The Value of Empowerment in Middle Adulthood

The Value of Empowerment in Middle Adulthood

Developmental Themes and Assessment Categories Table

Assessment Category	Biophysical Strengths, Hazards, and Risks	Key Issue
Biophysical Dimension	Several biophysical hazards and risks are characteristic of middle adulthood. These include health preservation, physical fitness, and chronic diseases. Lee is an alcoholic with a 30-year history of alcohol consumption. He is also overweight. These two behaviours put him at risk of developing chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.	Chronic conditions and physical fitness are common features of middle adulthood. Obesity and overweight are common and are attributable to lack of exercise.
Psychological Dimension	Psychological considerations that are evident in Lee’s middle adulthood life include lack of motivation, cognitive inflexibility, and features of depression.	Depression is a common feature of middle adulthood.
Sociological Dimension	Lee finds convenience in his family. His family is also his main social support. Lee, however, blames his current situation on his family’s cultural affiliations that permitted alcohol consumption even at early ages.	Family, social support as well as cultural and spiritual considerations are key issues in middle adulthood.
Assessment Category	Communication	Key Issue
Biophysical Dimension	Various biophysical problems that arise in midlife could easily be resolved by communication processes. Consultations and counselling are examples of communication processes that could be utilized in the resolution of midlife problems such as alcoholism that adversely affects the body. Lee is having difficulties communicating and getting himself involved in social activities. This downplays his wife’s motivation to get him to cease alcohol consumption and enable them to get back to their normal life.	The communication process is necessary for the resolution of various midlife problems that negatively affect the biophysical body.
Psychological Dimension	Communication in middle adulthood is often dominated by family and friends. Lee has considerable difficulties communicating to his family. He even finds difficulty in expressing his thoughts to his wife and children. His personality is that of being reserved and unassertive.	Communication in midlife is an important enabler of family reconnections.
Sociological Dimension	At midlife, many adults indulge in deeper communications characterized by honesty and are targeted at fostering better friendships. Friendships and better social interactions enhance their social wellbeing and consequently their quality of life. Lee has considerable difficulties in communicating and has no friends. This may be a contributory factor to his suffering.	Social wellbeing attributable to social cycles like friendships is necessary for the enhancement of the overall wellbeing of an older adult.

Developmental Themes and Interventions

The biophysical strengths, hazards, and risk developmental theme encompass all aspects of midlife that can be hazardous to individuals undergoing this stage of development (Ashford & Winston 2017). These aspects include the propensity to develop chronic conditions and to become physically fit. Physical fitness remains an issue among older adults due to a reduction in exercise tendencies. Obesity and overweight have been attributable to a lack of physical fitness among many adults. These conditions have been implicated in the development of chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension. Biophysical dimensions entail factors that affect the physical body of an individual as well as their general physiologic functionalities. Lee is a chronic alcoholic, and also being overweight has increased the risk of developing chronic conditions.

The psychological dimension entails the aspects of the communication capabilities of an individual, their cognitive development among individuals, as well as their emotions and attitudes. These aspects are linked to the biophysical development theme since they are among the attributing factors to ill-health individuals undergoing middle adulthood. Lee’s psychological concerns are evident in his cognitive inflexibilities, periodic lack of motivation, and features of depression. These presentations often cause deterioration in the overall well-being of an individual and could pose a biophysical hazard to an individual. According to van Bronswijk et al., 2018 conditions such as depression have been implicated in significant morbidity and mortality.

Sociological dimensions entail the aspects of family, social support as well as cultural and spiritual affiliations of an individual. Aspects highlighted in this dimension are important modifiers of health and may lead to biophysical hazards or risks. Family is an important source of social support and contributes to the overall wellbeing of an individual. As evident in Lee’s case, he finds his family to be convenient and his wife to be understanding and accommodating of his current state.

Human service professionals may be useful in enabling Lee to attain biophysical safety. The goal of any interventions by a human service provider targeted at ensuring biophysical safety would be to ensure physical fitness, alcohol cessation, and improving the communication capabilities of this individual. In this regard, strategies such as counselling, the creation of a treatment plan, and supervising the progress of the individual in various consideration areas. Counselling is necessary for the alleviation of psychological concerns. Subsequently, psychotherapy strategies such as counselling have exhibited marked effectiveness against mental conditions such as depression (van Bronswijk et al., 2018). The creation of a treatment plan would particularly be necessary for managing alcoholism. Supervision is also important in the management of social, psychological, and biophysical concerns in this individual.

References

Ashford, J., & Winston Lecroy, C. (2017). Empowerment Series_ Human Behavior in the Social Environment_ A Multidimensional Perspective-Cengage Learning (2017).pdf. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yfltmwS6H8ifEjV7NmHjKvw_8zRVY615/view?usp=sharing.

van Bronswijk, S., Moopen, N., Beijers, L., Ruhe, H., & Peeters, F. (2018). Effectiveness of psychotherapy for treatment-resistant depression: a meta-analysis and meta-regression. Psychological Medicine, 49(3), 366-379. https://doi.org/10.1017/s003329171800199x

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Understanding different developmental themes and how they can be applied to people at different ages and stages of life is important as a human service professional. It is important to know how to use the knowledge that you have learned and be able to relate it to clients you are working with so that a reciprocal relationship can develop whereby both the human service professional and the client can feel empowered to develop goals and interventions that will help to produce positive outcomes for the client.

Assignment Directions

Begin by reading the case study “Applying the Framework: Alcoholism in Middle Age” in Chapter 9 of your text (pages 447-449) about Lee. Then, review the developmental themes and key concepts related to middle adulthood on page 403 of your text.

For this assignment, use the Unit 8 Assignment Template to discuss the developmental themes that relate to working with a client in the life stage of middle adulthood and review interventions that can be provided to help meet client goals.

Please respond to the following:

Based on the case study, identify two developmental themes from page 403 of the text and enter them on the table. Then, for each developmental theme:
Describe how the theme you selected is impacted by each of the three main assessment categories of middle adulthood: biophysical dimension, psychological dimension, and social dimension.
Describe a key issue related to each dimension.
Discuss how one of the two developmental themes outlined in the table relates to each of the three assessment categories and key issues you identified.
Based on the key issues in the developmental theme selected, provide a review of at least three services, interventions, or strategies that a human service professional working in a reciprocal relationship with the client could offer to assist the client in meeting their goals and outcomes.