Mental Health Case Analysis of Alison

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
MENTAL HEALTH CASE ANALYSIS OF ALISON
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1NURSING ASSIGNMENT
The primary aim of this paper is to reflect on the case scenario of Alison, who is 38
year old and mother of two children and has been diagnosed as the sufferer of clinical
depression. While reflecting in this clinical condition of Alison, the clinical reasoning cycle
by Levett-Jones will be implemented (Liou et al., 2016). In the session, Alison mentioned
that her financial condition and her inability to take care of their kids are the primary
concerns due to which she is feeling low and depressed (University of Nottingham, 2012).
She mentioned of working in a supermarket, however, in recent times due to her depression
condition and reduction in wages, her financial condition has been compromised. She also
mentioned that due to her financial lacking, she is unable to meet her kid’s demands of new
games and toys and due to this her bills are continuously increasing (University of
Nottingham, 2012). Besides these there are several stressors due to which her depression
condition is increasing such as her inability as a mother as she mentioned that her kids are
self-sufficient and taking care of their own needs. However, her sister is the protective factor
of her health condition, as it was mentioned that due to her sisters concern she was able to
visit the healthcare facility to seek treatment (University of Nottingham, 2012).
As a mental healthcare professional it is important to assess different factors of
Alison’s mental condition so that the reason of such condition could be obtained and effective
treatment could be provided to the patient to limit her sufferings (University of Nottingham,
2012). In the given scenario, it is important to implement the biophysical approach and as per
Willox et al. (2015), the primary aspect of biophysical approach Mental State Examination
should be implemented. Implementing the MSE in the given patient condition should be done
with the help of General Physician and the findings that could collected from the
implemented MSE mentioned that the appearance of the patient was timid and miserable.
Throughout the interview session she did not make eye contact with the GP and it indicated
towards her lack of confidence and nervousness (University of Nottingham, 2012). Despite

2NURSING ASSIGNMENT
this, her clear thought process and abilities to understand the situation indicated towards
string cognitive abilities. Her speech was broken and she took time to frame her responses
due to her frequent tearfulness. However, due to her mention of suicide her distorted
cognitive thinking could be observed. Further, it was noted that throughout the interview
session, she was tearful, sobbing and hence her mood was very low and gloomy in the entire
process (University of Nottingham, 2012). Despite of multiple feelings regarding harming her
own life at night, she did not performed any of such attempts. Therefore, from the above-
mentioned MSE summarisation, it could be stated that her static risk factor was associated
with her financial burden and loneliness, whereas her episodes of mood swings and lack of
mood could be mentioned as the dynamic risk factor.
After analysing the above-mentioned data and analysing the Mental State
Examination (MSE), DSM-5 should be implemented in the patient assessment so that
accurate assessment could be conducted and it was found that she is suffering from
‘Depression with anxiety disorder’ (Grant et al., 2015). Series of symptoms such as improper
mood, inability to concentrate and focus on her kids’ needs and low and affected thought
process of losing control over life events indicated to the fact that she has developed
depression with anxiety disorder. Further, due to these, she has developed risk factors related
to self-harm, and inability to concentrate on her life (Gold, 2014).
Further analysis related to identification of her healthcare issues as per the clinical
reasoning cycle Dalton, Gee and Levett-Jones (2015) it was obtained that her financial
condition is the primary concern of her mental condition and the concern that this financial
lack could affect her kids growth is another concern of the patient. It was seen that Alison is
concerned that due to her inability to focus on her kid’s needs, her kids may develop thoughts
that could make them feel unsafe around their mother. Further, due to inability to completely
focus on her growth and development, she was concerned that it could affect their education