Nursing Assignment: Dual Diagnosis, Elderly Care, Restraints, Ethics, and More

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Name of the Student
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1NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Answer 1
Dual diagnosis is a condition in which two severe mental health problem occurs at the
same time such as an older patient might be affected with depression if he is indulged in
substance abuse. The potential impacts of dual diagnosis includes severe illness, abusive
behavior with social isolation, infection or different physical health issues, suicidal behavior and
anti-social nature. Therefore prioritization of that older person needs are also affected due to
such dual diagnoses. Nursing professionals face the dilemma of applying substantive changes or
application of clinical intervention. This is because dual diagnoses changes the patient’s
preference frequently that affects the application of integrated treatment for the patient (V et al.
2014).
Answer 2
The major concerns of old age are under reconstruction as older adults nowadays are
facing abuse, health and financial problems, substance abuse, ageism, discrimination and social
exclusion. Therefore, counseling or support services provide them with mental and psychological
support that helps to boost their self-esteem. Further, with these interventions, institutionalization
in elderly patient is prevented (Lopez-Hartmann et al. 2012).
Answer 3
counselling is a process through which, people opens up about their pain and stress to a
person who is carefully listening carefully to the concerns and finally provides meaningful
solutions which drives self-esteem in the person going through the process. Therefore role of
bereavement counsellor is to support the older adults in residential aged care facility, who are

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away from their home a psychological support so that they can share their feelings (Hall et al.
2012).
Answer 4
The primary role of Older Persons Mental Health Service (OPMHS) in South Australia is
to provide support to the older adults so their mental health can be maximized. For this purpose,
they work with communities, aged care centers, primary healthcare facilities so that the mental
health condition of such adults can be maintained (Hnederson et al. 2014).
Answer 5
End of life care takes place at the final portion of the patient’s life and in this final
months or weeks, the care process, clinical courses are being followed by the healthcare
professionals. On the other hand, palliative care is inclusive of end of life care and some other
aspects such as improvement of the quality of life. Further, it also includes the interventions that
can reduce the pain of suffering and treats other aspects such as spiritual, physical and mental
issues faced by the patient (Zimmermann et al. 2014).
Answer 6
Physical Restraints: limitation and legal ramification of physical restrains includes
increasing rates of injuries in the patient. The laws provide the healthcare facilities with the right
to apply physical restraints on the patient for their benefit. However, when the applied restrain
injures the patient or lead him to death, it becomes a ramification of the law (Kwok et al. 2012).
Chemical restraints: It is the type of restraint which is used to sedate a patient or limit
his or her movements. The law provides the healthcare facilities with a right that includes ‘with-

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consent’ usage of chemical restraints. However, in care homes these are used unnecessarily that
might affect the patients’ health negatively (Simpson et al., 2014).
Psychological restraints: this type of restrains are used by healthcare professions to
prioritize the need of the patient despite the patient’s emotional or psychological breakdown.
However in aged care facilities, these lawful restraints are used in negative aspect and the mental
and psychological effect of the restraints are not assessed, that leads to the ramification of the
law (Rost et al. 2012).
Answer 7
a. The Advanced Care Directive is a lawful form, which provides a person aged over 18
with the ability to write their wishes, end of life care, palliative care as well as other healthcare
decisions so that during their old age, this can be provided as their consent. As well as it also
appoints a person as a decision maker of the patient in future situation. In aged care facility it can
be used as a patients need or consent depending on which interventions are applied on the patient
(Houben et al. 2014).
b. Aged Care Act 1997 has the objective of providing the aged care centers with funding
s that they can achieve quality of care, refine their level and type of care as well as can ensure
that the care provided by them is affordable and easy to access by the older adults of Australia.
This helps the aged care centers to help the person who are in great need for such services.
c. Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI) us a resource allocation instrument and it
focuses mainly on the care needs of the residents which are generally being used to discriminate