge to participate in sports
anymore. The development of mental illness had made him not to continue his sports, which was
physically demanding and mentally exhausting. He had been of the opinion that he was out from
sports for a long time after he broke out in front of his mother of not being able to carry on with
his sports commitments (Lang et al., 2016). This provided with huge amount of time where he
had no works to do and felt bored of the life. This might have contributed to free time providing
him the opportunities to engage in drugs. What started as a scope for killing time on the Friday
nights gradually engaged him in abusing the substance of alcohol. Studies are of the opinion that
people who are bored are more likely to experiment with and thereby become more addicted
towards illegal substances and alcohol. It has been found that individuals who are “frequently

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bored” increase their chances for the substance abuse by about 50% where boredom was used in
ways like “ “having nothing to do,” “hanging out at malls or on street corners,” or not having
sufficiently stimulating leisure activities”. Hence, in case of Mark, boredom after leaving sport
activities might be one of the contributors for development of the addiction to cocaine. This
could be related to the principle called “safety” in the TICP approaches to mental healthcare.
This principle mainly talks about including spaces where people feel culturally, emotionally and
physically safe and also develop awareness of the discomfort or unease faced by the individuals
(Brown et al., 2017). It can be seen that Mark was not actually in a very happy phase of life and
felt insecure about his life. Often in order to overcome such feelings and to cut out his boredom,
he tried to get resort under the addiction of cocaine. The feeling of insecurity both emotionally
and physically after leaving sports and getting bored made him resort to cocaine consumption.
Another important issue is lack of support from the surrounding environment as well
as from the people who live with him. During the time when Mark became mentally ill, there
was lack of awareness about mental health disorders. People were also not aware about how to
identify mental health illness and how to provide care and support to people who are affected by
mental health disorders (Hanson et al., 2016). Hence, during the time when he had developed
the mental health disorders, he did not get any support or help from any family members,
society, friends and acquaintances. He also feared of talking to any people about his mental
health issues with the fear of being judged or misunderstood (Kassam et al., 2015). The
happiness that he had shown after the attempt of Sane is spreading awareness easily showed that
he was very lonely and helpless when he developed the disorder in his early adulthood. One of
the theories that can be applied here from the TICP approach is the empowerment. This principle
mainly talks about the recognition of the strengths of the individuals and make them feel