Mental Health Care Plan .

This paper discusses the mental health care planning and implementation for a patient with major depressive disorder and eating disorder. The care plan includes CBT, MCBT, family support therapy and peer support session. The lifestyle improvement or changes that Talaihla can implement in her life will first and foremost include healthy eating, sticking to a sleep cycle and participating in community activities and social interaction sessions to help overcome and avoid any negative thought process leading to suicidal or self-harming thoughts.

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH CARE PLAN
Mental health care plan
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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MENTAL HEALTH CARE PLAN
Table of Contents
Background......................................................................................................................................2
Formulation:....................................................................................................................................3
Care plan:.........................................................................................................................................6
Letter:...............................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................9

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MENTAL HEALTH CARE PLAN
Background:
This paper attempts to discuss in detail the mental health care planning and
implementation for a patient with emphasis on two very important phases of the process of
mental health care, psychosocial formulation and care plan based on the formulation. However,
the first step of the exercise is an in- depth and detailed account of the background information
on the patient. In this case, the case description will be based on the story of Talaihla, a 16 year
old girl suffering from a variety of mental health conditions. Frist and foremost, discussing her
demographic details, Talaihla is a 16 year old girl who had been living with her mother and
autistic brother, while being separated from her father. As discussed by Segal, Williams and
Teasdale (2018), adolescence and teenage can be characterized as a very delicate and fragile time
period of life, especially psychologically as their impressionable minds are highly vulnerable to
be detrimentally impacted by any social stressor. In this case, her parents had been separated and
even though she had a strong bond with her father, she did not share regular communication with
him and only spent the holidays with him. The separation from father can become a huge stressor
for a child, especially in teenage the separation can lead to development of a chronic need for
attention. The impact of the parental separation had been attributed to cause attention seeking
syndrome leading to histrionic personality disorders, which in turn propels the victims to act out
to seek attention and develop depression (Gilbert, 2016).
Elaborating further, Talaihla had been depressed and had been suffering with eating
disorders as well. Social anxiety and withdrawal associated with her body image and appearance
also is a significant issue in here. She shared that she thought she was fat and ugly, which in turn
affected her self-perception and self-worth. The impact of the lack of self-worth often leads to
deteriorated psychosocial health and teenagers can be observed to succumb to outrageous

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MENTAL HEALTH CARE PLAN
activities, including violence, directed on others or themselves (Haberler, 2017). Delving deeper
into her story as per the case study, she had been invited to a school party by a boy in her class
that she liked and it had been a joyous moment for her. However, her mother declined her
request to go out with him when eventually led to the boy getting close to some other girl, about
which Talaihla came to know from the social media posts of the boy. Now as discussed by
Chukhraev et al. (2017), social media undoubtedly plays a fundamental role in the lives of the
young adults and adolescents. The need for validation that social media provides the teenagers
has been proven to be extremely impactful which in turn can also lead to teenagers feeling
distraught and unworthy of they do not receive the validation social media and internet has to
provide. In the case for Talaihla as well, the lack of validation and not being able to connect with
her peers or like her peers, further deteriorated her depression and mood disorders and could
have been a contributing factor to her suicidal attempts at well (Karp, 2016). There is a lot of
information that has been provided, although there is critical information about her that will be
crucial to perform a proper formulation and develop a care plan for Talaihla. The additional
information includes her past medical history, her academic performance before and after being
separated from her father, her behavioural history, any genetic predisposition to psychotic
symptoms as exhibited in both her paternal and maternal family and lastly a mental state
examination to successfully understand her exact issues, symptoms and arrive at a possible
verdict regarding her diagnosis.
Formulation:
The next step of the entire treatment planning procedure is the psychosocial formulation
development. It has to be mentioned in this context that the psycho social formulation serves as a
map for the mental health care professional, guiding them to address the unique and

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MENTAL HEALTH CARE PLAN
individualized needs of a patient, and in turn plan care interventions or actions to address those
identified care needs (Johnstone, 2018). Discussing the definition of the term psychological
formulation, it is a clinical formulation, which is also known as case formulation and problem
formulation, a theoretically-based explanation or conceptualisation of the information obtained
from a clinical assessment. This analysed the care cues that have been collected from the patient
and attempts to connect them in a pattern for a diagnosis can be performed and care interventions
can be provided.
Elaborating more, the formulation provides a hypothesis regarding the cause and nature
of the presenting problems of the patient and serves as an adjunct or alternative approach to the
more conventional or traditional diagnostic approach in psychiatry. While considering the
clinical practice scenario, the psychosocial formulations are also utilized as a tool to
communicate a hypothesis and provide a framework so that the most suitable treatment approach
can be designed for the patient. Hence, undoubtedly psychosocial formulation is an excellent tool
in psychiatric care scenario and It is very abundantly used by clinical psychologists and
psychiatrists. Furthermore, many authors have argued for psychosocial formulation to be a core
component of mental health care professions and formulations to be used by mental health nurses
and social workers as well for planning safe and effective patient centred care for patients.
Hence, in this case as well, I will attempt to put together a psychosocial formulation for Taliahla,
based on which a thorough and patient centred plan of care will be designed for her (Mustaffa et
al., 2014).
The psychosocial formulation in this case will be ideographic, focusing on the uniqueness
of the individual and the complexity of her problems or issues. In this case as well, Taliahla had
been suffering from many mental health issues and in each case, the triggers or the contributing

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MENTAL HEALTH CARE PLAN
factors propelled her towards the suicidal tendencies. The first step of the psychosocial
formulation development is description of the problem. From assessing the issues Talaihla had
been suffering from, two major concerns are major depressive disorder and eating disorder. In
terms of the major depressive disorder, the separation from her father, body image issues and
social isolation in her school contribute massively to her developing major depressive disorder.
Similarly, her depression could also have paved way for developing eating disorders in an
attempt to change her body image and more attention and validation from her peers and her
family (Sa’ad et al., 2014).
Post discussing the problem and why the problems must have developed, the last part of a
formulation is discussing 4 interrelated factors, predisposing, precipitating, perpetuating and
protecting factors, and the relation of each factor with biological, psychological or behavioural
and social aspects.
Factors Predisposing Precipitating Perpetuating Protecting
Biological No factors Eating disorder Starving herself
could have
perpetuated her
suicidal attempt
No factors
Psychological
or behavioural
The lack of
attention from her
family, especially
her father
The constant
feeling of being
ugly and
undeserving could
have precipitated
her suicidal
thoughts
The lack
connection and
imposed
loneliness could
deteriorate her
mental state
Her realizing
the attempt to
be a mistake
and wanting
to go home
Social The separation of
her parents, her
father starting a
new family and
discontinuing
contact with them,
The loss of social
contact, both in
her house and
among her friends,
deteriorated her
mental state and
The loss of self-
worth, feeling
ugly and
unworthy, eating
disorder and loss
of connection
The
connection
she had with
acute care
team worker
and sharing

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MENTAL HEALTH CARE PLAN
and her fall out
with her best friend
facilitated her
depression
symptoms
her friend asking
her to commit
suicide
precipitated and
facilitated her
actions.
friends and
family, if
persists, can
aggravate her
issues.
her
grievances.
Therefore, all different lifestyle factors contributed to the major depressive disorder for
Talaihla and the lack of any support further deteriorated her already fragile mental state. The
suicidal tendencies continue to be a major risk and for mitigation of this risk, a suicide risk
assessment will be provided to her and suicide prevention program will be initiated (Stanciu et
al., 2014).
Care plan:
Based on the formulation that has been developed with respect to Talaihla, a care plan is
an ultimate requirement. As an acute care team worker, the care plan will be divided into two
segments, a therapeutic care plan and a lifestyle change recommendation. First and foremost, the
therapeutic care plan for her must begin with cognitive behavioural therapy, which is also one of
the most abundantly used interventions for depressed or troubled youth to overcome their mental
health issues and re-join their previous life. The cognitive behavioural therapy will be provided
to her in a one to one session in the early phase to ensure optimal focus on the individualized
issues and needs of Talaihla. However, later on, she would also be provided group based
cognitive behavioural therapy sessions. As discussed by Honyashiki et al. (2014), group-based
CBT has been proven to provide hope and strength to troubled youth to overcome any challenge
and rejoin their old life while gaining support from others going through similar issues. Hence, it
can be considered that it will be an excellent intervention for outpatient Talaihla as well.

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MENTAL HEALTH CARE PLAN
The second intervention is mindfulness-based therapies including yoga, meditation and
even mindfulness based cognitive behavioural therapy as well. As mindfulness-based CBT
combines the benefits of both mindfulness-based therapy and meditation or yoga, the beneficial
impact is multiplied multiple folds (Williams et al., 2014). This has been reported to enhance the
holistic understanding of well-being in patients, hence it will be essential for Talaihla. The next
intervention is family therapy or family-based counselling. As per the strength-based recovery
framework, the support network is the ultimate weapon of the mentally ill, especially for the
teenagers. In case of Talaihla, as her mental health concerns have been deep rooted with her
challenging family environment, having both her mother and father providing support can be
exceptionally beneficial for her (Morris, Schueller & Picard, 2015).
Lastly, peer support sessions will be the last intervention give to her. Peer support
sessions, where the mentally ill individuals come together to share their stories, their challenges
and how they overcame it, has been reported to be miraculous in helping struggling depressants
youth find the will and zeal to fight. Talaihla will also be suggested to join peer support group,
although care is to be taken to recommend her to a culturally appropriate and inclusive peer
group (Sundquist et al., 2015).
The lifestyle improvement or changes that Talaihla can implement in her life will first
and foremost include healthy eating. It has to be acknowledged in this context that she already
had been a victim of eating disorder, presumably facilitated by her depression. Healthy eating
coupled with fitness or exercise regime will help her overcome low mood post discharge. The
next recommendation will be sticking to a sleep cycle which will also help her reduce stress and
will help her gain energy and improve mood (Sarris et al., 2014). Lastly, I would also like to

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MENTAL HEALTH CARE PLAN
recommend her to participate in community activities and social interaction sessions to help
overcome and avoid any negative thought process leading to suicidal or self-harming thoughts.
Letter:
Respected sir,
This letter is to inform you regarding the patient named Talaihla, who had been suffering from
major depressive disorders along with eating disorder. She had been admitted to the facility after
overdosing on pill in an attempt to commit suicide. Main contributing factors for her is impaired
social interaction, lack of parental love and support, and body image issues. Her care plan
includes CBT, MCBT, family support therapy and peer support session, each of which she will
need to continue for at least 6 coming months, post this period she will need readjustment of her
care plan based on persisting issues. She will also need to be referred to a dietitian along with
psychotherapist to address her eating disorder. Attention should also be given to antidepressant
medication administration, which is needed to change at least every month. She will need to be
encouraged to participate in various regrouping activities to enhance her community interaction
which in turn will improve her mental state.
Regards,

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MENTAL HEALTH CARE PLAN
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Chukhraev, N., Vladimirov, A., Zukow, W., Chukhraiyeva, O., & Levkovskaya, V. (2017).
Combined physiotherapy of anxiety and depression disorders in dorsopathy
patients. Journal of Physical Education and Sport, 17(1), 414.
Gilbert, P. (2016). Depression: The evolution of powerlessness. Routledge.
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Mustaffa, S., Aziz, R., Mahmood, M. N., & Shuib, S. (2014). Depression and suicidal ideation

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