Individual Determinants of Health

This assessment focuses on the individual determinants of health and explores the case of Lauren, a 16-year-old girl with asthma, mobility issues, and excessive alcohol consumption. It discusses the helpful and unhelpful actions of her counselor, Rob, and suggests theoretical techniques for motivating Lauren towards a healthy lifestyle.

Running head: INDIVIDUAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH
Topic: INDIVIDUAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Identification of Laurel’s problematic behavior
The given assessment revolves around Lauren who is a 16 year old girl. The main
issues affecting Lauren and her daily activities are the consideration of her asthma and
required management, physical activity, as well as alcohol consumption. Moreover she also
has been suffering from mobility issues regarding movements in her arm due to amputation
under an elbow as a result of accidents. Most of the times Lauren has been irritable as well as
anxious. According to the interactive session with her general practitioner it has been found
that she has been suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome as well as glandular fever. Her
poor performance in school is an indication of her low spirits and disinterest in her daily life.
In spite of being referred to her counsellor, Lauren has chosen not to visit her. Lauren is
basically asthmatic and her fracture in her left wrist affects her mobility causing difficulties in
her life affecting the activities of daily living.
The problematic behavior which has been associated mainly with the current situation
of Lauren is excessive alcohol consumption. It has been seen that she has undergone an
accident with her friends which has led to traumatic experiences in her life which has
specifically been post-accident. She also has been suffering from asthma and due to the
combination of the two factors she has been suffering from depression. Simultaneously she
has been following a sedentary lifestyle and do not engage in any physical activities. Such
reasons has subsequently lead to an increase in her body weight. Such obesity related issues
have increased difficulties in her social interaction and most of the times she has been feeling
depressed (Pratt & Brody, 2014). Moreover, due to heavy drinking with her friends she has
been feeling heavy which has simultaneously affected her activities of daily living. She has
been missing her regimes on asthma which is a result of the negative impact of alcohol
consumption. She has been advised to broaden her social activities and friend circle and
introduce physical exercise in her daily routine which she has not followed. All these changes

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in her lifestyle has been brought about due to increased alcohol consumption. The social
determinants of health affected here are health as well as social and mental well-being.
Useful actions of Rob activating Lauren’s desire for a healthy lifestyle
Rob has been the counsellor of Lauren and played a pivotal role in making Lauren
realize her faults in her sedentary lifestyles. Moreover, she has also helped her to cope up
with her low moods and irritable behavior giving helpful suggestions and advising her on the
best possible methods to get rid of her problems. In one of the sessions he has said that he
would advise her to follow the information given in the pamphlets. Moreover he has advised
her about the benefits of regular exercise. According to him, the friend circles she has been
hanging out with have increased her addiction towards alcohol. His information on the
distribution of pamphlets have been useful for Lauren as she has been instigated to follow a
regular lifestyle. Rob has also shown understanding and sympathy towards her patient as he
usually would digress form the topic whenever Lauren felt uncomfortable talking about the
issues. Rob has pointed out that her behavior is the main issue for her increased alcohol
consumption and her sedentary lifestyle. Thus he would feel that her friend circle have been
important in making her feel like that. He has also made her realize that drinking activities
could cause various problems. Moreover obesity and her asthma management could be
responsible in making her be tired.
Unhelpful actions of Rob demotivating Lauren
Rob although being the main counsellor for the sedentary lifestyles of Lauren have
shown actions and commented on issues which has demotivated Lauren. First he has shown
breach of confidentiality where he had promised Lauren that he would not reveal the
information regarding assumption of alcohol to Lauren. However, he did not respect Lauren’s

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decision and revealed the information to her parents including his step father David.
Moreover, he found that Lauren was not in good terms with their step father but still he
continued with the issues of alcohol consumption along with depression. Rob knew that
David treated Lauren badly but still he would not consider her feeling during the interactive
sessions of Lauren with their children. Rob even pushed Lauren sometimes regarding the
issue of substance use as well as asthma. Rob insisted strongly for following a healthy
lifestyle which seemed demotivating and inappropriate to Lauren. Instead Rob should have
used different strategies of persuading Lauren to follow a regular healthy lifestyle. Moreover,
Rob also insisted on gathering information regarding the personal life of Lauren. Lauren
expressed disinterest regarding the issue involving the relationship between her mother and
step father along with his father who did not live with them. Moreover, he expressed his
disapproval regarding the choice of friends Lauren had. Thus, Lauren was offended by the
thoughts of Rob and found his advice to be aligned with the thoughts of her step father which
further demotivated her and she started showing disinterest in the conversation. In this
particular interaction the ethical principles of Laure is hurt as her principle of beneficence and
maleficence is being affected. Moreover Rob has considered the physical injuries of Lauren
to be insignificant which irritated. For an instance he says that her injury has been just a low
grade tear which could be healed. Moreover he considered Lauren’s asthma also to be
insignificant. Moreover, the tone of Rob’s comments is sometimes strict which demotivates
Lauren. In another instance Rob forced Lauren to check then pamphlets which he had given
and asked her about her asthma medications. Thus knowing that Lauren is a child still and
often suffers from low mood and depression, he should soften his way on interaction with
Lauren and comfort here. Moreover his approach had been to straightforward which have
been a problem for Lauren. Thus he should have used innovative strategies her recovery.

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Theoretical techniques employed by Rob for motivating Lauren
Rob should follow a friendly approach for making Lauren understand her present
situation. He should also make her realize the unhealthy habits of Lauren in an indirect as
well as informal way. Respecting the personal information of the client is important factor for
subjects like Lauren who get easily demotivated. Moreover he should not force Lauren into
following a strict lifestyle doing exercises and should introduce the issues and highlight them
considering the mental condition of Lauren (Skorvanek etal., 2015). The interview should be
taken in an open and informal friendly manner which would thus motivate Lauren in
following a better and healthy lifestyle. One of the most important methods of therapy which
rob should use for treatment of Lauren is psychodynamic therapy (Leichsenring &
Schauenburg, 2015). It is the kind of treatment for mental diseases where it is mainly
designed for helping patients and helping them explore the various range of their emotions,
which is inclusive of feelings they are not aware of (Leichsenring et al., 2015). Thus it is one
of the ways Rob can motivate Lauren. Psychodynamic therapy along with cognitive
behavioral therapy as well as interpersonal therapy is often effective in patients suffering
from depression and isolation. Another technique for the treatment of Lauren is Motivational
interviewing (Riper et al., 2014). It is considered as a client centered and directive style of
therapeutics which would enhance the readiness of change and thus help clients in resolving
and exploring ambivalence. Over the years a meta-analysis of the clinical trails show that
there is highly variable effectiveness of the process of motivational interviewing across
various target problems, populations, as well as setting which would help Lauren to
understand as well as give specifications for its effectiveness (Satre et al., 2016). The third
theoretical method for improving the cases Lauren faced difficulties in is social inclusion. It
is the process which involves the process of participation of individuals in the society. Such
activities like increased social interactions would help in improvement of the opportunity,

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ability as well as the dignity of people who had been disadvantaged especially in the basis of
their identity. Here, Rob should motivate Lauren to mix with people outside her friend circle
and especially those who would influence her positively. He has to ensure that Lauren
recovers from her unhealthy lifestyle and this can only happen by mixing with right people
who would motivate her in doing physical exercise and maintain a healthy lifestyle in a
positive and useful way.

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References
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Pratt, L. A., & Brody, D. J. (2014). Depression and obesity in the US adult household
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