Adolescent Healthcare - Essay Example

Background information Eunice was born on 12 February 2003 to a family, which was financially average. She is a female having three siblings whereby two are boys, and one is a girl. The boys are aged six years and another one thirteen years while the girl is aged sixteen years. The family’s background is humble and practice mixed farming. They grow crops and rare animals, which enables them to upkeep themselves as parents and children. Her parents are married, and they live together. The father completed High School while the mother dropped out of High School due to fees problems as her family was not financially stable. Physical Health Eunice was born a normal child, she was taken to the hospital at the age of 3 months, and her weight was 5.5 Kilograms. It is pertinent to note that her height was 23 inches, however; this was normal for her age. She was taken to hospital regularly for the first six months, and she appeared healthy. After the six months, visiting the hospital Eunice was not taken back to the hospital until she was 11 months old. At that time, her weight was 7.7 Kilograms and this was described as not pleasant for her health. After that, the doctors described that despite her weight she was alert and had normal primary teeth for her age. When she was 14 months, she developed pneumonia and she was taken to a different hospital such that a different doctor can attend her. Because of her fever, it was difficult to assess her development also the doctor observed and comment that she was showing signs of possible retardation (Tsiantis 93). Eunice's father took advantage of using the said possible retardation as prove of subsequent abuse and isolation that Eunice suffered. Eunice's living conditions were deteriorating at all best. She was confined to a small room behind the house, and harnessed to an infant potty seat. She was left to seat on the chair being unable to move anything except her toes, hands, feet and fingers. She was later placed in a bed with wire-meshed sides whereby the wire mesh covered her forehead. All these she went through for 8years. Her father did not like any noise so there was no radio and television, also talking was little and in a low tone. Eunice heard little and no language outside, the only thing that she could hear was the noises from bathroom. Everywhere was closed in her room with only one exception, which was one window kept open several inches and this made her hear some environmental noises (Tsiantis 112). Eunice father did not allow anyone to talk to her. Eunice learned to keep quiet from early stages of her life, this happened because her father would beat her up whenever she made noise. It is for this reason that he would sometimes crawl and barks like a dog in his bid to warn Eunice. I wondered where Eunice’ mother was, during all this time but I came to realize later realized that she had become blind. The father and brother of Eunice were her caretakers. Eunice was fed three times in a day in which she had not received any punishment. She used to eat soft-boiled egg, cereals, and baby foods. Eunice lived a life of this kind until she was 13 years. Her mother fought with her father till her mother decided to take Eunice and she escaped. They escaped and went to Eunice grandmother's home where they stayed for some time. Eunice' mother started applying for financial assistance for their aid. This aimed at treating their daughter, however, the process of requesting funds led to the discovery of Eunice whereby she was taken to custody. Charges were filed against parents and when the trials were to be mentioned; her father killed himself after complaining that the world does not understand. After all that, Eunice was admitted to the hospital. She was not able to pass out urine, she could not stand up straight, unable to communicate, could not see properly, and she was silent human being who was unable to socialize and was strange. Eunice was assigned a doctor to ensure her positive trend. Later a team of doctors and other professionals decided to come together to educate, and rehabilitate her to the extent possible in her education. In the earliest observations, doctors identified that Eunice would understand a few single words and some negative commands. She used to zero in on single words while she ignored the sentences which occurred by using gestures to make sense of the speech communicated to her. Eunice started to learn her first language when she was 14 years. As the rehabilitation continues testing, observation and findings were varied which were difficult for doctors to interpret. It was noted by doctors that in some ways, her behavior was a mixture of 2, 5, and 13 years old child. This contradiction made doctors have a debate on whether Eunice was born when brain was damaged or not. Studies were made on Eunice and it was found to show that there were extreme spindles, which characterized mental retardation. It was found also that, psychological tests to measure mental age indicated that every year since rehabilitation started, her mental age increased by one year. However, this was not a characteristic of mental retardation (Tsiantis 120). After three years of study it was documented that Eunice had a lazy character, reliance on gestures, delayed response and a limited sound production. In contrast to all these, she appeared to pay attention to any conversation around her. She used the language in various ways based on her ability to recall past events. It was concluded that Eunice was a right hemisphere thinker as she was using the right hemisphere for language. Eunice language was abnormal in some ways as in her phonological system the rules were optional. Many deletions and substitutions distorted phonological structure to some extent her speech was made impossible to understand. The substitutions she had were random and utilized a class of sounds. Vowel sounds were not substituted for consonants and consonants were not substituted for vowel sounds. In addition, she was able to understand the meaning of each day English sentences but she could not understand grammatical rules. It was difficult for her put together words in a normal and grammatical way. Prediction of Child's Development As per the current progress of Eunice in the next one year, she will be able to understand and communicate well with the doctors, her mother, and even everyone else. This will only be done successfully when the doctors assign him qualified personnel. It is pertinent to note that such a doctor should be able to understand, and communicate to her well. For example, when Eunice is talking, she mixes words in her sentence. Not everyone but only a qualified psychologist might understand this. In addition, there must be enough funds to support her in any medication required and any other instrument or facility required the doctors. In the next five years, Eunice will be able to start learning in school like any other student. This is true, as she will have been exposed to various environments they can interact with people and any other creature in the environment. As per the support she is given by the doctors she will be able to proceed on well and be resourceful person and thereafter assist her mother and her siblings in the future, something which is not believable now (Vaccaro 183). In the current situation, only after two years of treatment, and rehabilitation by the doctors, she is able to pay attention when people are talking, and can understand English. This shows that in the next three years Eunice will be an improved and a different person from who she is now. In the next ten years, she will be studying in high school or even college and will have come out of all difficulties affecting her. This will be a marvelous achievement to her family doctors, and society especially after her attainment of robust health condition and academic excellence. Strengths Eunice is quick to learn and understand. This will make her pick and understand the language being used by doctors who are attending and assisting her. This is indicated as she can pick what the doctor teaches her, and was able to engage in conversations something, which was not there in her. As per the family, her mother is hard working and cannot lose hope as she decided to run away with her daughter after being mistreated by her husband. She went on to look for financial assistance whilst expressing confidence that her daughter would be out of illness one day. Remember that she did all these when she had gone blind and still worked hard. The community as a whole, should come together with their leaders, and raise funds which will be used to assist families, and children having problems like that of Eunice. If the community would contribute to the assistance of Eunice, the doctors would have had an easy going as they could have assisted Eunice in a much better way. In addition, the community should understand that it would be achievement to the community when Eunice excels in her education after being out of illness. The problem in the behavior of Eunice is that, she is still mixing words in the grammatical construction of sentences, which may delay the work of doctors in assisting her to understand the language well. In the side of her family, it will be difficult since it is only her mother, who can work to make sure the child is proceeding well following the demise of her father. In addition, the mother is blind and this brings in many difficulties in her and that of the daughter. In addition, the family is poor financially and will not be able to assist in education and treatment of her daughter. It would have been much better if both parents were a live and responsible. The community are not wiling in any way to assist Eunice, and her family, as they did no come in all that time until Eunice was discovered, and taken into custody. My predictions may not be accurate as I based on the information I got after observing the behavior of the child, interviewing parents, and the views of doctors. The parents may have exaggerated the information and the child was out of his mind during the illness (Vaccaro 73). In addition, in the side of doctors, it is not accurate as they were commenting as per the experiments; they did which might be having some errors of omission, and commission. Conclusion As far as child development is concerned, parents should be taught to accept the state of their children, and assist them as early as possible such that future problems are eliminated. If Eunice' father could accept her state, he would embark on her treatment immediately. Her life and development could have been saved before contracting other diseases, which deemed detrimental to her future. The community should come together to form groups where they can assist those who are poor in the society, and improve the standard of living in the community as whole. The government should educate people and advice them to save money on various institutions which will assist the in times of emergencies. Doctors should act as role models to families and community as they came in and promised to assist Eunice in her treatment. They also paid all the required fees until she completed her education. It is fundamental to maintain health of a child as that is the beginning of her future life. This is because when he/she develops problems at his/her early age her entire future may be destroyed. References Tsiantis, John. Assessing Change in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy of Children and Adolescents. Worcester: Karnac Books, 2010. Vaccaro, Leslie. Interagency collaboration in service provision for children and adolescents with emotional disturbance in state custody. Canada: ProQuest, 2009. Read More