The Importance of Mental Health Counselling (Coursework Sample)

Mental Health Counseling
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Mental Health Counseling
Mental health is a state of mental stability and the ability to cope with day-to-day routine in life. Mental health counseling is an application of techniques and methods to help people experiencing psychological distress. Mental health counselors are usually professional personnel who use different psychotherapy methods. Cases of mental illness are increasing as research shows in every four people; one is experiencing mental illness at a given time.It also reveals that 50% of people have a mental illness in the course of their lifetime. The increase in these cases shows the addition of qualified psychologists to diagnose, treat and prevent mental health problems. This paper seeks to highlight a case example of a mental health illness and the various approaches towards solving it.
The Case of Kristin in Mental Health Counseling
Kristin is a 32-year-old married lady and a mother of one child. She has been having several worries for the past five years and has decided to seek counseling. The family physician referred her to a counselor after intense feelings and decline in happiness in the past few months. For several months she has been experiencing repetitive, intrusive thoughts about her child.
She frequently imagines various serious accidents occurring to her child and even suspected the child's leg broke while playing football. Still, on calling the school, she was told the child was okay; she admits she was surprised. Apart from these weird imaginations, she is also not satisfied with her marriage, and she is having challenges in managing her son's behavior and her responsibility as a parent.
Kristin has been feeling nervous, anxious, and irritated; it happens nearly three times a day. She is worried about three times a day or too much about different things and issues also three times daily, having trouble relaxing about two times a day, being restless at least once per day, becoming irritated once regularly, and feeling afraid of something happening at least three times a day. This information is from her encounter for the past two weeks. On being asked why she was seeing a counselor, she is not sure, though but admits about the worries she has for her son when not with her. This GDA symptom checklist shows that she is highly depressed and has psychological emotions.
Cognitive therapy, which focuses on thoughts, will help change how she thinks and help her feel relaxed and better and even behave well (Amanullah, 2018). Dialectical behavior therapy teaches coping and emotional skills, and this will help her in controlling her emotions. Interpersonal psychotherapy will enable her to cope with the connection she has with her son; Acceptance and commitment therapy to help her accept her in proper thinking; feelings and commit to change. It will help Kristin understand she is a parent and married and should do her responsibilities.
Kristin underwent a personality test. Testing and assessment using techniques designed to measure the characteristic patterns and traits that someone exhibits across given situations (Baddiri). Used to diagnose, guide on psychological interventions and predict how someone might respond in different situations.
The personality test applied on Kristin is an objective test use to measures an individual's characteristics; the practitioner will not influence information. This test tends to have more validity through the subject's willingness to be open and honest. The most common form of objective test is the self-report measure used in this case which relies entirely upon the participant.
The three types of assessments used in this case are; The first is the Rating scale assessment tool which is assigning scores of 0, 1, 2, and 3 to the response categories "not at all," be having. They conduct this to obtain an individual's biographical information. Kristin has an interview on the recent happenings and the marital problem she has.
The comprehensive psychological assessment contains all the components of any standard psychological assessment. It uses additional measures to address the social and emotional functioning to obtain a diagnosis and possible treatment recommendations. It also measures specific cognitive styles and personality. This assessment requires several sessions depending on the severity of the patient and the findings.
An assessment tool can include numerous components such as psychological tests, informal tests and surveys, interview information, medical record, medical evaluation, and observation data. A psychologist determines what data to use according to specific questions asked. The primary tool is the verbal intake interview; this is different from psychologists' assessments to identify psychopathology in distress.
In this case, they have to gather critical information about a range of questions to help them determine the right diagnosis; these questions mainly target the nature of the patients' illness, the stage at which the condition is, the constellation of the patient involved in care, and the unique caregiving challenges. It is used in this case to identify Kristin's level of illness and the way forward to her treatment. It was useful in obtaining necessary information such as the constant worries, marriage burden, among others.
The ancient conception of validity is in three distinct and substitutable types, content, construct validities, and criterion. It tends to be incomplete because it fails to address both evidence of the value implication of score as a basis of action and social consequences of score use. The American Psychologists Association (APA) interrelates the common issues as critical aspects of a more comprehensive construct validity theory that addresses both score meaning and social values in assessment interpretation and use. This validity considers the use of content, criteria, and consequences into a constructed framework for the empirical testing of rational hypotheses about score meaning.
Assessment and interpretation are the keys to a psychological report; the main topics involved in this area are the findings, the meaning of the results, and the clinical impressions. The precise scores of every scale and subscale are not necessary. The report should include sufficient details with specifics of the instrument. The results' interpretation will summarize the clients' limitations and strengths and discuss consistent and inconsistent scores and results.
A summary is not always needed at the end of the interpretation because it will be in the report later. In an assessment, there is an assumption that everyone has an equal opportunity; this might not always be correct since the evaluation might be fair to some individuals and unfair to others since backgrounds vary and have different experiences. It is the key to performing a non-biased assessment.
According to the several tests, checklists, therapy, and assessments undertaken on Kristin, she is most likely suffering from anxiety and depression. The psychological reports show so many instances linked to these two conditions. The marriage she is in contributes more to his constant inability to control anger and irritation, while the restlessness and often worries show the possible anxiety. Diagnosis is also essential in coming up with the treatment; according to the assessments, the patient is probably suffering from a depressive disorder. It is usually characterized by severe and recurrent temper, either verbal or behavioral, about three times a day a week. It is also associated with moodiness and persistent anger. These signs are seen in Kristin's psychological report. There is a possibility of anxiety disorder, and this is usually exhibited by separation anxiety, fear, and anxiety concerning separation from someone close in this case, it is Nathan. The problems she is undergoing in her marriage are also adding to the symptoms.
Accurate scoring is to protect against errors in the findings. The primary type of scoring used by many currently is computer scoring which is becoming more prevalent than hand scoring. Interpretation of these results involves examining the consistency with the information provided by the client. Psychologists should be prepared to explain the results to patients by using different methods to make the patient ready for any possible action. They should also explain it to the caregivers to make informed decisions about the patient. The information interpretation is usually from the psychological report and usually concentrates on the client's key points.
Reliability is the length to which scores are stable and consistent, measured by the confidence level, and accessed in four ways, test-retest, inter-rater, alternate forms, and internal consistency. Several factors affect the reliability of test scores, such as time taken between two assessments. Validity is the degree to which the evidence and theory and the interpretations of scores, validity performance of test scores must be grounded in psychological theory and evidence presented in the test score. There are three types of evidence related to validity: construct a proof of a fact, content evidence of reality, and criterion-related evidence of presence (Fullen, 2020).
Validity is mainly concerned with whether an assessment measures what it is designed to measure. Validation informs the counselors what they can pick from the collected results and makes them responsible for examining the accumulation of validation evidence that contributes to the overall evaluation. There are other kinds of validity in literature though not approved by profe...