Client Addiction Discussion

Co-Occurring clients are often in treatment for substance use and mental health disorders. Their treatment is trickier than those who only have one of these disorders. For this assignment, you will research the complicated relationship between mental health and substance use disorders. For example, clients diagnosed with mood disorders often turn to alcohol or illicit substances to regulate their moods.

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Select one of the hypothetical client scenarios. Briefly summarize the scenario and propose some health problems that the client might have as a result of his/her illicit drug/alcohol use. Research the interaction between the drug use and the mental health disorder use your textbook and three other academic sources to support your ideas. Explain how the drug directly affects the person’s nervous system.

First Part: Select a scenario

Darren

Darren is a 24-year-old male who was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and Bipolar Disorder. He was diagnosed with ADHD at age seven by pediatric neurologist and started to take stimulants to reduce the impulsivity. During his late high school years, he became violent with his mother. He suffered mood swings that did not seem related to the ADHD. His psychiatrist and psychologist added Bipolar Disorder to his diagnosis. He was prescribed antidepressants in addition to his other medications.

He was able to develop skills to manage his attention without medication. He stopped taking stimulants for his ADHD. However, he continued to take medications for the Bipolar Disorder diagnosis. These included Abilify and Clonidine. Darren did not like taking either of those drugs, so he began to experiment with using a combination of marijuana and cocaine to manage his moods. Darren is now addicted to using marijuana and feels that he cannot function without it.

Darren needs treatment for his drug use, but will also need help with his bipolar disorder symptoms too. He lives with a girlfriend who has threatened to move out if he does not get treatment soon. He wants to change, but insists that his marijuana use is the only thing that stabilizes his moods.

Rhonda

Rhonda is a 32-year-old mother of two young children who has a history of depression (including post-partum) and alcoholism. She smokes two packs of cigarettes a day and drinks the equivalent of two bottles of wine a day. She was initially diagnosed with depression as a teenager. From the age of 13 to 18, she used self-injury to alleviate her stress and depression. She received treatment and stopped cutting. However, she began drinking and smoking in place of cutting.

Rhonda suffered intense periods of depression after the birth of both children. Her doctor prescribed Prozac and Wellbutrin at different times. She did not think that the medications worked very well, so she often took double doses of her medications along with wine. She continued to see a therapist during these times, but did not reveal that she was drinking.

Rhonda was referred to treatment because of a Driving Under the Influence arrest. She revealed that she has been drinking and smoking cigarettes throughout the day to treat her depression. She does not think that her medications work. Her husband will support her recovery as long as she promises to stop drinking and take her depression medication.

Part One (about two pages)

Summarize the scenario explaining why the client is considered “dually diagnosed.”

Using your research, explain the health problems that can occur from using the specifically mentioned illicit drug/alcohol. What are the effects on the body/brain?

Part Two (about two pages)

Using your research, explain how the specific illicit drug/alcohol impacts the person’s mental health disorder (e.g. someone diagnosed with anxiety and takes a stimulant will have increased anxiety).

Explain the specific problems that exist in treating the dual diagnosed (e.g. setting for treatment, interventions, medical treatment).

This is an essay so be sure you are weaving the answers to the questions into a well-written academic essay. The viewpoint and purpose should be clearly established and sustained. The writing should be well ordered, logical and unified, as well as original and insightful. The essay should be 1200 words (not including the title and reference page) supported by current research, and formatted according to the most recent edition of the APA manual.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, 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. Client Addiction Discussion

Client Addiction Discussion

Client Addiction Discussion