Mental Health: Assessment and Recovery

RUNNING HEAD: MENTAL HEALTH 0
Mental
Health
September 7
2019
Student’s
Details-

MENTAL HEALTH 1
Question 1
This essay is based on the case study of Lucinda who is 22 years old women gave birth to
a daughter 8 months ago and had faced difficulties during her delivery and she is stressed about
her unborn baby as she gets pregnant again. Therefore, the mental status of Lucinda is crucial for
a nurse. Mental Status Assessment is concerned with the examination examining of attributes of
the patient such as appearance, insight, behavior and mood, level of consciousness and cognitive
component of the patient (Asghar-Ali & Boyle, 2018). Similarly, when examining the mental
status of Lucinda it is crucial to determine the components of MSE. First component that could
be taken for the assessment could be the appearance. Appearance relates how a person looks and
the ability of that person for taking care of own self (Reis, Wheeler, Spiegel, Kernis, &
Nezlek, 2018). However, the appearance of Lucinda is quite well as she was well groomed
when she entered into the perinatal health service center. For making further diagnosis, nurse
clarifies the symptoms of Lucinda using Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder
(DSM-5) which is used as a guidebook for the evaluation and determinations of treatments given
to the patients (American Psyciatric Association, 2013). Through, it can be analyzed that the
condition of Lucinda falls under the criteria ‘depressive disorder’ which is determined by the
examination of behavior, mood and attitude of Lucinda. Thereafter, the condition is matched
with the score of PROMIS and if the score is higher, then it is determined that Lucinda’s mental
status has the presence of depressive disorder and suitable diagnosis can be given as per the
treatment of depressive disorder.
Further, second component that needs to be evaluated to determine the mental status of
Lucinda is behavior and mood. Behavior of the person is determined by the facial expressions,
ability to create engagement and the actions and thoughts. However, the behavior of Lucinda is
determined by the fact that she was unable to make eye contact with the nurse as she was
continuously staring at the floor. Further, Lucinda prefers to be along and does not make
interactions with others (Pollard, 2018). Further, the second criterion for the mental status
Lucinda under DSM-5 is ‘trauma and stress related disorder’ which can be assessed from the fact
that she has been gone through stress in the past where she had suffered a lot due to painful
delivery and often face difficulties in bringing up her daughter. Moreover, DSM-5 is the

MENTAL HEALTH 2
collection of mental disorders along with their symptoms (Cherry, 2019). It helps nurse to
understand the diagnosis by comparing it with the symptoms and helps in the right treatment of
the patient (Evans, Nizette, & O'Brien, 2016). However, in the past, Lucinda has a painful
delivery and also has a doubt that she is unable to undertake proper care of her daughter.
However, she often gets more stressed when she gets pregnant again. She is unable to sleep and
feel unmotivated. Therefore, the mental status of Lucinda has prevalence of trauma and stress
related disorder and the diagnosis can be given according to her condition.
Question 2
Stress-Vulnerability model describes the effects or causes of the mental disorder and how
a person’s wellbeing deteriorates by the time (Calvete, Orue, & Hankin, 2015). In this, two
factors are considered stress and vulnerability which describes how a person gets vulnerable to
the mental illness. In this model, stress is described as the outcome of the challenges or problems
in the routine activities (Fisher, 2015). Biological vulnerability is the second aspect in this
model which is described as the outcome to be achieved or attained through the early life
experiences that a person faces. Similarly, the first contributing factor in the mental status of
Lucinda is the stress. Stress is concerned with the inner feeling that is developed as a result of the
hardships or challenges that are faced during the daily life activities of an individual (Janis,
2016). As a result, the person suffering from stress loses meaning in life and often feels anxious
in living his daily life and subsequently suffering from depression. Similarly, stress as a
contributing factor for the mental condition of Lucinda has arose due to the fact that she had a
baby with 9 months and simultaneously she gets pregnant again which led her to the stress. She
is feeling anxious because she had been in trouble while the upbringing of Emily who is her 9
months old daughter. She fears about the delivery of unborn baby. Due to this, she is suffering
from sleepless nights, lack of involvement and has lost meaning in life.
Further, trauma is considered to be another contributing factor leading to the mental
illness of Lucinda. Trauma is expected to be occurred due to life event stressors and is generally
the result of past negative experiences and factors such as previous anxiety, history of trauma
and other painful incidences are the leading factors in the trauma (Caruth, 2016). Similarly,
Lucinda has been traumatized for the early life events that occurred with respect to her daughter.