Peer Response 1&@

Post 1
Patients admitted on grounds of mental health disturbance need as much care and support as physically ill patients. Most mild to moderate cases of mental illness can easily be managed at home, through an outpatient clinic. From my clinical experience, taking schizophrenia for example, most of these patients are cared for at home by the family they live with. Readmissions are at times noted for these patients and their main reason for readmission is usually that they are often misunderstood by their families. Misunderstanding at most times is usually about their medication pattern. It is important that the nurse, the patient and family members have a collective discussion on the patient’s lifestyle activities. With those in mind, the plan of care should then include their fun activities; taking medication as prescribed should then grant them access to these activities, which serves as motivation to proper medication.
Considering the patient’s personal choices, values and preference in decision-making has proven useful in situations where there is not a clear strategy for treatment of choice (L Fraenkel, 2013). With mental health treatment in particular, different individuals process the psychotic episodes differently, according to the brain function and overall physical, socio-economin and psychological experiences. When the clinical team learns to always find out more facts about the patient personal view on the aspects of the disease, they know how to better and personalize their treatment plan. The aspects can be sought after when reviewing the patient’s triggers. The answers then help the team advice the family members and nurses caring for the patient on how to avoid introducing triggering circumstances to the patient, and even how to calm them down when they are going through an episode.
Post 2
I have worked in long-term care for several years. I can say I enjoyed the experience very much. I have had patients in our care for ten years and more. Many of my patients have Alzheimer’s disease and Dementia. Dementia is characterized by the impairment of cognition and behavior of people over 65 years. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder in the world. Approximately 47 million people are affected by this disease, and the tendency is that this number will increase to 62% by 2030 (Dos Santos Picanco et al., 2018). One particular patient stood out to me. She was in her 60s. She was placed there because she was getting forgetful and wandering at times. She was staying with her daughter, who was married and had a baby. The family “had no time for her” they both worked, and the baby went to a sitter. No one at home to care for this patient; hence she was placed in a nursing home. This patient was able to care for herself, feed herself, etc. She likes to go out to the park and go shopping, but her daughter would come and visit only on holidays.
Many families do not understand the disease process. It is a slow and gradual deterioration of memory that affects language, personality, or cognitive control. Many times their loved ones can stay at home with supervision. This patient had no preferences in deciding where she would stay. She would prefer to be at home; however, she does not have a say in her treatment plan. Not incorporating patient preferences and values has negatively impacted this patient, which caused her to become depressed. She sometimes verbalized how her daughter abandoned her and took her house.
Decisions to make about medical and legal issues include; whether your loved one should continue to drive, when its time for nursing home or assisted living, when its time for palliative care, and what kind of end-of-life care and surroundings your loved one wants (The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, 2019). The ability to make decisions seriously affects the quality of life of patients and their relatives since they frequently face important decisions, especially concerning healthcare, finance, or accommodation(Gaubert et al., 2021). Care for these patients can be a burden to the caregiver at times. One has to keep up with medication to slow symptoms, ensure they eat well, care for their bladder and bowel function, and reorient them as needed.
I would use the decision aid inventory to find out more about the disease process and how to incorporate my loved ones in the decision-making process even though cognitively they might not make the best choices, but at least give them the option of having a say in their treatment plan. Doing a questionnaire about risks vs. benefits can help. For safety reasons having 24hr care can be beneficial as long as family support is in place.

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