Health Psychologists, Caregivers - Research Paper Example

? ASPECTS OF TREATMENT Introduction ive experiences in patients normally come in phenomenally conscious mental s. Thesemental states occur in different ways. For instance, perceptual experience which involves: seeing, smelling or hearing of things affect how they behave. Body sensations which include hunger and pain also affect the patients (Mark, 2001). Emotions and moods on the other hand also affect patients’ behavior. Emotions include rage, fear and joy while mood is characterized by depression; elation and boredom. Patients with acute sickness and disturbed behavior are hospitalized since they need proper attention and care from the medical staff. They demand a lot of attention from the staff since they constantly have problems. Most of them relate to other patients in a therapeutic and in a social way. However, controlling them proves difficult when being given medication. Acutely ill patients are softly coerced into taking medicines. They are verbally reprimanded and sometimes denied some freedom or increased observation (Mark, 2001). Those patients who perceive the hospital environment as friendly are easy to control whereas those who do not view the hospital environment as friendly have difficult times trying to cope up. However, the love for the constant medical attention from the nurses and doctors made them appreciate the hospital. Clinical health psychologists also play an important role in ensuring that patients are on the right track towards full recovery. They are trained on disease processes and how the body and mind work together on an illness to ensure an individual deals with all the problems that presents itself with it. They work in health centers educating and advising patients after evaluating and testing them. For instance, they can work with arthritis patients on how to develop a treatment plan necessary for managing pain, relaxation techniques, doing exercises and all creative pain distraction forms. They may also help depressed patients recovering from heart surgeries to acquire alternative to drugs in yoga and massage. Clinical psychologists counsel patients suffering from long-term chronic ailments. This will help them a great deal in developing their self-esteem and improve their ability in taking control of hopeless situations. They also counsel families on the best way to care for their family members suffering from chronic conditions while maintaining the health of the caregiver. Some clinical psychologists specialize in preventive medicine and play the role of advising the public as a whole on ways of staying healthy through proper nutrition, exercise programs, and positive thinking. They take holistic approach to human health. They take keen interests in a patient’s physical illness, symptoms and the life experiences. This means that, clinical psychologists view patients in terms of their physical state, emotional state and how the two relates to one another. In addition to that, they also view patients in terms of how the community perceives them and the contribution they make to the society. All this are gathered as the patients’ biological characteristics, behavioral and social factors. This information is very important since it would be used for the better service of the patient. The relationship between physicians and patient is very important for a patient’s quick recovery. Research has shown that there is a healing power in any alliance between the physician and the patient. Patients who entrust themselves to physician’s care create weighty and definite ethical obligations (MaryJo, 1993). This close working together has a significant improvement in the health status and quality of life of the patient. This relationship should be based on trust with the patient giving all relevant information regarding the injury or illness while the physician is charged with the responsibility of giving accurate diagnoses and providing optimal recommendations for treatment. The physician is not supposed to reveal any confidential information regarding the patient. Physicians who bring a personal touch are appreciated by the patients. Patients in the hospital setting should respect the physicians and do as told. Rude patients are normally neglected by the physicians and they end up suffering a lot. Once, a cordial relationship is maintained between the physician and the patient, the patient can report any problem he or she is facing. This is important since any complications that may arise in the course of the treatment are detected early and medical interventions given (MaryJo, 1993). However, for out-patient patients, both parties should honor their appointments and make visits at the agreed date and time without failure. These ensure that the patient’s illness is monitored keenly and the patient recovery is hastened. There are many problems that may arise out of the patient-physician relationship. For instance, a patient may request for services such as abortion or contraceptive and this may conflict the physicians belief and principles. Some patients may also think they are wasting the clinician’s time and omit valuable details of their health history or feel embarrassed to point things they believe might put them in unfavorable light (MaryJo, 1993). Lack of understanding of the medical terminology can also ripple the relationship between the patient and the physician. It is therefore important for effective communication between the two parties to ensure a long lasting patient-physician relationship. The physicians should sit down and pay attention to the patient. In establishing eye contact, the physician should be able to acknowledge the feelings of the patient and ask them politely if there are other areas that need attention. In case, they disagree, the two should be patient with each other and listen to one another before making irrational conclusions. 3. Personal analysis (a) what personal dispositions and behaviors affect your mental and physical health? There are various things (personal behaviors) that affect mainly my mental and physical health such as drug abuse and alcohol, this it is quite horrible. There is guilt that is drawn in each time I use alcohol uncontrollably and take hard staffed drugs i.e. bhang and cocaine that have severe impacts to both mental and physical health. Mentally, this is revealed when am angry at something or under stresses (Leshner 1997). At this point the desire for me to drink or take these substances is too high. To me, this ‘behaviors’ relieves me from stresses not knowing how negative they impact on my mental health; in most cases am left redundant and android. The urge within me is insatiable in such a way that I never get to think of the resulting consequences which are very vital in most cases. These drugs do not go hand in hand with food, in turn my physical health get deteriorated due to poor eating habit or diet in short. Some have direct negative effects to my physical health, the chemical tend to harm me since the legality of these drugs do not matter to me at the time of use- am always out to quench my thirst. Generally, my moral judgment is deteriorating, I cannot make a personal decision myself, and this has impacted negatively to imperative life aspects such as job and family which are very significant in my life (Carrese & Rhodes 1995). The major problem is that I don’t do it out of my will but this behavior is usually compelled by external forces that push me (b) What do you find to be stressful in your professional and personal life and how do you cope with stress in each of these environments Sometimes bosses may never consider your views that are vital and more value to the organization. This makes me feel not appreciated in doing work and therefore affects my morale great length. This affects me but it gradually gets away with time (Massing 1998). Sometimes there are some occurrences that I find disturbing in my job place such as dishonesty by the fellow workmates, they can cheat to the boss just to suite their welfare without considering the effects and consequences to their fellow workmates i.e. workload making you get over worked. I have learnt to work with this since this is beyond my control and whenever I make a point of telling them this is not right since this is the only step I can take to make them realize their mistakes. Nobody is ready to give me a fair chance to express myself. I have leant to work within the set rules and moral ethics in this environment as a way to cope with stress (c) How do you feel about answering this question? Why is important that clinical health psychologists engage in self-analysis? Is self-disclosure appropriate? Why or why not? These questions are really disconcerting and may not be straight forward at once since they require some reflection first and more importantly some upsetting aspects. In a way these questions try to disclose information that cannot be readily unveiled from personal insight as it pertains self assessment (Davies 1996). Self assessment is actually the process enhances learning more about themselves. This is on what do you like and what you dislike, as well as how you react to a given situations. This helps you to understand your most suitable occupation as well as your working conditions that fit you. Self assessment acts as an important tool for the counselor and helps them to manage others who have psychological problems and this is way psychologists engage in self-analysis before providing a solutions to patients (Carrese & Rhodes 1995). In deed self –disclosure has to be appropriate since it expounds the credibility of the after step taken especially by psychologists or any other expert. It is the core ‘thing’ in self analysis as it provides the skeleton on what has to be assessed and what has to be taken in order to come up with a viable solution to patient’s problem. Question 4 Human psychology is one interesting topic in psychology. Human psychology is an area of specialization that defines the factors that affect human health. These factors can be biological, social, psychological and behavioral. It covers a wide area of illnesses and diseases and their implications. Health psychologists are professionals who try to understand the cause, effect and means of prevention of these illnesses. The role of the health psychologist is to assess for these possible cognitive issues. If present, the health psychologist should communicate these results to the patient's healthcare providers, caregivers, and if medically/psychologically appropriate, to the patient too. Health psychologists work in various places like hospitals, universities, private corporations or in settings that have certain specialization, e.g. women health. The salaries that they earn are dependent on their educational levels, geographical region, work setting and job experience among others (retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/od/psychologycareerprofiles/p/health-psychologist.htm on 31st October 2011). This section will outline some of the career paths in health psychology, the challenges and opportunities faced by those in the field, and the best means to deal with stress in those professions. A chartered health psychologist has the advantage that they can work in more than one area of the health sector. They are trained in vast of specialties like, public health, chronic disease, lifestyle diseases, stress control and alleviation and several other places. Their knowledge in all these fields is useful in more than one area and this works to their advantage. Their job opportunities are also broad and an employer would rather employ a chartered health psychologist with a variety of fields they have ventured in than a person who has just specialized. They also have one of the areas they can venture in is the smoking cessation programs where they are given the mandate to implement programs for education on smoking, its effects and measures to avoid, reduce or quit smoking (Mark, 2001).They are entitled to managing multi-disciplinary team of stop smoking advisors, providing a health psychology input for other public health initiatives, providing treatment services to people expressing an interest in stopping smoking. They can also work as care supporters, clinical health officers and also in the mental health service unit. They are faced with challenges of dealing with diverse patients who have different problems. For example, it is a challenge treating a person with a mental problem. Diagnosis and treatment is not easy while still dealing with normal stress levels of the individual. They deal with people having heart problems, stroke, infectious diseases, cancer, HIV/AIDS and children with abnormalities. It is generally difficult to deal with patients who have terminal illnesses and life threatening diseases (Carrese & Rhodes 1995). This can impose stress on the professional when they want to deal them. Professional approach to handling them is basic. These incorporate a wide area of diseases that they can deal with. The major challenge that chartered health psychologist’s face is the poor salaries they receive. It is a fact that they perform a lot of hard and important work in the health sector as health providers but their salaries are not attractive. This discourages other people venturing into this field because of the poor pay. Unions that campaign for increase in pay can be formed to make the governments reconsider the pay these professionals receive. A senior lecturer in health psychology has the qualifications of working in the field itself or being the teacher. For them to qualify into being the lecturer they have studied widely in health psychology. This widens their scope of knowledge and makes them employable in various places other than teaching institutions. A retired lecturer is more likely to get a job in the health sector even without the hands on experience. If they had ventured in the practical field at first it will be and added advantage because they are the armed with knowledge both practically and theoretically (Davies 1996). A lecturer is well paid because of their education level, to be a lecturer one has to do a Masters program that will further the basics they had studied in. one of the main challenges that a lecturer in health psychology may get is that when they get into the health sector after being well equipped theoretically, it can be a shortcoming. In a technologically improving society where online studies are increasingly being used, the job opportunities for lecturers reducing, their specialization may at one point become irrelevant. With the main place where they can search for a job being the education institutions, it becomes hard for them to find opportunities elsewhere (Massing 1998). A health psychologist lecturer can opt to venture in practical practice by establishing their own health centers were their services will be much needed and they are given the opportunity to practice what they teach A researcher in health psychology has the responsibility of conducting studies and research that result in factual information that have the ability to solve existing problems or foreseen challenges. They conduct researches in laboratory experiments, field experiments, natural experiments, naturalistic experiments and investigations that use co relational analysis. They conduct researches on a variety of health related issues. The work of a researcher in health psychology is important because it helps in the diagnosis of the patient’s illnesses, preventive measures that can be take to alleviate the disease and promotion techniques. Their results after laboratory results for example will determine the kind of treatment that they can receive. A researcher has opportunities widely in research institutions and not only health places. They have the ability to provide their services in more than one workplace (MaryJo, 1993). Health psychology care givers are individuals that provide basic care to individuals that have minimal or no ability of providing taking care of them either physically or emotionally. Respite care is a service where another trained person or staff at a facility provides short-term care for a few hours to a few days for your loved one giving you some time away from care giving. Emotional caregivers provide moral support to their patients. Caregivers face a lot of stress in relating to patients who have very sick. It can be stressful but also fulfilling. Mainly it depends with the kind of patients in their hands. A professional care giver is however at a better ability to cope and deal with the kind of problems they are likely to face when giving care. Caregivers normally undergo higher levels of stress and anxiety than other people. It is advisable for a caregiver to be emotionally stable and have the ability to see others go through pain. They should take care of themselves first before providing care to others. It is a difficult task to have in case someone who is ailing so much. It is difficult to handle them and it requires a lot of strength to do it. Professional caregivers are trained on how to deal with certain types of difficulties and it is instilled in them. The main challenge is that they do not have many places that they can look for jobs. Their main areas of job places being adult centers, institutional care centers and health care facilities. They must have self efficacy, i.e. the ability to manage and cope with different situations and tasks (Mark, 2001). The other main challenge is the unattractive care they get despite of the work they do. Better pay and good working conditions should be met for these workers well being. References Kenda, Cherry. “What Is a Health Psychologist?” Accessed on 31st October 2011 from http://psychology.about.com/od/psychologycareerprofiles/p/health-psychologist.htm Mark, Moran. “Understanding Subjective Experience of Patients Treatment.”Psychiatric News March 4, 2011 vol. 46 (5). MaryJo, Ludwig (1993). “Physician-Patient Relationship.” Accessed on 31st October 2011 from http://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/physpt.html Carrese, J. A., & Rhodes, L. A. (1995). Western bioethics on the Navajo reservation. JAMA, 274, 826-829. Davies, J. B. (1996). Reasons and causes: Understanding substance users’ explanations for their behaviour. Human Psychopharmacology, 11, 39-48. Leshner, A. I. (1997). Addiction is a brain disease, and it matters. Science, 278,45?47. Massing,M. (1998). The Fix. University of California Press Ltd; London England Read More