Behavioral Health Clinical Analysis

Before starting Behavioral Health I would say to myself “I am not going to like it, this won’t be for me.” I was hesitant, very close minded, and had no desire to go to clinicals. I was afraid I was mentally weak and that patients could easily manipulate me. To my surprise, that was not the case. Instead, I was able to develop a therapeutic relationship with each patient taking into consideration that they are just like you and me, except they have a mental illness that prevents proper judgement. However, I realized that I am too comfortable around mentally ill patients, which was not how I was on the first day of Behavioral Health.
I can recall my first day of Behavioral Health clinicals at HCPC and being assigned to unit 2E. This unit holds patients with a combination of mental disorders ranging from bipolar disorder to schizophrenia and drug abusers. I can close my eyes and remember standing with my back …show more content…
They are trained on how to respond without hurting themselves and the patient. I asked if she felt she was to comfortable around the patient and she said yes. She knew she had made the mistake of approaching the patient without help around. The patient had a history of attacking staff, therefore for safety reason’s she should of had a tech accompany her.
There are different types of schizophrenia and in this particular case the patient was experiencing paranoid schizophrenia. According to “The Biology of Schizophrenia” psychosis can have an insidious onset, and are characterized by a failure of logic, customary associations, intent, and the organization that usually accompanies human thought (Medoff, Tamminga, 2000). This explains the sudden behavioral change in the patient. The nurse also explained to me that when incidents like this occur one needs to realize that their judgment and thought process is not the one of a healthy