Assess Patients for Depression

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Abstract
Depression for a long time has been a drawback to the effective self-care. This is especially seen with patients diagnosed with long-term illness or complication. During patient recovery process self-care plays an important role. One way of dealing with depression during self-care is the effective assessment. This paper takes a look at depression assessment on a liver patient. It employs various methods of analysis such as assessment observation based on depression scales and indexes. Several symptoms of depression such as withdrawal and forgetfulness are cited to be among the key signals of depression. This article also takes a critical analysis of some of the possible solution to depression. A connection between self-care and depression is also made in a bid to establish several details about depression and how it particularly affects this particular patient. Factors such as family, traditional and religion are some of the key contributors to the depression.
Keywords: Depression, Assessment, self-care, Cognition
Depression Assessment Article Review
The assigned article is about a liver transplant Mr. J who had received all the physical care that he needed for complete recovery after the transplant but was not successful in the efforts. The article claims that physical care and self-care work hand in hand in ensuring full patient recovery, safety and well-being. This was not the case with Mr. J who was unable to develop a proper self-care and seemed detached.

He would easily forget his medicine and lack enthusiasm in engaging in self-care (VanLeeuwen et al. 53). He was experiencing depression which greatly impacted his self-care.
The article, therefore, tries to assess his depression based on the signs and symptoms and why their efforts to instill a self-care culture through teaching was not successful. Factors such as cognition, good health perception, and social support are cited to be some of the contributors to improved health. In proposing a solution to the assessment of patients with depression, a two-question screening model is proposed based on pleasure, feelings and depression factors (VanLeeuwen et al. 54). The Hamilton Rating Screen for Depression is also recommended as a possible measure for the screening.
Through this article, I have learnt that there is a strong link that exists between self-care outcomes and depression. As seen in the Egede research study, depression impacts negatively on self-care outcomes. I have also learnt that higher education levels and one’s ability to retain new information that is learnt can actually improve on one’s health. Through the knowledge gained in this article, I will be to improve on my assessment of depression and other related disorders such as anxiety. Before assessing depression levels of my client I will consider several factors as listed in the article, these include social support and the level of cognition. Some of the measures such as Hamilton’s measure in my view will play an important role in the assessment of my clients.

Work Cited
VanLeeuwen, Shawna, Mary H. Leenerts, and Mona Moran. “Assess patients for depression for
a safer discharge.” Nursing2018 42.10 (2012): 50-53.