Applicability of the Principles of Empowerment and Recovery of the Essay

Applicability of the Principles of Empowerment and Recovery of the Mentally Ill in Practice - Essay Example There are many types of mental illnesses including: bipolarity, depression, panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and schizophrenia among others. 1.0 Scenario One afternoon, a man in his late 20s was brought in for medical attention. For the purpose of confidentiality, we shall name him Andrew (not his real name). Andrew could not keep still and he kept on moving from one point to another, talking to imaginary people. The people who brought him to the hospital were his colleagues at work, who claimed that he had become very hostile, attacking everyone at the office and accusing them of trying to ruin his life. They claimed that he had also started talking to himself and repeatedly saying â€Å"they want to kill me†. Andrew was immediately taken to the psychiatrist ward for examination, while I was instructed to get more information about his actions from his colleagues. The workmates told me that in last few months, they had observed some abnormal behavior in their col league, but had dismissed the actions. For example, he would show up at work late, looking tired and had started withdrawing from his workmates. They also claimed that he could no longer meet deadlines and that he often did substandard work. After the discussion with the patients’ colleagues, I called his family before going to check on the progress of the patient. The psychiatrist informed me that they had sedated him to ease his agitation. I explained to him all the observances noted by Andrew’s colleagues and the doctor suspected that this could be a case of schizophrenia. As we were talking, Andrew’s wife and sister came in looking very worried. The doctor explained the patient’s condition to them and asked them to offer any information they deemed useful. The wife explained how Andrew a father of two and an accountant had started acting weird about the same time the previous year. He would often withdraw from his wife and children, he would become ea sily agitated if the children did anything wrong, and would act unmoved even if the children cried for attention. The wife also explained how in recent days Andrew had become very attentive to the safety of his family, claiming that someone was out to harm them. He would lock all the doors and constantly look out through the window to see whether someone was watching them. Andrew’s sister also explained how as a teenager, Andrew had suddenly lost all zeal for life. He no longer engaged in activities he had previously enjoyed. She explained that Andrew stopped playing rugby; his social life degenerated and he became withdrawn from his family. He did not seem to have any direction in life; neither did he know what career he wanted. Meanwhile his family attributed all this to adolescence and hoped it would pass. They did not expect Andrew’s condition to deteriorate to the present situation; neither did they attribute it to a mental disorder. At this point it was absolutel y clear that indeed Andrew was suffering from undifferentiated schizophrenia. When Andrew woke up he was much quieter and seemed to act more normally, except that he denied ever doing all the things that his colleagues had pointed out. He was not ready to face up to the fact that he was mentally ill and was still in denial. According to Warner (2004) it is common for people suffering from schizophrenia to deny their mental condition. Later on, the psychiatrist asked if I wanted to be involved in empowering Andrew to recover from his illness and I was