Nursing Care Plan, Case Study of a Mental Illness Patient

NURSING CARE PLAN, CASE STUDY OF A MENTAL ILLNESS PATIENT
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Nursing Care Plan, Case Study of a Mental Illness Patient
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NURSING CARE PLAN, CASE STUDY OF A MENTAL ILLNESS PATIENT
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Nursing Care Plan, Case Study of a Mental Illness Patient
This assignment defines and discusses the nursing interventions for a patient with a long
term mental illness problem. To achieve that, a systematic approach in the nursing process will
be used while identifying all the roles played by mental health nurses in patient care. The
nursing process will be structured into several stages: the assessment stage, the planning stage,
the implementation and the evaluation stage. The problem-solving method will be used to plan,
organize and table all nursing interventions to be involved in the entire care plan. The patient’s
profile will be given in a detailed manner to enable the audience to understand the rationale
behind the care plan. Because it’s a mental health care scenario, mental assessment planning will
be addressed in a detailed manner as well. To ensure that the planning and interventions are
patient-centred, active client participation will be encouraged over the entire process. The client
profile will have a pseudonym (Benard). This is drawn from the Nursing and Midwifery Council
which encourages confidentiality when dealing with health-related information. The importance
of a Multi-Disciplinary Team in patient-centred care will be discussed to safeguard patient and
enhance the quality of the care.
Benard is an old man at the age of 70 years who was diagnosed with severe depression
and excessive intake of alcohol. According to section three of the mental health act of 1983,
Benard had been detained and admitted into a low secure unit 12 months ago with an offence of
attempted suicide and physical assault. The attempted suicide was to be done through an
overdose of his depression and insomnia prescribed medication. In the unit, Benard shares the
room with four men. He has been potentially active because he manages his daily chores and
attends his daycare sessions as expected. Benard recently turned reluctant as far as personal

NURSING CARE PLAN, CASE STUDY OF A MENTAL ILLNESS PATIENT
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hygiene was concerned. The situation worsened when he started to skip bathing and washing his
clothes for a number of days. He stopped cleaning his room after some time which made it have
a bad odour especially because of his leg ulcers which he had initially denied Tissue Viability
Nurse to dress regularly
The odour in his room was as a result of denying the TV nurse to wash and monitor her
wound dressing for days. A previous meeting held to discuss issues surrounding his hygiene
revealed that his poor hygiene was hazardous to his own health as well as the health of the staff
members who frequently visited his room. When Benard did not attend the daycare sessions, he
could watch television the whole day. He also had a vast appetite which made him frequently ask
for additional food during the meal times. The other behaviour which proved his huge appetite is
the frequency in which he requested for tea and biscuits between the meal times. According to a
research by Järvholm et al (2018), frequent binging is a poor eating pattern, the eating pattern of
Benard could be seen as a poor eating pattern. During the review meeting, concerns were raised
about his fast weight gain. With time, Benard becomes very withdrawn and wanted to be alone
most of the times. In an interview he took place; he articulated that he was feeling useless and
helpless before the other people he was interacting with. He confessed to having a feeling that
his poor hygiene was the reason behind his peers looking down upon him.
Benard had been referred to the clinic where I was working during my nursing practice
for five days prior in order to facilitate his discharge. He was to undergo a psychosocial
assessment from the mental health nurse at my assigned ward and hence I took an active role in
the process. The psychosocial assessment was considered to be a good therapeutic to Benard
because it was his first chance to express different aspects of his problems. The psychosocial

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assessment was also important because it would enable the development of a person-centred care
plan which would stabilize the condition of Benard and improve his quality of life. The most
effective care plans are those which take person-centred approach supported by recovery models
which are also person-centred because the medical practitioners are able to explore client
feelings, thoughts and lives to enable them to discover a more acceptable sense of self.
According to the Beck Depression Inventory, Benard indicated a high depression score of
19/21 which signalled that he might have been suffering from a depression disorder. However,
because of the high possibility of exaggeration and client under presentation of symptoms in this
score, the results from the inventory have only used a guideline (Townsend and Morgan, 2017).
Research by the Department of Health Australia revealed that active care management and
targeted assessment promoted the independence of older people through the prevention of health
deterioration and management of crises. Further, the research revealed that proper assessments
reduced demand for health services by ensuring that services remain appropriate to patient needs.
To address the depression disorder faced by Benard, the National Service Framework
(NSF) and the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) standards were used. NSF guides
medical practitioners on proper approaches when dealing with older adults while NICE focuses
on the general management of people with depression. The guidelines from the two research
institutes set clear proposals which can be used to promote partnership working, tackle social
exclusion, upholding high standards care and provision of safe, quick and supportive services to
depression victims (Petersen et al, 2016, p.30).
According to a research by Djukanović, Sorjonen, and Peterson (2015), it has been
revealed that depression disorder in elderly people is hard to detect because most of them