Bio-Psycho-Social-Spiritual Assessment
The biopsychosocial model is the process of assessing the mental health determinants. Mental illness, in most cases, is caused by the interaction of various factors, inclusive of genetics, infections, trauma, hormones, environmental toxins, and nutrition (Murniati et al., 2022). This assessment will focus on eight main domains that will help achieve a comprehensive patient assessment. The domains are discussed below, elucidating the strengths and weaknesses of each domain.
An Interview with Mrs. Hun
For this assignment, an interview with Mrs. Hun (pseudonym), a 66-year-old female living with her husband and two grandchildren in their rural home, was done. She voluntarily came to our facility for her routine diabetes mellitus follow-up clinic. The interview was conducted with the primary aim of completing a comprehensive patient assessment using the guide of the eight main domains as required in this paper. Below are the findings of the interview.
Physical Health
Mrs. Hun appears well-kempt, with a congruent mood. She can create and maintain a good rapport. She is well-oriented to time, place, and person. She is eloquently spoken with slight symptoms of confusion. Appropriate thought content was assessed with no suicidal ideation or homicidal attempts (Patrizio et al., 2020). Her main strength is that she has full insight into her diabetic condition, where she acknowledges adherence to medication, maintaining a healthy weight, and doing exercise. Additional strengths include proper immediate, recent, and long-term memories as she recalls activities in the immediate, recent, and past. However, Mrs. Hun has a weakness where she doesn’t adhere to dietary modifications for diabetic patients. She takes meals similar to those of her grandchildren and her husband, who have no dietary restrictions. Consequently, she experiences poor hyperglycemic control secondary to poor nutrition intake.
Competencies in Daily Living Activities
Despite her old age, Mrs. Hun reports actively carrying out her daily activities without depending on anyone. For instance, she executes her caretaking responsibility to take care of her two grandchildren without house help. She cooks all meals, does the utensils, mops the house, and cleans all the family clothes. She goes to do shopping at her grandchildren’s company. However, she gets extremely exhausted after doing the chores recently. She reports that she can no longer help her husband with gardening activities as used before. Her age does not correspond to the amount of activity she does, and this justifies the need to be assisted in some of her daily activities.
Psychological and Emotional Well-Being
Mrs. Hun has a strength in emotional stability, where she can intellectually solve her grandchildren’s petty fights and guide them on how to control their emotions. She feels well about her current situation and is able to do her chores efficiently without needing assistance. However, her main psychological concern is that she fears developing a diabetic foot. She also fears the fact that she has recently declining activity tolerance due to her recent exhaustion. The need to provide comprehensive patient education about Mrs. Hun’s condition is important to alleviate her worries. Her main challenge is adapting new coping mechanisms where she needs to be convinced it is not inactivity but rather a requirement to prevent risks of developing complications.
Social Functioning
From the assessment, it is evident that Mrs. Hun can socialize with the people around her. She can establish and maintain a good rapport with people. Her sense of humor attracts her grandchildren to hover around her even in doing her activities. Her husband, children, and grandchildren are her primary source of support. She is, however, unwilling to share her health condition with any of them, and this is the baseline as to why she lives to eat what they eat so as not to act differently.
Spirituality
Mrs. Hun is a spiritual woman who has relied deeply on her faith throughout her life. She is an active member of the church women’s congregation and still attends bible studies with her husband. She believes the love and unity among her family members to have been a blessing (Lima et al., 2020). She has encouraged her children and grandchildren to emulate her behaviors and actively participate in community activities that help the community members and bring more light to them. She believes in helping the less privileged through acts of charity and donations, where she regularly visits the children’s homes around her neighborhood. She believes this is the best way to express her spirituality.
Sexuality
Mrs. Hun believes in a normal relationship, and she greatly condemns homosexuality, where she encourages her children and grandchildren to emulate her relationship with her husband. She avoids engaging in an argument with her husband in front of the young ones to set a good example for them. She appreciates that she is postmenopausal and cannot give birth at her age. However, she reports being entitled to her husband and wishes to live by him on all days of her life.
Financial Resources
Mrs. Hun’s family is financially stable. She is receiving modest pensions from her previous employment. She is also receiving payment from social security. They have adequate resources to maintain a comfortable lifestyle. Mrs. Hun also receives financial support from her children. No financial costs are incurred to cater for medical services due to medical insurance.
She reports that she is currently not facing any financial constraints.
Environmental Safety
From the assessment done, the family home environment appears to be well maintained with no exaggerated health hazards. The home environment has serene and natural features, as well as clean and safe water for human and animal consumption. The strength of this environment is the availability of natural and non-organic foods suitable for the management of Mrs. Hun’s condition. However, the main weakness in this environment is that the rural environment subjects the patient to injury hazards that may emanate from farmyard activities, which she reports she is doing to assist her husband. She reports loving to do gardening activities with her husband.
References
Lima, S., Teixeira, L., Esteves, R., Ribeiro, F., Pereira, F., Teixeira, A., & Magalhães, C. (2020). Spirituality and quality of life in older adults: A path analysis model. BMC Geriatrics, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-020-01646-0
Murniati, N., Al Aufa, B., Kusuma, D., & Kamso, S. (2022). A scoping review on biopsychosocial predictors of mental health among older adults. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(17), 10909. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191710909
Patrizio, E., Calvani, R., Marzetti, E., & Cesari, M. (2020). Physical functional assessment in older adults. The Journal of Frailty & Aging, 10(2), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.14283/
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Question
Overview
The Bio-Psycho-Social-Spiritual Assessment Assignment will integrate and apply previous conceptual knowledge and skill sets needed to competently work with older adults. You will gain an understanding of the unique demographics and how specific service needs vary for each older adult. Also, you will continue to build a knowledge base on how specific services may address the needs of each older adult based on the 8 major domains explored with the interview for a complete assessment picture of a theory-based approach combined with empathetic skills to improve the well-being and quality of life for older adults within social work practice.
Instructions
Complete a bio-psycho-social-spiritual model of assessment as outlined in Chapter 4 of the textbook Social Work with Older Adults. You will be required to interview an older adult, over the age of 55, and complete an assessment focusing on the 8 major domains specific to a comprehensive assessment. The presentation on Bio-psycho-social-spiritual Assessment with Older Adults and the textbook provide excellent examples of a comprehensive assessment and may be used as a point of reference.
- Assess the 8 major domains including:
- Physical health
- Competence in daily living activities
- Psychological and emotional well-being
- Social functioning
- Spirituality
- Sexuality
- Financial resources
- Environmental safety
- Highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each of the 8 domains
- Organize the paper by using APA headings and subheadings
- Minimum of 2 references from scholarly sources which may include textbook
- The paper must be 3-5 pages in length