What Defines Effective Care Planning for a Patient with Dual Diagnosis Essay

What Defines Effective Care Planning for a Patient with Dual Diagnosis - Essay Example Abuse of these drugs for a long time can lead to emotional problems or even more mental disorders like Sebastian started with just hearing voices and now it has developed to the feeling of as if people are after him; moreover, it is required that in a case of dual diagnosis both problems be treated together where the first step or the foundation for the treatment is stopping the drugs. Unfortunately, dual diagnosis is more common than most people imagine; research shows that forty five percent of all drug and alcohol abusers have at least one mental problem and of all the people that have mental disorder twenty nine percent are either drug or alcohol abusers (Mark & Tom, 1999, 1098). Apart from cases where people are diagnosed with mental problems first then they start abusing alcohol and drug abuse for relief; there are cases where people start off with drugs when young, which continues into adulthood and this makes a major contribution to emotional difficulties or mental disorders i.e. Sebastian who started of alcohol when he was young which went on to develop a mental problem where he was hearing voices in his head. Assessment Dual Diagnosis recovery has come out as the most thriving treatment aspects of psychiatric and drug abuse treatment where they are treated as part as a continuum instead of treating them one by one or separately by different clinicians (Joanne, 2013, 1). Specialists of drug abuse addiction treatment are now being given training and testimonials in the treatment of mental/psychiatric disorders; additionally, dedicated rehab facilities offer recovery services for individuals with Dual Diagnosis e.g. Sebastian being treated by a single doctor who specializes in both drug abuse and psychiatric disorders. However, the challenging part of it is finding the precise rehabilitation program especially if the person has a combination of drug addiction and depression or anxiety disorders. In the past Dual Diagnosis has been defined along drug abus e and mental disorders alone; shockingly, today there are other addictions that have been added into the classification i.e. sex addiction, gambling addiction or another behavioural addiction like Sebastian listening to music as he smokes cannabis. Significantly, for a person with dual diagnosis to undergo the proper treatment and increasing the chances of a full recovery; they should be concerned with a few things; psychotherapeutic medication, supportive approach to therapy by a highly trained treatment team or specialist and inclusive treatment strategy where family, relatives and other household members are involved in therapy. In Sebastian’s case, the treatment will commence with two brief screen tests; one that deals with issues of alcohol and cannabis abuse, and the other test will for the mental disorder, which will assist in identifying the need for co-occurring mental disorder services (David, 2013, 14). Even though the screening does not diagnose the co-occurring d isorder, it is effectual in identifying the need for an assessment to look at the dealings between his psychiatric disorders symptoms i.e. voices in his head and alcohol and cannabis abuse, and the effect they have on his health. Some of the tools to be used in the screening process will include the AUDIT and CAGE, which should provide a surprisingly significant amount of information that will be very useful in Sebastian’