The Mental Health and trauma care

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH AND TRAUMA CARE
MENTAL HEALTH AND TRAUMA CARE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1MENTAL HEALTH AND TRAUMA CARE
Assessment 3 – Eva and Armin Case Study
1. Read the case study and answer the questions that follow. Ensure your answers are
evidence‐based.
a. When individuals are accessing or receiving services for trauma, why might this have
the unintended consequence of causing more trauma?
Ans:When an individual is accessing or receiving services for trauma, it tries to treat the
psychological health disorder that is triggered by a past scary event, or a series of events. The
particular person may have symptoms, which include flashbacks, nightmares or even severe
anxiety. These in turn may again arouse uncontrollable thoughts about the past events and
cause more trauma. Like in this case, Eva coming close to any such people or event to whom
she may relate her past events, and the treatment as well may cause more trauma for her1.
b. What rights does Eva have as an individual accessing services for trauma?
Ans:Mental health consumers as Eva or any other individual while accessing certain
services for trauma are entitled to certain rights. These include assessment, support whenever
required, care of the person, proper treatment and evaluation. Rehabilitation and continuous
services, which help in facilitating support and recovery, wellbeing of the patient. The
treatment of each and every individual on an equal basis2.
c. What are Eva’s responsibilities?
Ans: Eva has a two-year-old child, so as a mother first of all she has huge responsibility
towards the particular child. As a client the responsibility of Eva is to ensure that she stays
1Gabbe, Belinda J., et al. "Reduced population burden of road transport–related major trauma after
introduction of an inclusive trauma system." Annals of surgery 261.3 (2015): 565.
2 Bateman, Jenna, C. Henderson, and C. Kezelman. "Trauma-informed care and practice: Towards a
cultural shift in policy reform across mental health and human services in Australia. A national
strategic direction." Mental Health Coordinating Council (2013).

2MENTAL HEALTH AND TRAUMA CARE
away from any traumatized experience related to childcare. She also needs to pay attention to
the instructions provided to her by the nurses so that she can recover herself and ensure that
the mistakes made previously are not repeated again. She also needs to keep contact with
people belonging to her social status along with maintaining a good relationship with Armin.
d. Would you describe Eva’s trauma as complex trauma? Explain
Ans:Complex trauma includes both exposure to multiple traumatic events, many a times
which are invasive or interpersonal in nature, resulting in extensive, long stretch effects of the
contact. The events are stark and unescapable in nature such as abuse or even neglect. In this
case, Eva also had to face a lot of trouble and physical abuses were part of her past
experiences, which has already a heavy impact on her mental condition, out of which, she has
been in isolation for so many days3.
e. How has trauma affected Eva in the long term?
Ans: Eva was diagnosed with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Eva lost her
father at a very early age due to social violence. She is unable to cope up social situations and
is very isolated. In her past Middle East war torn country her family belonged to a minority
community and her family members were often beaten up. These traumatic experiences,
countingquantity and harshness of trauma one has gone through, inherits various features and
psychologicalwell-beingdangers such as a family history of anxiety and depression4. These
may ultimately lead to the experience of intense or long-lasting trauma.
f. What impact might the violence witnessed by Eva in her home country have on her
current trauma?
3 Mitchell, Rebecca J., et al. "Comparative analysis of trends in paediatric trauma outcomes in New
South Wales, Australia." Injury 44.1 (2013): 97-103.
4Muskett, Coral. "Trauma‐informed care in inpatient mental health settings: A review of the
literature." International journal of mental health nursing 23.1 (2014): 51-59.

3MENTAL HEALTH AND TRAUMA CARE
Ans: Eva witnessed violence in her own country where her family parents were beaten,
and even killed by the local community. She has escaped and moved to Australia, and it has
been six years since then. But, the repetitive thoughts of the violent events and the isolation
that she is in leads to the mental health problems like post trauma stress disorder, and lead to
experience of intense long lasting trauma. Are there common beliefs and attitudes towards
people who have experienced interpersonalviolence? How does this affect their treatment?
Ans:Common beliefs and attitudes are always present towards people who have
experienced interpersonal violence. In this case,violence affected Eva in her native country,
where the locals even killed her father. The escape to Australia, even led to the loss of her
mother and sibling5. So during treatment also there are chances that, stereotypical attitudes
and behavior of sympathy, emotional feeling may appear with the patient, in turn it may
cause serious problems in the treatment.
g. In what ways did Eva learn to cope with her trauma? Would you describe these ways
as typicaltrauma related coping strategies?
Ans: Eva took the ways to cope up with her trauma, in a typical way. She had long lasting
effects of depression due to the past experiences that she had, in her home country, where she
and her family received torture and physical abuses, in the war ridden country of middle east.
She also lost her mother and sibling, while escaping to Australia. She had no relatives in
Australia and did not work outside home. For the past six years, Eva has become increasingly
withdrawn and isolated. Later it was discovered that in order to cope up with depression and
anxiety, she was taking far more medication than described. She was doing this
unintentionally as it was put down to forgetfulness and out of desire to block out her pain.
h. Is trauma prevalent in the general population, and amongst service users? Explain
5Gruen, Russell L., Ian G. Jacobs, and Michael C. Reade. "Trauma and tranexamic acid." Med J
Aust 199.5 (2013): 310-311.