University Essay: Biopsychosocial Needs of a Patient

This essay delves into the biopsychosocial needs of a patient encountered during a clinical placement, focusing on a smoker and obese individual, Mr. Brown, who exhibited various factors impacting his health. It explores how psychosocial elements exacerbate smoking-related symptoms and the challenges faced by hospitalized patients. The essay emphasizes the biopsychosocial approach, highlighting the interconnectedness of biological, psychological, and social factors in understanding health and illness, contrasting it with the biomedical model. It discusses the importance of clinicians recognizing patient relationships and self-awareness. The discussion covers the interplay of anatomy and physiology, the interdisciplinary nature of the biopsychosocial model, and its implications for treatment, emphasizing the role of thoughts, behaviors, and feelings in influencing physical states. The essay also addresses criticisms of the model, particularly regarding the lack of scientifically proven facts, and examines the impact of stress, health promotion, and patient-centered care within the biopsychosocial framework. It underlines the link between mental and physical health and the role of well-being in public health, emphasizing the importance of holistic approaches to disease prevention and health promotion.

Running Head: BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL NEEDS
BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL NEEDS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
This essay is going to discuss about the bio-psychosocial needs of Mr Brown whom I
met at my clinical placement who was a smoker and an obese person. He was going through a
number of other changes that are affecting the bio-psychosocial demands of the patients. The
psychosocial factors would worsen the condition of smoking related symptoms. Mr Brown
lives alone and smokes daily. This essay will discuss about the various needs and demands of
such persons who are hospitalized for a longer period (Zebrack et al 2017). Stress is an
important indicator of health. The stress poses as a bad effect for her physical and mental
health. Bio-psychosocial approach of a person emphasises on the importance of the human
health and illness in full terms. The bio-psychosocial approach systematically considers
psychological, social factors, biological ways and their manner of understanding health,
healthcare delivery and illness (Adams and Turk 2018). There is a continuum of social
factors that emphasises on biological, social and psychological factors. The proper
implication of the social and the psychological approach needs the application of the relevant
social sciences. Thus, in other words the basic elements in the treatment of the patient
involves the social and natural sciences. Social and the psychological factors are not mere
phenomenon they have scientific correlations along with biological correlations (Ho and
Argáez 2017).
In the bio-psychosocial the most valued aspect is the humanistic approach that
involves the application of the scientific method to the psychological, biological and the
social processes that are directly linked to the health of an individual (Karterud, Risør and
Haavet 2015). The biomedical approach believes in taking the reductionist approach that
involves understanding all the processes at their molecular or their cellular level whereas, the
bio-psychosocial approach believes in recognizing different clinical scenarios at different
point of view keeping in mind the demands of the patients (Wade and Halligan 2017). Thus,

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for the application of the bio-psychosocial approach to the clinical practice, it is important
that the clinicians should be able to recognize the fact that relationships are very central in the
treatment of the patient. They should also keep in mind that self-awareness can be used as a
diagnostic tool for curing the patients (Walton et al 2017). The healthcare personnel should
also keep in mind that the patient should be treated with a multidimensional approach that
involves social, psychological and biological domains of the patients.
Discussion
There is relation between the anatomy as well as the physiology of the patient that
helps the nurses and the other healthcare professional in the treatment of the patients (Thomas
and Thurston 2016). It helps in integrating the situations of the clinical cases along with the
essential biological facts that helps in understanding the application of the anatomy and the
physiology in healthcare. They help in making the detail analysis of the situation at the
particular clinical setting (Wade and Halligan 2017).
Bio-psychosocial model is an interdisciplinary model that specifies the various
aspects of healthcare and disease models that can be related to the development of the human.
This model is very much opposite to the biomedical approach that treats as per the cellular
and the molecular level (Karterud, Risør and Haavet 2015). However, bio-psychosocial
approach of treatment treats the patients as per the psychological and the social demands of
the patients. Thus, there is a direct link between the uses of the bio-psychosocial approach of
treatment. The development of the new model that gives the traditional approach to the
treatment of the health and disease can be applied to the various patients who are currently
under the biomedical approach of treatment (Walton et al 2017).
The biomedical approach is the traditional approach of the clinical treatment it is the
right time to expand the bio-psychosocial approach for the treatment of the patients those

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who do not fit under the narrow frame of the biomedical model (Thomas and Thurston 2016).
The bio-psychosocial approach implies that the thoughts, behaviours and the feelings might
influence the physical state of any person. It is also against the theory that the biological
factors are influence the disease and health in an individual and emphasized on the fact that
the social and the psychological factors are equally important (Karterud, Risør and Haavet
2015). This is a much more realistic model as compared to the biomedical approach as it fits
into the lifestyle of all the individuals living in any community or society as it comprises of
the biological, social and the psychological factors (Wade and Halligan 2017).
This model considers the patients as an individual and focuses on interviewing the
person about the various needs of a person not only as a patient but also as a person with an
individual personality (Adams and Turk 2018). This will thus, enable the clinicians to explore
the various aspects of the patients that will help in the better analysis of the patients’
conditions and will thus ultimately help in the development of the right treatment plan for the
individual patients (Lowenhoff et al, 2017). However, the model also faces certain criticisms
that involve the lack of scientifically proven facts that are generally used for the treatment of
any disease (Ho and Argáez 2017). There are a number of modern diseases that includes
diabetes and heart diseases that need the psychological and the social factors for the complete
treatment of the patients suffering from the disease (Adams and Turk 2018).
The most common bio-psychosocial illness is caused the extreme stress that is being
rendered on the individuals. Now-a-days there are a number of factors like the environmental
factors and other important factors that results in much demand from the individuals that
exceeds their ability to cope (Thomas and Thurston 2016). These stress also generates a lot of
physiological and psychological changes that results in certain diseases. Thus in order to
examine he level of stress within the bio-psychosocial model it is very important to consider
all these factors. At first the high blood pressure and muscle tension are the biological factors

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that are included within the bio-psychosocial factors (Thomas and Thurston 2016). The
psychological factors are the risk behaviour that involves smoking, alcohol consumption
along with coping mechanism along with the predisposition to anxiety and depression can be
checked. Social factors also includes loneliness, lack of participation, unemployment and the
effects of working for long hours in the office that renders the individual unsociable (Walton
et al 2017).
A lot of research is done that identifies the health risks associated with the different
social conditions and the behaviours of the patients as it is related to high risk of behaviour.
At an individual level, families play an important role in exerting the negative or positive
influences on the health status of an individual (Ho and Argáez 2017). The bio-psychosocial
interventions can be achieved by the healthcare personnel by introducing the various
psychological and the social interventions only at the primary care level (Karterud, Risør and
Haavet 2015). For instance, the general physicians and the doctors can apply the various
psychological intervention in the lifestyle of an individual in order to avoid the need of any
medical treatment. These approaches have far-reaching implications for the training of the
doctors and the patients (Thomas and Thurston 2016). This would be very interesting to
apply the model in any psychiatric hospital as there it is very important for the application of
multi-disciplinary team that consists of the doctor, psychologist, psychiatric nurses and other
staff workers (Zebrack et al 2016). Research has shown that the application of this model has
been very effective as it results in proper addressing of all the needs of the patients as it helps
to improve the quality of life and also the quality of care. This in turn results in increasing the
positive patient outcome (Wade and Halligan 2017.).
The bio-psychosocial teaching intervention might reduce the healthcare expenditure
and also enhance the patient’s satisfaction. Another approach of bio-psychosocial approach
involves the patient-centered approach (Walton et al 2017). It refers to a style of practice that

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is oriented to the needs of the patients and the major components are interview and
counselling. The bio-psychosocial approach also considers the patient centered care as it
provides an insight into the biomedical and the psychosocial aspects in order to predict the
patient’s condition and also to design the line of treatment (Wade and Halligan 2017). The
bio-psychosocial approach also improves the patient satisfaction, reduce the malpractice, and
also to improve the patient outcome.
The idea of health and well-being is related to the state of complete well-being that
comprises of social, physical and mental well-being (Thomas and Thurston 2016). This is
very consistent with the bio-psychosocial model of health that considers the psychological,
social and the physiological factors in health and illness and there interactions that can be
applied to the treatment of the various treatment process (Karterud, Risør and Haavet 2015).
It is very synonymous with the state of mental health that helps the patients to carry out the
treatment process as the bio-psychosocial approach emphasises more towards the positive
emotions, psychology, and the cultural aspects (Ho and Argáez 2017).
There is a direct relation between the mental and the physical health as they are
inextricably linked. This can be due to the physiological, psychological, behavioral and social
model of health (Hanson 2017). The nature of this relation is two way and the mental health
thus, influences the physical health and vice versa. The behavioral and the social risk factors
that affect the physical and the mental health problems tend to overlap that makes it difficult
to understand the fact that whether mental illness precedes the physical illness or vice versa
(Gilbert 2019; Lowenhoff et al., 2017).
Health promotion plays an important part in the primary health care as it is a way that
can contribute to the well-being of all the individuals (Gravely et al, 2017). Earlier the main
focus of the healthcare services was to treat and diagnose the patients (Froehlich and Schmitt

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2016). However, now it is very important to identify the risk factors that can cause the
disease. This can be done by the various health promotion activities that include health
campaigns and the awareness schemes. Electronic modes of communication, training,
education have a common place in the medical practices (Cheatle 2016). Thus for early
recognition of the signs and the symptoms of a disease it is important to conduct and
participate in health promotion schemes (Booth et al., 2017).
There is a direct link between the physical and the psychological health of an
individual that affects the various aspects of the individuals. This can impact the various life
aspects of that individual and can even have a deep impact on the various psychological well-
being of that individual (Caneiro, and Ng, 2016). Well-being is thus, a very positive outcome
as it tells that people perceives their lives are going very well. Well-being is affected by the
good living conditions that is very fundamental to the well-being (Brown et al., 2015). The
quality of life is affected by the quality of relationships, positive emotions and resilience,
realization of potential and their overall satisfaction about life. These factors thus decide that
whether an individual is satisfied with their life or not. This can have a deep impact on the
psychological side of the individual (Bennett, Rohleder and Sturmberg, 2018).
Thus, well-being is very useful for the public health as it integrates mental health and
the physical health of a body. It results in more holistic approach to prevent the diseases and
promotes health (Babalola, Noel and White, 2017). It is also a very popular result for the
measure of morbidity, mortality and the financial status of the individual. It is also
meaningful to the public as it affects the health of the individual involved (Agnafors et al.
2017). It also helps the policy makers to develop a common measure for developing the
policy that will be able to track, measure or promote well-being that can be useful for a
number of stakeholders that is involved in the disease health promotion and disease
prevention (Adams and Turk 2018).

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Conclusion
Thus, the conclusion that can be drawn from the essay is that the bio-psychosocial
needs are very integral for the overall development of the individual. This integrates with the
various psychosocial, social and the biological factors for the proper treatment and the
diagnosis of the patients. It is also related to the well-being of an individual that is integrated
with the physical and mental health of that individual. This is also affected by the patient
centered approach as well as the care of patients by emphasizing on the various aspects of the
disease. The bio-psychosocial approach thus helps in recognizing the various factors that are
integral part for an individual’s well-being.

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