Bshs 402 - Special Populations Paper

Special Populations Paper

BSHS/402

June 4, 2012

Laura Pipoly

Case management relies on recognized social work awareness, industrial knowledge, and the well being that allows for the requirement of a focused and select assessment to chosen client groups. Case managers are obliged to have the capability to offer support in an insightful and compassionate behavior to meticulous client populations based on awareness of a person's performance and perceptive observational and communication skills. With this establishment, a case manager establishes helping associations, assesses difficult situations, chooses problem-solving interventions, and helps clients to operate successfully and, is a healing procedure (National Association of Social Workers, 2012).

The most important objective of case management is to optimize client performance to ensure superiority services in the most proficient and successful approach to those with multiple complexes needs (National Association of Social Workers, 2012). One special population to this need is Behavioral Health Treatment; Depression in particular.

Case management in the terms of behavioral health, may represent a set of interventions that attribute continuing support to individuals with persistent behavioral disorders. The implications of depression may be mainly natural, but mental and societal circumstances in addition have force on the route of depression. Case management method includes a range of interventions which concentrate to equally analysis and environmental work and contain the changing relentlessness of the client's depression in time (Walsh, 1998).

I have chosen this particular population for my paper for several personal experiences that have occurred within my life. These personal experiences opened my eyes to the needs of an individual that require assistance to overcome depression.

In 1997, I lost my father to a heart attack at the age of 47. With the sudden death of my father, I watched my mother go through something I have never seen before in my life; depression. It was heart aching to watch a person go through so much grief with fear in her eyes. She lost her soul mate and did not know what to do; she was a lost soul herself.

We as a family tried our hardest to keep her busy in her life so she would no longer feel the emptiness that was no longer there. Within time, she realized that she had more to live for than she thought and sought help for her depression. Now she is living her life alone but happy and healthy.

In 2006, again I watched as this behavioral disorder seizes my life. This time it was with my husband as my children watched. Again, it was heart aching to watch knowing that I could not do anything to help but be there for him when he finally fell into the hands of this disorder.

My husband's depression was more serious than my mother's. He actually was going to attempt suicide. He only confided this part of his depression with me after his therapy treatments. His depression was because of all the medication that he was taking for his kidney disease and the anti-depressant medication that his doctor prescribed him was doing the exact opposite for him.

With professional help, I and my children got the man that we love back on his feet and back into our lives.

The help that I would bring to benefit depression is that knowing that helping an individual with depression can be a very challenging ordeal. As a professional helping a client in depression and knowing that they may be feeling helpless, I will offer support and understanding in a non-judgmental manner, and provide the resources to help my client manage with their depression. Through the right approach from me and the appropriate resources, a client with depression will get better through time and understanding. Knowing the symptoms of depression is the first and most important issue. Symptoms of depression are:

* The sad feeling, down or "empty"

* Loss of interest in social activities

* The feeling of hopeless

* The feeling of irritable or agitated

* The changes in their appetite, the loss or the gain of weight inadvertently

* Sleeping habits; poor or none at all

* Being tired or having no energy

* The feeling of constant guilt

* Trouble thinking, concentrating or making decisions

* Thoughts of suicide

* Drinking alcohol or the use drugs (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 2012).

Individual's with depression may not be familiar with or admit that they are depressed. They may not be conscious of symptoms of depression, or they may feel desperate to deal with the problem. Individuals with depression might believe that how they are feeling is usual and not the consequence of a mental health condition such as depression. Occasionally, individuals feel embarrassed about their depression and misguidedly consider they should be able to conquer it with their own willingness. However depression rarely improves with no treatment and may get poorer (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 2012).

For a case manager to help a client that they recognize having symptoms of depression and to get the recommended treatment. In some cases, it can be bewildering to conclude if a person is really depressed or experiencing sadness as a logical and temporary answer to life conditions. Although everybody experiences issues with sadness, depression causes interference with the individual's ability to function on an everyday basis and can last for a few months to several years if not treated, and additional complicating the assessment procedure is the clinical fact that some symptoms of depression are the same as those found in medical conditions (Halderman & Eyman, 2011).

To evaluate depression with a consultation, the client can be asked about the occurrence of their symptoms in a relaxed and compassionate manner. Additionally to the information obtained from speaking to the client, there are numerous reasons to use depression questionnaires to increase interview information throughout the case management of therapeutic clients.