Mental Health - Case Study

The treatment plan for the Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) involves psychotherapy as the core component of recovery journey. Individualized recovery plans need to be developed depending on the severity of the patient’s condition. The progress of the recovery journey of Alison would be evaluated through mental assessment post 7-day care program. The behavioral symptoms and her ability to perform daily activities would be observed to measure the recovery process. Counseling regarding the future goals and perspectives of life and care would help to understand the progress through emotional and behavioral recovery. Thus the recovery goals of improving the mental health with a focus on emotional and behavioral improvement would be achieved appreciably through collaborative strategies.

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH - CASE STUDY
MENTAL HEALTH - CASE STUDY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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Introduction
The treatment plan for the Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) involves
psychotherapy as the core component of recovery journey. Individualized recovery plans need to
be developed depending on the severity of the patient’s condition (Arntz et al. 2015). As a part of
7-day home-based care program, I would initially organize for an interview session with Alison
and her family members involving her husband and daughter and her parents; a mental as well as
suicidal assessment would be performed to gather insights about Alison’s present thoughts,
emotions, her abusive relationship status with her husband, her thoughts about her mental illness
and her cooperativeness in treatment to ensure her safety and wellbeing. The interview mode of
assessment would be performed in presence of a clinical expert of borderline personality disorder
and Alison’s general practitioner. The information collected through interview sessions would be
maintained in a well-documented format and later on shared with the service provider team
members to develop a recovery plan.
Reflective Discussion
The five domains of national framework for recovery oriented mental health services
would be taken in consideration while providing holistic care to Alison (Wright and Simms
2015). The recovery program would involve Alison’s daughter and a multidisciplinary team
comprising a general practitioner, psychiatrist, clinical psychologist, nurse, social worker,
occupational therapist. A person-centered approach through optimistic and compassionate
communication with Alison would be provided to foster better understanding about her
strengths, preferences, goals and aspirations; patient and empathetic listening to Alison,
involving and empowering her to take active participation in her decision-making process,

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vocational activities would be performed to instill a culture of hope and self-importance in
Alison (American Geriatrics Society Expert Panel on Person‐Centered Care et al. 2016).
During the recovery journey, the six practice principles of recovery oriented mental
health services would be focused on to allow maintaining self-identity, autonomy and develop a
positive self-hope. Through optimistic and supportive communication, Alison would be
empowered to consider herself at the center of care (principle 1); Alison would be supported that
she needed to consider the opportunities in her life and that she would be capable of taking
meaningful decisions on her own. Instilling in her the belief that she held a valued position in the
community would help her develop self-importance and self-esteem. It would be incumbent
upon the support service providers to listen and consider the patient’s choices and opinions with
patience, paying respect and maintaining dignity (Principle 3). Psychotherapy would be provided
through maintaining Alison’s autonomy; care should be taken to being sensitive and honest and
paying respect to Alison and her decisions and views (principle 4). Care and support services
would be provides in collaboration and partnership with the family members and friends of
Alison in order to build a strong and efficient care network (Principle 5) (Slade et al. 2015).
Efforts would be taken to ensure the development of a healthful relationship between Alison and
her daughter.
The professional boundaries involving physical and emotional space, nonmaleficence or
causing no harm to patient need to be considered; a strong and healthy professional relationship
would be focused while treating Alison (Hem et al. 2018). The building of trust is an important
factor between support service provider and service user. Therefore, it needs to be ensured that a
professional relationship of trust is established between Alison and service providers so as to
promote efficient implementation of recovery plan. The uncomfortable abusive relationship

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between Alison and her husband leading to low behavior communication and her addiction to
marijuana and alcoholism acted as potential barriers in the way of Alison’s wellbeing.
Alcoholism and opioid addiction had been used as self-medication to relieve the stress of
personal relationship; this led to impulsive behaviors and depression with lack of self-concern
and self-care (Conway et al. 2016). Alison’s contact with her community alcoholic friends was
responsible for her further deterioration of mental and emotional stability; collaborative efforts
would be made with the good friends of the community to render support and care to Alison as
part of recovery healing.
As a recovery worker, I would ensure with all the multidisciplinary team members that a
collaborative alliance be made with Alison and engage her in the recovery plan execution.
Collaboration with psychiatrist and clinical psychologist, optimistic, compassionate and sensitive
environment would be created to engage Alison in revealing her strengths, goals, wishes;
emotional formulation assessment would be made to identify the potential triggers for example,
abusive relationship with husband and addiction to alcohol and marijuana (Moxham et al. 2017).
The self-soothing activities need to be arranged; care being taken not to cause any distress
arousal due to identified potential risk triggers like anything related to her husband. Assertive
and empathetic communication should be made in order to build a strong sense of self-
importance and self-worth in community (Yanos et al. 2015). The service providers should
empower Alison to take decisions on her own and support her that opportunities need to be
accepted. Alison’s care support network comprising her parents, daughter and good friends of
the community should be contacted and involved in the recovery program. A healthful friendly
relational bonding would be developed between Alison and her care support network to progress
her mental recovery. The potential behavioral triggers and Alison’s trigger responses would be

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kept in mind while communicating or in any related care activity. Providing psycho- education to
Alison’s support network would serve as positive during her recovery journey.
A risk plan enlisting the risk factors like interpersonal relations, low behavioral states,
previous suicidal attempts, sources and impacts of alcoholism and opioid addiction would be
developed. Various daily life activities and opportunities would be created to allow Alison to
take independent roles of participation, thereby building self-efficacy. This would in turn lead to
motivational development work and life. Efforts and care would be provided to enable Alison
understand the potential ill-effects of addiction on wellbeing, thereby helping her to refrain from
addiction. Vocational activities would be arranged to enable Alison learn about coping skills in
times of risks and opportunity availing (Parker et al. 2016). Building of self-esteem through self-
efficacy development would be a focus in the recovery plan.
As a part of 7-day program, I would collaborate with nurse, occupational therapist and
psychiatrist to help Alison develop independence and self-efficiency in her daily activities. Some
of the daily support services that would be included in the 7-day program involve helping Alison
tidying her room, taking care and sending her daughter to school regularly, helping her to decide
on healthy diet and follow a daily healthy routine, engaging her with the community individuals
and participating in community services. A nurse would be appointed with Alison to assist and
care for her throughout. The occupational therapist would be helping Alison in performing daily
activities with efficiency (Schönfeld et al. 2016). With the collaborative efforts of clinical
psychologist and psychiatrist, care would be taken to promote emotional wellness for Alison;
developing a peaceful and stress-free mental state through positive and assertive communication
would allow Alison to improve her behavioral and emotional states of wellness.

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Conclusion
The progress of the recovery journey of Alison would be evaluated through mental
assessment post 7-day care program. The behavioral symptoms and her ability to perform daily
activities would be observed to measure the recovery process. Counseling regarding the future
goals and perspectives of life and care would help to understand the progress through emotional
and behavioral recovery. Thus the recovery goals of improving the mental health with a focus on
emotional and behavioral improvement would be achieved appreciably through collaborative
strategies.

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References
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