Working With an Individual Patient and Family

Working With an Individual Patient and Family
Mental disorder is an illness that causes mild to severe instabilities in a person’s mind resulting in a change in behavior. It is a common phenomenon among most Americans as it is estimated to affect over 54 million Americans yearly. Most often, people including family members find it hard to accept that their member has a mental illness. From this case, it is evident that Eleanor’s family members were heavy users of drugs. Abuse of drugs results in alteration of hormonal systems and various brain chemicals of an individual. Thus, the victims become unable to conduct regular duties and responsibilities.
Substance abuse poses damaging effects on the whole family; each member is uniquely affected in some particular way (Vigo et al., 2016). In Eleanor’s family, we can see how the family faced economic hardship that they had to depend on Eleanor for money solely. Besides, other family members could not keep a job for a long term. Eleanor is emotionally distressed as a result of mental breakdown. She cries as she recalls the past incidence and the responsibility that lies ahead of her. Moreover, she feels shredded because she lost her sister in an accident.
There are vital skills that one needs to work with family systems, it is essential to apply family systems and psychotherapeutic techniques to help diagnose and treat mental disorders. These skills include active listening to understand the message passed; this requires one to listen without interrupting.

Additionally, judgment and decision-making skills are essential to consider benefits and cost of each option. Through social perceptiveness, one will understand other people’s perception and reactions. Furthermore, a family system needs constant monitoring to track individual’s assessment and be able to implement the necessary corrective measures. Lastly, it is imperative to have critical thinking skill to reason logically and be able to point out strengths and weaknesses in the available solution before drawing to a logical conclusion.
References
Vigo, D., Thornicroft, G., & Atun, R. (2016). Estimating the True Global Burden of Mental Illness. The Lancet Psychiatry, 3(2), 171-178.