Riverbend City Case StudyAnalysis

Abstract

The case study presents a boy named Lu Vang who is severely affected by chemicals following a train derailment within Riverbend. Lu Vang is also accompanied by other students who have minor brain injuries but require treatment. Lu Vang has bruises, and other marks on his back from a coining therapy practice popularly carried out by Asian people. Lu Vang could be having mental issues such as anxiety, depression, anti-social disorders, and stress due to failure to speak and understand English which is crucial for expressing himself. The possible treatment for Lu Vang is through medications where the nurses should offer Lu drugs to eliminate the inhaled chemicals. Lu also requires therapy where his family should be involved to assist Lu in adapting to the American culture (Goldstein, 2019, p. 260). The teachers and students should be informed to assist Lu Vang in learning English to promote his social skills hence overcoming his mental problems.

Introduction

The Riverbend City case study reveals the mental health issues faced by urban children and people leading to them being hospitalized. The Riverbend City hospitals have to attempt to treat various psychological problems and find their causes and effects on their patients. The case study presents a boy named Lu Vang who is severely affected by chemicals following a train derailment within Riverbend. Lu Vang is also accompanied by other students who have minor brain injuries but require treatment. Lu Vang has bruises, and other marks on his back from a coining therapy practice popularly carried out by Asian people.

Summary of the Case Study

The case study presents Lu Vang, who is brought to the hospital by a school nurse due to a brain injury caused by train chemicals. Lu Vang appears to have hysterical conditions, anxiety disorders, stress, and anti-social personality behaviors as he does not speak English, making it difficult for Lu to express himself or establish friendships. Due to exposure to the hazardous chemicals, Lu Vang also suffers from respiratory complications, and the nurse is taking him to ER bed for assessment. During the assessment, the nurse recognizes that Lu Vang has bruises which she thinks are due to abuse such as beatings, only to learn from Lu’s mother that she used herbs and coining procedures as a therapy to cold and congestion which Lu was suffering from. The mother reported that Lu also consumed some boiled herbs as a treatment.

The case study indicates that Lu Vang has brain injury due to poisonous chemicals. Lu Vang’s brain condition could worsen due to psychological stress and neurosis he has developed due to her mother’s exposure to herbal therapy. According to the neurotic theory of the mind by Karen Horney, neurosis the condition is caused by interpersonal relationships. Lu’s mother has been coining his body to treat him, which could have caused anxiety and stress as it must be a painful procedure since Lu has bruises (Cherry, 2020, p. 4). Additionally, Lu does not know how to speak English because they are immigrants in the United States. Failure to understand English shows that Lu has poor interpersonal relationships with other students, causing mental health problems to him such as depression. The neurotic theory claims that people with interpersonal challenges will likely develop severe brain injury if exposed to hazardous chemicals due to neurosis. Neurosis entails mental, physical, and emotional reactions that are irrational and drastic.

Another theory that attempts to explain mental health complications such as anxiety, depression, and anti-social conditions is the cognitive learning theory. The cognitive theory claims that one’s subconscious thoughts aid in storing pains, desires, and individuals’ needs (Clark, 2018, p. 178). Though Lu is exposed to chemicals leading to brain injury, his cognitive subconscious thoughts could have increased the chances of the severity of his condition leading to him becoming hysterical. According to Goldstein (2019), one’s memory is affected by thoughts and emotions. Autographical memory described by Goldstein assists an individual in explaining events that have occurred in their lives (232). Due to the hysteric condition experienced by Lu, he may have lost his memory that it would be the nurses and other students who would explain to him what happened to him.

Goldstein claims that memory exists in two parts: short and long-term memories. Short-term memory is associated with storing events that have occurred in the recent times of one’s life, while long-term memory records events that have occurred in an individual’s lifetime. Depending on Lu’s severity of brain injury, he may not remember some important events that have happened even in his entire lifetime. Thus, brain injury leads to the destruction of one thought process. Goldstein’s article is appropriate for studying brain injury due to the research methods described to have been used in conducting research. Goldstein uses research methods such as describing various experiments establishing computational models, and brain scans to explain brain injury(Goldstein, 2019, p. 261). The research also investigated various theories involving perception and attention to reveal why people forget. These procedures make the article relevant and useful for the Riverbend City case study analysis.

In another study, Clark (2018) uses qualitative and quantitative methods to describe the cognitive theory in brain injury study. Through the qualitative and quantitative analysis, Clark successfully explores the schemas used in thought processes (176). Cherry describes the Neurotic theory through her study, which involves quantitative analysis of neurosis in one’s mind making her article relevant in the study of Riverbend City cases. Cherry describes various experiments to explain human recognition.

Summary and Conclusion

The possible treatment for Lu Vang is through medications where the nurses should offer Lu drugs to eliminate the inhaled chemicals. Lu also requires therapy where his family should be involved to assist Lu in adapting to the American culture. The teachers and students should be informed to assist Lu Vang in learning English to promote his social skills hence overcoming his mental problems (Goldstein, 2019, p. 260). Both students and teachers should also be encouraged to show love and compassion towards Lu Vang to make him develop a positive attitude towards the school and the foreign practices and language.

References

Cherry, K. (2020). Contributions of Karen Horney to psychology, 4-8.

Clark, K. R. (2018). Learning theories: cognitivism. Radiologic Technology, 90(2), 176-179.

Goldstein, E. B. (2019). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience (5^th edition)