Mental State Examination Assignment | Homework For You

Question 1

You are asked to think about the mental health status of the client making reference to the Mental State Examination.

Make sure you think about the Mental State Examination (MSE) here and not the overall mental health assessment structure. You will learn more about this in Module 3. We want you to think about the present state / presentation of the client in terms of the components of the Mental State Examination such as: appearance and behaviors, affect, mood, thought form, thought content, perception, judgement and insight for example.

We also want to see that you can think about the client’s presentation with reference to the DSM V. You can do this by thinking about the specific criteria for diagnoses. Show that you can consider the criteria and how they may be relevant for this particular client in the case study. For example: you might want to suggest the client has depression or anxiety so show you have considered the criteria for depression or anxiety which are relevant and how.

We are expecting that you will have more literature other than the MSE and DSM V for question 1. You should also use other research papers.

Question 2

Asks you to show your understanding, using literature, of the Stress Vulnerability Model and Trauma Informed Care. It would be reasonable to use 100 words to provide a definition of both these concepts.

You are also asked to think about 2 contributing factors where you should make reference to the case study and literature. One contributing factor should demonstrate your knowledge of how stress may make a person more vulnerable to mental illness and another factor should identify an episode of trauma in the person’s life.

A good way to think about contributing factors are possible stressors or trauma which could have impacted on how a person thinks, feels and behaves.

Question 3

Question 3 asks you to show your understanding of the mental health recovery model / theory and to relate the recovery principles of respect, empowerment and hope to the client in the case study.

Ensure you relate your answer to the client in the case study and include relevant literature.

To help direct your thoughts for this question, you might want to ask ‘how can the health professional show respect or exercise a respectful to the client in this particular case study and how could this support his recovery?’ You might want to consider how his family can show a respectful attitude towards the client to better support his recovery or how could his employee be respectful give his current situation to support the client. Thinking about the wider community approach to mental health concerns may also be helpful here. i.e. how can the language used by members of the community support his recovery. ie non-stigmatising language. How can a health professional facilitate self-respect for the client?

You may want to ask these questions in relation to empowerment also. ie. how can a health profession, family, employer and the wider community offer greater empowerment to the client to support his recovery? How can this be helpful and why?