The situation described is one which every school-based occupational therapist should be familiar with, since teenage pregnancy is a matter of national concern. Also, Cassie's situation is more or less typical of that of a fifteen-year-old girl: parents have high expectations, there is an older sibling who is a model to emulate, and there is social and sexual peer pressure.
[...] Useful resources Shattell et al (2006) highlight the importance of the patient's understanding of his or her psychological disorder, and also of the imperative for healthcare providers such as doctors and nurses and caregivers such as family members to attempt to understand a given context from the patient's point of view in order to facilitate the healing process. The authors support the attempt to collate the empirical findings of existing research on the subject of how patients' as well as heath care providers' understanding of mental illness can facilitate the process of healthcare. [...]
[...] In Cassie's case, I would like to study typical developmental issues in the psychosocial and emotional domains of behavior. Discussions of temperament and social learning as the building blocks of psychosocial and emotional behavior offer the occupational therapist a neutral and objective basis for analyzing child behavior. Additionally, I would like to include overview of atypical development that can influence occupational performance, including a discussion of maladaptive learned behaviors such as learned helplessness and behavior“ common to adolescents (Case-Smith 2001, p. [...]
[...] Alternatively, she could approach her brother with her problem and ask him to intervene with her parents on her behalf, although this would be advisable only if she has the necessary rapport with her brother and if she is genuinely incapable of approaching her parents on her own. According to the recommendations of Carr and McNulty (2006), I would also propose an evidence-based approach to Cassie's case. Such techniques may be implemented to assess the patients' understanding of their situations as well as to evaluate the responses of therapists and patients to the need for such patients to understand the process of acceptance of their condition, and to recognize the need for treatment (Shattell et al, 2006). [...]
[...] Consequently, since this case study is focused on issues related to ‘real-time' contexts that require a sense of the empirical frameworks associated with psychological health care, Cassie's individual plan will benefit from direct interviews conducted with her as well as her friends and family members, which will be used to verify, substantiate or debunk the theoretical assumptions that have been formulated during the pre-assessment data accumulation. Also, as Adam et al (2003) observe, the therapist should subscribe to the notion that nonjudgmental understanding is critical for the emotional wellbeing of the patient. [...]
APA Style reference
For your bibliographyOnline reading
with our online readerContent validated
by our reading committee
