Reference no: EM133180549
Case Scenarios
- Assigned to address some health issues with the following people. How can I best support each person/family? Reflect on these questions:
- How might my own experiences and belief systems influence how I work with the client?
- How can address health issues without arguing about beliefs? How can I respond when someone makes a decision that you think puts them at risk?
Cindy
- Cindy grew up in the rural South. She was diagnosed with diabetes after she moved to Boston when she was 28 years old.
- She feels that her doctors are always yelling at her, telling her to lose weight and take her medications.
- She feels that her diabetes was caused by the stress and pollution of the city and she says that the only way that she can take care of her diabetes is to move to a beautiful, warm, relaxed place. But she can't afford to move.
- She says that the best thing she can do to get back to a good, natural way of living is to treat her diabetes with teas and incense.
1) What are your concerns for Cindy?
2) What would you say to her?
3) What are her priorities?
Luisa
Luisa is 17 years old and lives with her father and her aunt.
- Luisa feels exhausted all the time, has trouble sleeping and has been having panic attacks for two years that keep her from going to school. She missed 30 days in the previous term.
- She describes feeling like "I'm falling into a dark well. I try to climb up the stone wall but keep slipping and it feels like the walls are coming down on me and I can't breathe."
- Her father has said that she just needs to focus on her chores and her duties to her family and stop making excuses and that she'll feel better if she stops hanging out with her friends who are "irresponsible and inappropriate."
1) What are your concerns for Luisa and her family?
2) What can you say to them? What else do you want to know here?
3) How can you avoid alienating the family while also advocating for Luisa?
Paul
Paul has been living with COPD for 5 years.
- He got COPD at exactly the time when his small construction business started to become successful. Now he can barely work and money has become very tight.
- Some of his older family members believe that he was cursed by other people whom he used to work with because they were jealous of his success.
- Paul sometimes says that this talk of curses is just "crazy" and "backward," but he also seems interested in figuring out who might have put on a curse on him so that he can resolve this issue. He won't say whether he's following his treatment plan because "they just tell me what I'm doing wrong."
1) What are your concerns for Paul? What are his strengths?
2) What would you say to him?
3) How can you learn more about what parts of his treatment plan he's actually doing? (ie meds, etc)
Denise
Denise is a 42-year-old Black woman with an eight-year-old son. She has been in the US for 25 years.
She knows her blood sugar can run dangerously high and once nearly passed out while working - she manages a small cafe.
She has multiple bottles of unopened insulin in her refrigerator.
When asked why she is not taking it she responds with, "If I use it, my body will get weak. It is wrong to take something that replaces what my body should be making itself."
She has also stated that her doctor is racist and doesn't respect or listen to her.
1) What are your concerns for Denise? What are her strengths?
2) What would you say to her?
3) How might you proceed with her statements about her doctor?