Although one ethical limitation of a counselor is that they are not able to prescribe medication, the counselor still plays a major role in the clients overall treatment, to include medication. The role of the counselor is to offer recommendations to the physician for medication use, constant consultation and screening of the client for the need for medication, monitoring and evaluation of effects of medication, education to clients and family members, and advocating for the client to the physician. It is also a counselor’s responsibility to inform the client of available treatment methods (King & Anderson, 2004). For example, if I am seeing a client for depression I would be legally responsible for informing the client about antidepressant medication used to treat depression in addition to possible counseling treatments to ensure the clients right to effective treatment. Because counselors are responsible for assisting physicians in ensuring the best possible care for the client, it is important that I familiarize myself with psychotropic medication.
Carers should take into consideration any form of distress shown by the individual e.g. a service user may have a tendency to be aggressive to service providers. The psychodynamic perspective would explain this by saying that the individuals aggressive behaviour is due to experiencing inner turmoil and tensions and conflicts from the person’s past are projected into current situations. Service providers should not take this personally – it will be due to unresolved conflicts with one’s same sex parent. In severe cases help should be provided through the use of psychotherapy.
From today’s perspective, the early use of electroconvulsive therapy (which led to memory loss, fractured bones and other serious side effects) is considered draconian but during their era, clinicians used the technique in an attempt to help their clients achieve mental soundness. Counseling has evolved from that standard of care to one of “avoiding harm and imposing values” (American Counseling Association 2005, p.4). Brief
Mental Health Patient Rights vs. Neglect May 25, 2013 Mental Health Patient Rights vs. Neglect People with mental illness are a vulnerable section of society, whose decision-making capacities are affected by their disorders, so such patients may not seek or accept treatment for their problems (Cady, 2010). At the same time, recognizing and respecting rights of the patient with mental health disorders is essential for a health care provider, especially regarding the fact that evaluation and treatment of such patients can be “more coercive and less open to public awareness and accountability than the treatment of patients with other medical conditions” (Cady, 2010, p. 118). The issue of giving mental health patient rights is a rather controversial one, as often the right of the patient to refuse certain treatment or care may result in serious health consequences for the patient and can be seen as neglect of the healthcare provider.
This paper will explore factors that contribute to medication errors and their effects on mental health nurses. In addition this paper will offer some future recommendation in order to decrease medication errors. Medication errors Medication administration is an essential aspect of nursing, however, failure to consider the details of adverse reactions, drug interactions or administration schedules may compromise the efficiency of the therapeutic medication regime (Jordan, Jones, & Sargent, 2009). According to Haw, Stubbs & Dickens (2007) and Ramanujan &
Explain how each may positively or negatively impact clients, counselors, and mental health counseling practice. Manage heath care is the middleman that all the furniture commercials say they are trying to eliminate. Their job is to dictate which services should and should not be paid for by a third party payer. Many services that are needed by clients are not covered by managed care organizations (MCO’s) and this breeds possible corruption. If a patient needs treatment but they are not covered, that may motivate a counselor to place an incorrect billing code on an invoice to get paid for an non-covered service.
Patients with a history of illicit drug use are seen as having a higher risk for simultaneous chronic drug related diseases.” Negative attitudes towards patients with a history of illicit drug use can adversely affect the therapeutic nurse-patient relationship, resulting in suboptimal patient care”. (Chu 2013) I also agree with the author, that more education is need to help aide the nursing staff in ways to address their concerns in regards to dealing with a high-risk population. If the nurses where more educated on the social determinants of the mentally ill patient, the nurses would be better able to support
Nonverbal communication consists of any type of communication that is not spoken out loud. This article, Assessing Contentment and Distress, talks about how nonverbal communication is key in understanding patients who can no longer communicate verbally. Since it is very difficult for people to understand and be able to perceive what these signs really mean, the medical field has come up with a tool called the Disability Distress Assessment Tool, also known as the DisDAT. This tool can recognize nonverbal expressions and can tell when these are signs of the patient’s distress. The author of the article explains her experience with the DisDAT and its use on a patient she had with a learning disorder and the final stages of dementia.
All practioners need to comply with the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy rule (Fisher, 2013). The privacy rule gives rights to health professionals, as well as to their patients. Under the new law, psychologists can decide whether to release their psychotherapy notes to patients, unless patients would have access to their psychotherapy notes under state law (APA.org, 2010). Though the privacy rule does afford patients the right to access and inspect their health records, psychotherapy notes are treated differently: Patients do not have the right to obtain a copy of these under HIPAA. And when a psychologist denies a patient access to these notes, the denial isn't subject to a review process, as it is with other records.
When a counselor provides an inaccurate diagnosis this is called misdiagnosis. According to Welfel and Patterson (2005), professional counselors are likely to make three mistakes in the assessment and diagnostic process (Mears, 2010). It is exceedingly important that counselors try not to misdiagnose clients because it may lead to a series of problems such as a delay in treatment, being provided the incorrect medication which may lead to other issues and it may cause a lack in the services and support the client may need. An example of a misdiagnoses is bi-polar disorder and depression, if a counselor does not take the time out to dig deep into the clients assessment the two disorders may be confused, which may lead to misusages of