Clinical Psychology at Kingwood Pines - Research Paper Example

? Clinical Psychology Table of Contents I. INTRODUCTION 3 II. VENUE 4 III. TASK 5 IV. CONCLUSION 7 References 9 I. INTRODUCTION Kingwood Pines is a psychiatric hospital and mental health facility located in Kingwood, Texas. The site details its areas of expertise as relating to programs of hospitalization for patients suffering from dependencies from chemicals, psychiatric health problems, and behavioral health problems. The hospitalization programs run the gamut of in-patient, partial, out-patient, hospitalization options, with a total capacity of 116 inpatient beds that are licensed, including 16 beds for dependencies to chemicals, 18 for adult psychology cases, 16 for geriatric care, 34 beds for adolescents, and 16 beds for children. All of the doctors have licenses to practice general psychiatry, with three doctors specializing in addiction psychiatry, and two doctors in forensic psychiatry. Its range of programs, meanwhile, include adult chemical dependencies and alcohol abuse programs, adult psychiatric programs, adolescent psychiatric programs, child psychiatric programs and geriatric psychiatric programs (Kingwood Pines Hospital, n.d.). There are many reasons to choose this hospital from among a number of potential choices, chief among them being that they have a reputation for excellence in the key areas of clinical psychology that they listed among their areas of expertise, and especially with regard to their adult psychiatric and chemical dependencies programs. That reputation is well-deserved, judging from the word of mouth on the quality of care in the hospital, the high quality of its medical staff, and the quality of the facilities themselves, not to mention the high level of specialization in terms of the programs they have on offer and the inpatient beds allocated for each of those focus programs. The seal of approval from the Joint Commission is a further testament to the quality of the hospital itself, and the quality of the insights to be gleaned from focusing on the facility for this paper (Kingwood Pines Hospital, n.d.). II. VENUE From the available materials on the site we are able to gather data relating to the venue. Kingwood Pines Hospital is a psychiatric hospital that offers a wide variety of programs that are both in-patient and out-patient in nature, and also includes partial hospitalization options for a number of psychiatric conditions, focusing on adult psychiatric services, chemical dependencies services and drug abuse services, geriatric psychiatric services, adolescent psychiatric services, and child psychiatric services. The population served includes those residing around the Kingwood, Texas area, as well as from patients from other parts of the state and the general United States. The available data also shows that the hospital has a total capacity of 116 inpatient cases, with the breakdown per category of patients by age and by need being broken down in the Introduction. Data on outpatient services are not readily available, but the hospital does provide free assessments on the state of mental health of people seeking help round the clock seven days a week. An Admissions Coordinator can be reached through a number advertised on the website likewise on a round the clock and seven days a week basis. The Admissions Coordinator does not undertake by phone or online assessments, but coordinates in-premise assessment schedules. Also, as discussed above, the hospital offers both inpatient and outpatient psychiatric services, as well as psychiatric services on a partial hospitalization basis (Kingwood Pines Hospital, n.d.; Kingwood Pines Hospital, n.d. (b)). Across all age categories, therapy services range from psychiatric services, to behavioral health services, to substance abuse and chemical dependencies services. The range of therapy arrangements, moreover, extend from individual to group, family, art, pet and recreational therapeutic options across all ages as well. In terms of assessment, in-site assessment services for those seeking help are given for free, and those assessment services relate to all of the psychiatric programs that are on offer, across all age groups as well. There are no assessment services online or through the phone, but an Assessment Coordinator fields online queries and phone calls on a round the clock and round the year basis. The assessment services provided in the hospital are likewise round the clock and all week (Kingwood Pines Hospital, n.d.; Kingwood Pines Hospital, n.d. (b)). The hospital takes in queries for help and assessment from a number of channels, including online and via a provided telephone number, and presumably offline from referrals and from other third party agencies as well. The presence of the online and phone channels guarantees that those who seek help will be provided free assessment on schedule. Given the nature of the services provided in the hospital moreover, and the private nature of the hospital, there are fees to the services and programs. On the other hand, all of the assessment services and support services online and via phone are free of charge (Kingwood Pines Hospital, n.d.; Kingwood Pines Hospital, n.d. (b)). III. TASK Swartz et al. (1998) note that there is a correlation found between the abuse of certain substances coupled with an inability to adhere to prescribed medications on the one hand and the increases in risks related to the person committing violence that is considered as serious. This is for people suffering from illnesses mentally, where the classification of the illnesses is severe, and who are taking prescription medication for the purpose. These subjects also are those who have been entered into a treatment facility against their wishes, or without their consent. In all the population sample was 331. These patients were about to be entered into outpatient treatment modalities. The findings from interviews that looked at a host of factors are that substance abuse, or the intake of alcohol, coupled with the non-taking of medication prescribed for their condition, upped the risk of the subjects undertaking acts of violence that have serious consequences. Factors that are social-demographic as well as the characteristics of the subjects pertaining to the clinical aspects were subjected to control. The conclusion from this study is that the presence of those two factors had the effect of elevating the risk of violent actuations, where the subjects already have mental illnesses that are severe. Consequently, one way to reduce such violence risks is to co-treat the mental illnesses as well as the abuse of substances or the abuse of alcohol as the case may be. There is also the matter of making sure that the subjects adhere to their prescription medication protocols (Swartz et al., 1998). In Najavits, Weiss and Shaw (1997), on the other hand, a correlation was determined to be in existence between post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD among women, such as those that arise from assault that is physical and/or sexual in nature done repetitively over a certain period of time on the one hand, and the abuse of substances on the other. The more severe the PTSD, the more severe the abuse of substances is, with those suffering from the most acute forms of PTSD abusing the most potent substances in various forms of opioids and cocaine. The findings are that there may be relief for such patients by treating both the substance abuse condition as well as the underlying PTSD, when determined to likewise be in existence. The same correlation exists in men, to a lesser degree (Najavits, Weiss and Shaw, 1997). In Kendler et al. (2000), meanwhile, there was a link established between childhood sexual abuse or CSA on the one hand and the uptick in risks for psychiatric illnesses of all kinds, including the abuse of substances. At issue in the study is whether various forms of CSA impacted risks for acquiring psychiatric illnesses in adulthood for women, and to what extent. At issue too is whether other factors than CSA, such as other background variables related to the family, were responsible for the severity of later psychiatric problems tied to CSA. The findings are that the CSA are strongly linked to a wide range of unpredictable psychoses in adult life, even as the impact of other factors were not excluded to be significant as well (Kendler et al., 2000). There are many common threads in the three articles, one of them being that there are underlying deep causes to substance abuse, such as CSA, and PTSD, that need to be examined in order to effectively deal with the substance abuse. Moreover, substance abuse in itself can cause a range of consequences, such as increased violence. The studies impact the way psychiatrists deal with various forms of substance abuse in therapy programs, such as those offered at Kingwood (Najavits, Weiss and Shaw, 1997; Swartz et al., 1998; Kendler et al., 2000; Kingwood Pines Hospital, n.d.). IV. CONCLUSION This assignment taught me many things, including that there are treatment facilities that excel at certain forms of psychiatric illnesses, and that such treatment facilities as Kingwood serve a vital role in helping those suffering from all kinds of mental disorders. It is worth noting that Kingwood offers its assessment services free of charge all year and at all times, extending that line of help to anyone who wishes to seek help. Moreover, the online presence guarantees that people who do need their help are able to seek them out in the most expeditious way possible. It matters though that the hospital only undertakes its assessment services on-premise, meaning that those who live within the environs of Kingwood are at an advantage over those who may have to travel longer distances in order to get to the facility. In that case other treatment facilities may be more feasible. The assignment also taught me about the possible underlying causes of some psychiatric disorders that are being treated at Kingwood, such as substance abuse. PTSD and CSA are important underlying causes that need to be addressed, if they exist in people suffering from substances abuse, alcohol abuse, and/or are dependent on all kinds of chemicals. Finally, the assignment also taught me that psychiatric illnesses are complex and need to be dealt with with great care and sensitivity to the underlying causes (Najavits, Weiss and Shaw, 1997; Swartz et al., 1998; Kendler et al., 2000; Kingwood Pines Hospital, n.d.). References Kendler, K. et al. (2000). Childhood Sexual Abuse and Adult Psychiatric and Substance Use Disorders in Women: An Epidemiological and Cotwin Control Analysis. Archive of General Psychiatry 57 (10). Retrieved from http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=481660 Kingwood Pines Hospital (n.d.). About Us. KingwoodPines.com. Retrieved from http://www.kingwoodpines.com/about-us/ Kingwood Pines Hospital (n.d.(b)). Admissions. KingwoodPines.com. Retrieved from http://www.kingwoodpines.com/admissions/ Najavits, L., Weiss, R. and Shaw, S. (1997). The Link Between Substance Abuse and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Women. The American Journal on Addictions. 6 (4). Retrieved from http://www.seekingsafety.org/7-11-03%20arts/1997_link%20bt%20SA%20and%20PTSD.pdf Swartz, M. et al. (1998). Violence and Severe Mental Illness: The Effects of Substance Abuse and Nonadherence to Medication. The American Journal of Psychiatry 155 (2). Retrieved from http://journals.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?Volume=155&page=226&journalID=13 Read More