The use of biopsychosocial perspective to evaluate, assess, and treat a patient allows practitioners to view the patient from multiple viewpoints rather than just mental illness.
The effectiveness of the treatment should to cover all areas of the child’s life including his or her family, school, and recreation spheres. In this paper, biopsychosocial perspective will be used to evaluate, assess, and create a therapeutic intervention for a child suffering from emotional disturbances overcome with significant behavioral issues.
Overview
Carol, a six-year-old child, is in the first grade. Lately her family has noticed that something went wrong. These feelings were brought to the forefront when her teacher requested a meeting with her parents.
It was at this meeting that the teacher explained that all of a sudden Carol has been unable to catch on to the lessons in class; moreover, she has begun exhibiting problems communication with her peers, as well as unable to communicate with other teachers.
Carol’s mother then realized that she was having a hard time communicating to individuals within the family and Carol seemed to be very unlike herself.
Carol also began to regress, to baby-like behaviors, such as temper tantrums and crying uncontrollably with no explanation; further, Carol has become extremely fearful and anxiety ridden over small things that had never bothered her before. Carol was finally diagnosed with depression and anxiety disorders.
Therapeutic intervention
To effectively come up with a therapeutic intervention for Carol, it is important to determine her source of distress; the feared stimulus. With the stimulus identified, the anxiety disorder and depression can be managed through in vivo exposure.
That is, Carol will be gradually exposed to the actual feared stimulus which causes her anxiety. In vivo exposure is both a cognitive and behavioral strategy which will enable Carol overcomes her fears by appealing to cognitive skills through behavioral activities of exposing her to the stimulus.
Depression is mainly caused by a distortion in the patients mind about ideas hence, when the stimulus has been identified, it is important that both parents and teachers help her change her view. This can be done through revealing the positive side of the stimulus through in vivo exposure among others.
Moreover, physical exercise will also help her overcome the depression. This can be done through group therapy where Carol is gradually introduced into a therapy group during the physical activity therapy. This will also improve her socialization capabilities.
Such activities as art, music and dance classes can also help her improve her declining social skills. To further improve her social skills, it is important for both parents, and the teachers to task Carol with duties and exercises that require cooperation with other family members and fellow pupils.
These tasks will force to cooperate with others hence gradually she will begin to social wit others (Martin & Pear, 2007).
Reference
Martin, G. & Pear, J. (2007). Behavior modification: What it is and how to do it (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.