Mental Health Interview Reflection Report - Substance Abuse

This report presents a reflection on an interview conducted with a registered nurse experiencing substance abuse disorder. The interview focused on the nurse's alcohol misuse, its causes, and its impact on professional performance. The student reflects on the challenges of addressing the client's ambivalence towards quitting alcohol, particularly in justifying their drinking. The report discusses the application of motivational interviewing techniques to resolve this ambivalence, emphasizing empathetic communication and the identification of discrepancies between the client's lifestyle and coping mechanisms. The student also highlights the importance of understanding the client's stressors, such as the loss of a partner, and the use of alcohol as a coping mechanism. The reflection concludes with the student's insights into improving communication strategies for future interviews with substance abuse clients and their plan to utilize the 'RULE' acronym to resolve issues for client with substance use disorders.

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH
Mental health
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

1MENTAL HEALTH
What?
During one of my workshop, I had to take interview of Chris Mitrevski, a registered
nurse with substance abuse disorder. The details that I got regarding the client before the
interview was that the nurse has been referred to to the Drug and Alcohol Services for
assessment regarding alcohol abuse and its impact on her professional performance. Several
occasions were reported where the nurse was found to come to the hospital smelling of alcohol.
During the interview, I was involved in inquiring regarding the alcohol misuse, the time since the
nurse started drinking, the cause behind it, its impact on performance and the extent to which the
client was dependent on alcohol. On reflecting on the overall interview process, I found that he
was a heavily addicted consuming about 4-5 glasses of wine every night. I also became aware
about the motivation behind consuming excess amount of alcohol. His consumption of alcohol
occurred after his partner died in a vehicle accident and as he was finding difficult in sleeping, he
used alcohol to go to sleep. Throughout the interview, the client was inattentive occasionally.
However, he was giving clear responses. However, I gave the client time so that he reveals all to
understand the overall impact of alcohol misuse on his overall health. In addition, the most
difficult was to convince client to quit drinking and taking counselling regarding it.
So what?
Based on collection response regarding the cause of excess alcohol consumption, I could
relate the nurse’s alcohol drinking with his life stressors. As he had to go through the death of his
partner, the rationale behind drinking became clear. Keyes et al. (2014) defines that unexpected
death of loved ones is a traumatic experience that is most commonly associated with substance
use and psychiatric disorders and alcohol is often used as a strategy to cope with loneliness and

2MENTAL HEALTH
sudden change in life courses. Although the interview helped to understand the reason behind
alcohol misuse and the benefit that the nurse got by drinking alcohol, the most difficult part of
the interview process was to make the client believe that he was using a wrong method to cope
with his emotional problems and sleep difficulty. The client was trying to justify that although he
is drinking on a daily basis and is dependent on it to cope with his current mental state and go to
work, it is not affecting her nursing performance. As part of the professional requirements of
conducting an interview, I had the duty not to engage in argument and direct confrontation with
the client. I could not oppose the client directly too (Bagøien et al., 2013). Hence, in such
situation, it was difficult for me to understand the most effective technique to challenge the
views of the client and not confront him too.
Despite following the interview strategy of maintaining respect of patient and asking
questions according to the pace of client, the strategy to address ambivalence of client regarding
alcohol misuse was a major challenged for me in the entire interview process. However, I was
able to address this issue using the concepts of motivation interviewing. Motivational
interviewing is client-centered method to enhance intrinsic motivation to change in client by
resolving ambivalence and improving patient’s view regarding making changes in his habit
(Bagøien et al., 2013). I engaged in resolving ambivalence by engaging in honest and safe
dialogues and helping the client to recognize discrepancies in lifestyle and coping styles through
empathetic communication. By this strategy, I was finally able to convince the nurse that she
needs to take support to at least minimize the amount of alcohol consumed so that it had no
adverse impact on her professional performance in the future.

3MENTAL HEALTH
Now what?
Based on the experience of taking interview with a client with substance abuse, I have
developed my skills in using appropriate techniques to conduct interview with such clients. I
became aware about the communication strategies that I should take in case of ambivalent client.
As I took time in convincing client regarding changing his behaviour, in future I have planned to
take short workshop or training in this area so that I am more confident in understanding how to
help substance abuse client to develop hope and faith about recovery. I aim to use the acronym
‘RULE’ (Resist, understand, listen and empower) to resolve issues for client with substance use
disorders.

4MENTAL HEALTH
References:
Bagøien, G., Bjørngaard, J. H., Østensen, C., Reitan, S. K., Romundstad, P., & Morken, G.
(2013). The effects of motivational interviewing on patients with comorbid substance use
admitted to a psychiatric emergency unit-a randomised controlled trial with two year
follow-up. BMC psychiatry, 13(1), 93.
Keyes, K. M., Pratt, C., Galea, S., McLaughlin, K. A., Koenen, K. C., & Shear, M. K. (2014).
The burden of loss: unexpected death of a loved one and psychiatric disorders across the
life course in a national study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 171(8), 864-871.