Complex Trauma and Mental Health: A Case Study of Lisa

Running head: HEALTHCARE
Mental health
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1HEALTHCARE
Complex trauma can occur due to multiple reasons; it can be a result of a post-
traumatic disorder or PTD or multiple exposures to interpersonal traumas (Briere and Scott,
2015). The reason is very important to identify and at the same time challenging for the
nurses, caregivers and health workers. Nurses play a crucial role in uplifting as well as
promoting the health standards in a community (World Health Organisation, 2019).
Therefore, nurses play a vital role in communicating as well as collaborating with different
health professionals like the pharmacists, general physicians or GPs and health carers and
health workers. Complex trauma care is a critical issue, and cases vary from person to person.
Therefore, it is essential that the nurses and mental health workers come to understand the
person’s problems and views together and hence, Lisa’s case and issues related which has
discussed in detail in the following paragraphs.
In Lisa’s case, according to the given medicinal history, she had been admitted to a
psychiatric hospital last year and had been prescribed anti-psychotic drugs. She had been
visiting a local counsellor for the past six months. However, there were a few apparent issues
when she confronted the local drug service counsellor Jane. Three identifiable issues from the
case of Lisa is: Lisa has been subjected to Auditory and Command Hallucination, as voices
are telling her to protect herself with a knife and sleep in the garden, she further tells that her
boyfriend John has inserted a transmitter in her stomach. Moreover, she has mentioned to the
counsellor she is being spied over by the cameras, in her house, therefore stays outside. These
signs can be an indication of psychosis. She has been lately not taking antipsychotic drugs
correctly, and this aggravates the situation if she continues to avoid taking medications. In
this case, Lisa is having issues with her parents and has also lost connection with her parents.
Therefore, she is not under family care, and it is uncertain.
According to the principles of Trauma-informed care and practice (TICP), it is to
understand that there are main five points: safety of self and others, the impact of the people

2HEALTHCARE
with complex trauma or any issues in the current scenarios are also significant. According to
Moss et al. (2019) it has to understand that the trauma of person is not only substantial or
limited to an individual, but it also has an impact on many families, communities as well as
society.
From the above discussion mentioned the issues that Lisa is facing, the first issue has
great concern over the safety of Lisa and others as she carries a knife with her to protect
herself. Due to the hallucination, and because of hallucination she hears voices. According to
John et al. (2019) various signs and symptoms need to address. Therefore, the voices are
telling her to keep the knife. Keeping a knife with her can be a potential threat to anyone near
her or Lisa can be a threat to herself, which can further lead to complex trauma injury. From
the discussion with the local mental health counsellor, it revealed that she can have psychosis.
Though she had already been in Psychotic hospital, there has been no mention about any
other kind of experience, or the reasons that led her to psychosis. However, the symptoms of
complex trauma are Attachment: In this case, Lisa faces distrust and is highly suspicious of
her surroundings.
Moreover, she is very much agitated with the situation. In cognition, though Lisa can
respond well to all the questions was asked she sounded distracted and lost sometimes.
Similarly, in biological, throughout the video, Lisa was in continuous fidgeting, and her facial
movements were not congruous. The cognitive impairment can lead to various other
problems concerning perception and understanding of the surroundings.
From the second issue, it could be understood that Lisa has stopped taking her anti-
psychotic medicines. This can be one of the reasons she has problems with help regulation