Depression and Physical Health: Case Study of Ms. X, AWHN

This case study focuses on Ms. X, a 42-year-old woman who owns a construction company, and is experiencing both depression and lower back pain (LBP). The study investigates her condition, including her work habits, smoking, and reported symptoms over the past three months. It details physical assessments such as Spine AROM and HIP AROM tests, and neurological assessments including myotome and reflex tests, alongside depression screening tools. The case outlines a service plan involving situation analysis, condition assessment, target setting, and implementation, with ongoing monitoring via counseling data and electronic health records. The evaluation of the treatment program will be based on the recovery rate of Ms. X, facilitated by the Australian Women’s Health Network. The conclusion highlights the successful integration of physiological and neurological assessments to identify the root causes of the patient's problems, leading to a plan to help Ms. X recover from her current condition.

Australian Women's Health Network
HEALTH CONDITION OF MS. X

DEPRESSION
 Mental disorder classified as feeling, sadness and
associated physical problems (Gilbert, 2016).
 Causes interference with the daily work
processes associated with lost time and lower
productivity.
 Responsible for deteriorating relationships and
some chronic diseases.
 The chronic diseased conditions which gets
worse with depression are: Asthma,
Cardiovascular disease, Cancer, Obesity and
Diabetes.
 Depression has been defined as a serious medical
condition which worsens without a proper
treatment.
Concept Art

DEPRESSION STATISTICS IN AUSTRALIA
Fig 1: Depression statistics in Australia
Source: Cook, (2019)
o Australia has been detected as the country to have the highest rates of depression among the female population.
o The graphical representation stated in figure 1 shows that people of age group between 18 years to 50 years are the
major sufferers of depression (Cook, 2019).
o More than 20% of all the mentally ill patients in Australia are affected by depression resulting in the deterioration of
physical health.

AUSTRALIAN WOMEN'S HEALTH NETWORK
Organization
Logo
 The Australian Women’s Health Network (AWHN)
is defined as a health program advocacy
organization for the national women population
of Australia (Brooks, Barclay & Hooker, 2018).
 This organization has been found to help all the
Australian Women in any types of health
disorders which they are facing.
 This organization will be taken as a sample for
assessing the case study associated with this
topic of study.

CASE SUMMARY
o Ms. X is a 42 years old woman who owns a
construction company.
o She works both in the office as well as is involved
in helping her crew. Three months ago, Ms X has
begun developing LBP.
o She denied a MOI and reports has shown that It
became constant which made her job increasingly
difficult.
o In order to control the pain, she has been found
to take frequent breaks during the workday by
lying down on her bed.
o She was hoping that the pain would finally
resolve on its own however recently she giving up
on trying to get better.
This is because of the fact that she believed that working was the
only reason of this pain. She has also been reported to smoke half
a pack of cigarette per day without any outstanding medical
history.

ASSESSMENT
Physical Assessments
 Physical assessments includes Spine AROM test and HIP
AROM tests.
 Both the tests the flexion and extension issues associated
with the lower back region of Ms. X.
 Step test, Quadrant test, Lumbar PA and SLR test will also
be performed.
 All these physical assessments will be performed in order
to identify if physical disorders are the source of lower
back pain (Reiner et al., 2019).
Psychological and Neurological Assessments
 Neurological assessments includes myotome tests,
normal sensation to light and Reflex tests.
 Depression screening tools are used in order to assess
the condition of depression associated with the Ms. X.
 Symptom based rating scales are also used for
depression assessment (Arteta et al., 2016).
 Psychometrically sound and user friendly tools will be
used in order to assess the depressive conditions.
 A brain scan can also be used to assess the condition of
depression because there is a visual difference between
a normal and depressive brain

PLANNING OF THE SERVICE
Planning of a service for mental healthcare service delivery includes some steps:
Step 1: Analysis of the situation- The situation will be analyzed by closely observing the case concerning the mental health
condition of Ms X. Since there is an associated LBP (lower back pain), it will also be analyzed whether there is a need for
physiotherapeutic treatment or a mental health treatment or the combination of both are required.
Step 2: Assessing the condition- Both physical assessments and mental health assessments will be performed for this
patient since she has been reported to be affected by both depression and physical problems.
Step 3: Setting the target- The target setting will involve all the people who are affected by depression and anxiety
associated with hampering of their daily life activities.
Step 4: Implementation of the plan- The plan will be implemented on a routine based assessment and follow up records of
improvement in Mr X.

MONITORING OF THE CONDITION
 The health condition of Ms X can be monitored by
analyzing the current condition of Ms X compared to the
previous condition when she was not associated with a
treatment service.
 Regular counselling data will be collected and tracked in
order to understand the improvement in the condition
of Ms X.
 Physiotherapy results must be stored on monthly basis
in order to check whether the patient is getting well at a
faster rate or not.
 Electronic health records (EHR) can be used to monitor
the current condition of the patient.

EVALUATION
 Evaluation of the health program used for treatment can be done by checking the effectiveness of this treatment
program from previous data.
 The rate at which Ms. X recovers from her current condition of physical and mental breakdown can be stated to be a
major source of evaluation.
 Since, this case management program has been associated with Australian Women’s Health Network, it can be stated
that this treatment plan will be very much effective in helping Ms X to get recovered from her current condition. \
 This is the overall evaluation process for this case study management process.

CONCLUSION
Thus, it can be stated that Ms. X was suffering from depression which was the root cause behind her inability in performing
daily life activities. However, it can be stated that she is expected to get better with time associated with the management
plan. Both physiological and neurological assessments were found to be successful for finding out the main cause of lower
back pain in Ms. X. This is the overall conclusion of this case study management.

REFERENCES
Arteta, J., Cobos, B., Hu, Y., Jordan, K., & Howard, K. (2016). Evaluation of how depression and anxiety mediate the
relationship between pain catastrophizing and prescription opioid misuse in a chronic pain population. Pain
Medicine, 17(2), 295-303.
Brooks, M., Barclay, L., & Hooker, C. (2018). Trauma-informed care in general practice:'Findings from a women's health centre
evaluation'. Australian journal of general practice, 47(6), 370.
Cook, L. (2019). Mental health in Australia: a quick guide. Parliament of Australia, 14.
Gilbert, P. (2016). Depression: The evolution of powerlessness. Routledge.
Reiner, K., Shvartzman, P., Cohen, Z. Z., & Lipsitz, J. D. (2019). Assessing the Effectiveness of Mindfulness in the Treatment of
Chronic Back Pain: Use of Quantitative Sensory Pain Assessment. Mindfulness, 10(5), 943-952.

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