Assignment: Case Study on Adolescent Risk Behaviors

Assignment: Case Study on Adolescent Risk Behaviors

A Sample Answer For the Assignment: Assignment: Case Study on Adolescent Risk Behaviors

Title:  Assignment: Case Study on Adolescent Risk Behaviors

Case Study Overview

In this case study, I will discuss the case of Angela, a 17-year-old female with symptoms of increased fatigue in the past two months. She also reports weight gain increased irritability and tearfulness. Besides, she reports that she always feels tired and has lost interest in day-to-day activities. On general examination, she is obese and has mild acne and further states that she feels unhappy with her looks. Nonetheless, she denies having suicidal ideations. Laboratory work-ups conducted came out negative. She is diagnosed with adolescent depressive disorder.

The Evaluation Tool and why it is Essential in The Care of Adolescent Patient Population

The evaluation tool used in taking history, assessment and diagnosis of Angela’s case is the ‘Patient Health Questionnaire for Adolescents’ (PHQ-A). The tool was modified from the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) for use in adolescent patients and is tailored to help recognize common disorders affecting them (Mitchell, Yadegarfar, Gill & Stubbs, 2016). The PHQ-A consists of simple questions and is administered to patients who respond to them as yes or no. Its primary purpose is to assess adolescents for anxiety, eating habits, and substance use and mood disorders. Adolescents are at a high risk of developing mental disorders such as anorexia nervosa, depression, suicide, or drug-induced psychosis (Gadomski, Scribani, Krupa, & Jenkins, 2014). Furthermore, the tool categorizes the severity of the mental disorder as none, minimal, moderate, moderately severe and severe (El-Den, Chen, Gan, Wong & O’Reilly, 2018). The PHQ-A tool is highly useful in helping mental health professionals and clinicians in early identification, treatment and appropriate management of mental disorders in the adolescent population.

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Findings of Scholarly Research Articles to the Use of the PHQ-A Tool

Researches on the PHQ-A tool have found the tool acceptable and efficient in detecting and recognizing mental conditions in

adolescents who are at a high risk owing to their physical, emotional and mental growth. In screening for adolescents having a major depressive disorder, the tool was found to have a sensitivity of 0.73 and a specificity of 0.94 (El-Den et al., 2018). It has also facilitated in evaluating patients’ response to therapy. Besides, care based on the severity of the mental disorder has revealed better health outcomes, especially in patients diagnosed with depression, anxiety and somatoform disorders (Mitchell, Yadegarfar, Gill & Stubbs, 2016). Additionally, the adoption of the tool in assessment has significantly helped mental health providers in avoiding medical errors such as over- and under- treatment.

Furthermore, it has also facilitated in monitoring patients’ response, modification of treatment, and in the assessment of the quality of health care provided to patients. The PHQ-A tool is currently translated into over 60 languages, which makes it a reliable tool that can be used in early screening and treatment of adolescent mental conditions worldwide (El-Den et al., 2018). Nevertheless, there is undefined ability of the tool in improving the patient’s outcome if only a single mental disorder is screened for (Mitchell, Yadegarfar, Gill & Stubbs, 2016). For instance, screening for suicide alone might not be useful in improving the overall patient’s outcome.

Application of the PHQ-A Tool to a Patient Situation

Angela was screened for mental disorders using the PHQ-A tool based on her presenting symptoms such as increased fatigue, lack of

interest and feelings of tearfulness and unhappiness. Most points were awarded for responses on feeling tired, depressed, overeating, feeling bad about oneself, restlessness, and lack of interest. However, no point was awarded on responses to thoughts of being better dead or hurting oneself. The results reveal a score of 18 out of 27, which falls under moderately severe depression. The tool will help plan a treatment plan for Angela to manage the condition and promote a better quality of life for her.

Patient’s Plan of Care

Management of a depressive disorder in adolescents is best managed with combination therapy of psychotherapy and medication. The management of Angela’s condition will involve psychological and pharmacologic treatment. Psychological therapy will include:

1. Cognitive therapy. This will include monitoring and identifying automatic thoughts and replacing negative thoughts with positive thoughts (Clarke et al., 2015). For example, replacing negative views of her body image with positive thoughts on how she can lose weight and have an acne-free face.
2. Psycho-educational therapy. The patient will be provided with information about her symptoms, causes, pathophysiologic process and the treatment interventions available.
3. Family-focused Treatment. This will involve educating the family about her condition to help the patient improve her communication with her family and also improve her problem-solving technique (Davis, 2016). Sharing her problems with her family and appropriate solving will help her reduce the unhappy episodes.
4. Behavioral therapy. This will aim at changing the patient’s undesired behaviors to more desirable ones to improve the overall outcome (Clarke et al., 2015). For instance, advising the patient to have a daily physical activity routine to help her in losing weight and remain active throughout with no episodes of fatigue.
5. Health education on the importance of a healthy diet. Advice on eating a balanced diet will help her in losing weight and further maintain healthy skin.

Pharmacologic therapy will comprise of antidepressants to increase the levels of serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain (Davis, 2016). This includes Amitriptyline 100mg qDay and Fluoxetine 20mg qDay.

This discussion assignment provides a forum for discussing relevant topics for this week based on the course competencies covered. For this assignment, make sure you post your initial response to the Discussion Area by the due date assigned.
To support your work, use your course textbook readings and the South University Online Library. As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format.
Start reviewing and responding to the postings of your classmates as early in the week as possible. Respond to at least two of your classmates\’ initial postings. Participate in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing a point of view with a rationale, challenging an aspect of the discussion, or indicating a relationship between two or more lines of reasoning in the discussion. Cite sources in your responses to other classmates. Complete your participation for this assignment by the end of the week.
For this assignment, you will complete an iHuman case study based on the course objectives and weekly content. iHuman cases emphasize core learning objectives for an evidence-based primary care curriculum. Throughout your nurse practitioner program, you will use the iHuman case studies to promote the development of clinical reasoning through the use of ongoing assessments and diagnostic skills and to develop patient care plans that are grounded in the latest clinical guidelines and evidence-based practice.
The iHuman assignments are highly interactive and a dynamic way to enhance your learning. Material from the iHuman cases may be present in the quizzes, the midterm exam, and the final exam.
Click here for information on how to access and navigate iHuman.
This week, complete the iHuman case titled \”Angela Cotez V3.1 PC\”.
Apply information from the iHuman Case Study to answer the following questions:
Describe the evaluation tool and explain why this tool is essential in the care of the adolescent patient population.
Apply the findings of the scholarly research articles to the use of this evaluation tool and describe its validity and reliability.
Apply this evaluation tool to a patient situation and summarize your opinion of the results.
Describe a plan of care for the patient, depending upon the results.
Submission Details:
Post your initial response to the Discussion Area by Saturday. Respond to at least two posts by the end of the week, Wednesday. Week starts on Thursday and ends on the following Wednesday.
Your initial post is due on Saturday.
Your two peer responses are due no later than Wednesday. The expectation is that you reply to your peers on more than 2 days before Wednesday to receive full credit.
Please make sure you are using scholarly references and should not be older than 5 years. Your posts/references must be in APA format.
Please follow the discussion rubric to make sure you have addressed the discussion criteria.

For assignments that need to be submitted to Lopes Write, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.

Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.

Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?

Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.

Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.

If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.

I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.

As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:

Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.

Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• Student paper example
• Citing Sources
• The Writing Center is a great resource