Schizoaffective Disorder - Essay Example

Introduction

Mr. Albondigas seems to be experiencing hallucinations and delusions because he thinks that the maintenance personnel are sending signals to aliens about him and other inmates, and he sees a flying saucer in the exercise yard. According to Williams (2012), there are various mental disorders that expose the patients to hallucinations and delusions. In this particular case of Mr. Albondigas, the two most likely mental illnesses that might be affecting him are either schizoaffective disorder or psychosis. Although, schizoaffective disorder is a rare condition that affects approximately 0.3% of the entire population (Moore 2004), it shares similar symptoms as those that Mr. Albondigas is experiencing. The common symptoms in both psychosis and schizoaffective disorder as explained by Williams (2012) include hallucinations and delusions. Hallucination makes the patient hear sounds or voices, smell aromas and see things that do not exist in the real world. On the another hand, delusions involve holding beliefs and ideas that cannot be explained as part of one’s culture, background or religion, and those that normal people might perceive unrealistic or bizarre. However, according to Moore (2004), the patients suffering from schizoaffective disorder hold their bizarre and unrealistic beliefs/ideas completely true without casting any doubts on them. This means that Mr. Albondigas, if suffering from schizoaffective disorder, does not have any doubt in his mind that the maintenance personnel have been sending signals to aliens about him and other inmates.

In addition, according to Moore (2004), patients suffering from psychosis experience delusional behaviors which make them to start believing that there is a conspiracy to harm them. This might be the reason as to why Mr. Albondigas has decided to hold the maintenance personnel and the corrections officer hostage in efforts to gain leverage towards advocating for his safety. Moreover, according to a study that was conducted by Szalavitz (2013), 26% of patients suffering from psychosis commit minor violence which include assaults without using weapons while 12% others commit serious violence such as injurious assaults using lethal weapons and sexual attacks. The author associates these acts of violence with psychotic depression. This means that the negotiator in the case of Mr. Albondigas ought to be careful when conducting the negotiations to avoid making him think that there is biasness or conspiracy to gain undue advantage over him. The negotiator ought to win the trust of Mr. Albondigas by assuring him of his safety and protection from the alien forces that are collecting signals about him and his inmates. This factor will help the negotiator to ensure that Mr. Albondigas remains calm throughout the negotiations hence ensuring that he does not put his life or that of his hostages in jeopardy. In addition, it will also prevent the Corrections Entry Reaction Team (CERT) from shooting him; a factor that would abort the negotiations immaturely.

The Necessary Medical Personnel at the Scene

The negotiator would require having the corrections first aid team and a certified psychiatrist in the scene. The corrections first aid team understands how to attend to injured inmates and other personnel within the correctional setting. Therefore, this team would be on standby to attend to any injuries that might occur as a result of failed negotiations. Bearing in mind that Mr. Albondigas is harmed with a handmade knife, he might decide to stab his hostages if his demands are not met within the specified time-frame. In addition, the CERT might also be compelled by circumstances to shoot Mr. Albondigas in case they gain an opportunity to save the lives of the hostages. This means there is need to have a first aid team that is well trained on procedures of attending to a violent inmate to save the life of Mr. Albondigas in case the CERT chooses to shoot him on less critical parts of the body.

On the other hand, the psychiatrist will be helpful to attend to Mr. Albondigas in case of successful negotiations which would convince him to set the hostages free and surrender his weapon. According to Williams (2012), mentally ill offenders require constant assurance of their safety in order to remain calm and prevent any unfortunate incidences of violence. Therefore, the psychiatrist would be relied upon to assess the condition of Mr. Albondigas and recommend the appropriate therapy for him to address his hallucinations and delusional behavior.

The Possibility of Mr. Albondigas Harming the Hostages

The negotiator believes that if the deadline elapses without reaching a solution, Mr. Albondigas will hurt the maintenance personnel. This is because of the fact that his mental disorder convinces him that the maintenance personnel are engaged in a conspiracy with aliens to harm him and his inmates. At this point, it can be argued that the biggest concern that Mr. Albondigas has is to be safe from the aliens rather than from the CERT which is on standby with shoot to kill orders. The strength of his belief is evident in his behavior of covering his head with an aluminum foil which is aimed at protecting him from alien forces.

In addition, Mr. Albondigas believes that the only way to be entirely safe from the aliens is to cut their connection with the maintenance personnel. This aspect is evident in his demands whereby he wants to see the flying saucer, which he considers to be an alien vehicle, leaving the exercise yard. Therefore, he does not intend to let the maintenance personnel go until he is fully assured of his safety from the aliens. For this reason, if the deadline elapses without reaching a solution, he might opt to stab the maintenance personnel to death in order to stop them from sending signals to the aliens for good.

Moreover, there is a possibility that Mr. Albondigas might develop a feeling that the negotiator has joined hands with the maintenance personnel and the aliens in the conspiracy to harm him in case the negotiations do not go his way. In this case, he might end up experiencing severe emotional distress hence starting to exhibit violent behavior which might lead to stabbing of the maintenance personnel whom he holds a grudge with. Therefore, there is need to ensure that the negotiations are completely successfully within the stipulated time-frame in order to avoid escalating the standoff into serious fatalities.

The Necessary Interviewees for Promoting the Effectiveness of the Negotiations

The negotiator will require having a psychiatrist, a close family member of Mr. Albondigas, and a long-term friend who visits him regularly in the correctional facility brought to the scene for interviews. The psychiatrist will provide the negotiator with sufficient information that will help him understand the mental condition of Mr. Albondigas fully. In addition, according to Moore (2004), a psychiatrist is able to comprehend the situation facing a mentally ill patient as well as the safe avenues to use while interacting with him in order to avoid evoking unnecessary distress. Therefore, the psychiatrist will help the negotiator identify the factors that should be capitalized on and the ones that ought to be avoided during the negotiations in order to make the talks successful. Moreover, the psychiatrist will also be useful throughout the negotiations by identifying the useful pieces of information that are provided by the close family member and the friend to Mr. Albondigas that can help the negotiator to convince him to reconsider his ultimatum.

Nevertheless, the negotiator also understands that there might be need to alter the negotiations in order to bargain for more time from Mr. Albondigas in case the set deadline elapses in the course of the talks. In such as case, the psychiatrist will provide ways of approaching Mr. Albondigas with the request without triggering unwanted emotions and feelings of being blackmailed. According to Szalavitz (2013), it is easy to trigger distress on psychotic patients in the instances whereby they feel that their safety concerns are not being addressed or that someone is trying to shift their attention from the issues that need to be addressed. Therefore, the negotiator will make use of the information provided by the psychiatrist to conduct the negotiations in a manner that assures Mr. Albondigas of significant progress towards addressing his concerns.

The negotiator will further interview the close friend of Mr. Albondigas in order to identify the things that he likes doing. This information will be used to convince him to set the hostages free in order to avoid escalating the standoff into unwanted scenarios that would make him never be able to enjoy those things again. However, this information will be communicated to him in a manner that makes it clear that the primary objective of the negotiator is to protect the interests of Mr. Albondigas rather than issuing threats.

The close family member will also be interviewed to provide useful information about the things or people that Mr. Albondigas loves and cares about. This information will then be used to convince Mr. Albondigas to set the hostages free in order to avoid disappointing those whom he cares about. In addition, if necessary, the negotiator will opt to let Mr. Albondigas speak to his close family member over the phone who will assure him that the negotiator is doing everything possible to protect him from any undue forces; be it from aliens or humans. In addition, the negotiator will take advantage of the interaction between Mr. Albondigas and his close family member to present some facts of the situation to the latter. He will inform Mr. Albondigas of the consequences of not letting the hostages free. It is at this point that the negotiator will inform Mr. Albondigas that CERT has been instructed to use whatever force necessary to end the standoff, and they will not hesitate to shoot him if he puts the lives of the hostages at risk. However, the negotiator will avoid sounding as if he is working in cohort with the CERT. He will make it absolutely clear that he intends to see everyone get out of the situation safely, and above all protect the interests of Mr. Albondigas by making sure that he continues to see his friend and family member.

Negotiation Approach

The negotiator will use creative value approach in the negotiations. All the claims that are made will be based on the premise that no one has to lose in the standoff. The negotiator will begin by explaining to Mr. Albondigas about the best alternatives to end the standoff. In this case, he will make it clear that holding the maintenance personnel and the corrections officer hostage will only make the situation worse because he will compel the CERT to use force to end the stalemate. Therefore, the best solution will be to let them go and allow the corrections management to conduct investigations into the matter in order to ensure that no one puts the welfare of the inmates at risk by exposing them to unauthorized external forces; be it from aliens or humans. The negotiator will use this approach in structuring the negotiations in order to leave room for Mr. Albondigas to accept the possibility that there were never any aliens collecting signals about him and other inmates later when his hallucinations are controlled through therapy. However, bearing in mind that CERT is ready to shoot him in case an opportunity avails itself, and Mr. Albondigas has given ultimatum to have the alien vehicle vacate from the exercise yard or kill the maintenance personnel, the negotiator will avoid going into the discussions of convincing Mr. Albondigas that there are no alien forces spying on him; otherwise the success of the negotiation will be compromised.

The creative value approach is critical in this situation because it is based on assuring the parties engaged in the stalemate of a win-win situation. In this case, the negotiator will assure Mr. Albondigas that his concerns will be seriously investigated after he releases the hostages. Therefore, no one will have to die in the process. Close attention will also be paid towards informing Mr. Albondigas that his family member and friend look up to him, and they would hate to see anything happen to him because of the standoff. This factor would award the negotiator leverage in negotiating for the release of the hostages by convincing Mr. Albondigas to also consider how the family members of the maintenance personnel would feel in the case whereby they were to lose their loved ones. Moreover, critical attention would also be awarded towards making Mr. Albondigas see the fact that no one deserves to lose his or her life over a mistake that they have committed. Therefore, the best solution to end the standoff would be to release the hostages and allow investigations to be conducted on the matter in order to determine how the maintenance personnel communicate to the aliens and stop it. This way, both Mr. Albondigas and his fellow inmates will be protected from alien spying.

The creative value approach would also be critical because it would help in resolving the standoff without having to cause bloodshed. Although the CERT has been given orders to shoot Mr. Albondigas in case an opportunity presents itself, it would be their wish to have the hostages freed without having to kill anyone. The negotiator will then base his claims on the necessity to have the standoff resolved peacefully. He will also review other options that Mr. Albondigas might be considering to pursue in handling the matter which include killing the maintenance personnel in order to cut their connection with the aliens. In this case, the negotiator will convince Mr. Albondigas that killing his hostages will only make matters worse since he will undermine any efforts of investigating the means that they used to send signals to the aliens and why they did so. This means that if the matter is not fully investigated, neither Mr. Albondigas nor his fellow inmates will be free from alien spying since there might be other personnel sending those signals too. According to Moore (2004), psychotic patients are not entirely deprived of their conscience. Therefore, although Mr. Albondigas seems to see and believe in things that are not real, he still has the ability to weigh his options and consider the alternative that will address his concerns with minimal costs. For this reason, the creative value approach will be able to convince him to free his hostages in order to end the standoff without having to cause loss of lives.

Conclusion

Mr. Albondigas could be suffering from either psychosis or schizoaffective disorder. His mental illness makes him believe that the maintenance personnel are involved in a conspiracy with aliens to harm him and other inmates. Therefore, the negotiator needs to work closely with a psychiatrist, a close family member, and a long-term friend of Mr. Albondigas in order to undertake successful negotiations to have the hostages freed. In addition, the negotiator also requires having the corrections first aid team on the scene in order to attend to any casualties in case the negotiations fail. The negotiator will use a creative value approach to convince Mr. Albondigas that his concerns can be addressed without causing loss of lives if he frees the hostages in order to allow investigations to take place.