Introduction
This paper will discuss the myriad of different treatment environments in the community, in the form of group homes, partial hospitalization programs, and day head centers, which service the various states of psychiatric patients, and each targets a particular group with specific roles to play in the overall scheme of things. There will be a discussion of a community psychiatric care issue, using a current journal article as support. Finally, the assessment will illustrate how the nursing process is applied in caring for a client suffering from a mentally ill condition residing in a homeless shelter by describing the client’s needs and how the needs may be addressed through the nursing process.
Treatment Environments in Community Settings
The treatment setting of the community provides highly essential care for people suffering from psychiatric conditions. Group homes are residential facilities meant for people requiring 24-hour care settings, though they do not require inpatient treatment. This form of treatment setting is informal and cooperative and is used to learn and develop skills through social interaction (Treatment Settings, n.d). Group homes are perfect for the kind of people who cannot do without care for an extended period, for example, people with chronic mental illnesses.
Partial hospitalization programs bridge the gap between inpatient care and outpatient services. The program design allows for a highly intense program in a patient’s day and then offers room to go home in the evening. Partial hospitalization is also appropriate for a patient who does work, for example, with a powerful desire towards intensive, structured individual, group, and family therapy, medication management, and monitoring without significant changes in day-to-day life (Julius, 2024). This would also allow a partial hospitalization setting to provide more support and intervention than traditional outpatient care, so that the patients have more opportunities to get comprehensive treatment while the community links are not entirely disrupted.
Another community treatment alternative is the day treatment center. This alternative deals with activities, counseling, and other programs that inpatients or outpatients would receive during regular waking hours, returning to the home at night. Such facilities are designed for patients who, through medical treatment, have started to stabilize and are able to tolerate a more structured daily environment that can provide them with continued support for recovery (Treatment Settings, n.d). Many times, the day-treatment center also offers vocational training, educational support, and possible socialization so the patient will be successful in returning to mainstream society.
Rationale for Each Type of Setting and Patient Suitability
The choice of treatment environment is tailored to the needs of each patient and may depend on a variety of factors, including the severity of symptoms, the level of functioning, and the length of time in which the patient may require long-term support. Other likely choices include partial hospital programs and day treatment centers when the patient needs some support but is quite well able to manage at least some level of independence while benefiting from deliberate and careful interventions (Treatment Settings, n.d).
Utilization of a Journal Article on a Community Issue
On the community diagnosis of the problem as a community problem of care for psychiatric patients, let us refer to Steele (2022), an article that brings out the predicaments even as health care mental health givers face in the hinterlands. Such an article is a reflection on innovation in rolling out health care services in mental health by removing the identified barrier of limited access, which includes geographical distances, shortages in the number of mental health professionals, and stigma attached to seeking help in the event of falling victim to mental illness. This is a community issue that should provide community-based treatment settings for a fantastic opportunity to give treatment and better outcomes to the person with psychiatric illness (Steele, 2022).
Application of the Nursing Process in Psychiatric Care
In caring for a mentally ill client who resides in a homeless shelter, nursing care is a systematic and logical approach that utilizes evidence-based care and behavior that assesses, diagnoses, plans, implements, and evaluates the whole process. For a mentally ill client whose needs extend from the physical to the psychological and even to the social, they will have to take part in its consideration (Julius, 2024). Holistic assessment has been done about the generalizability of the nursing process, geared towards collecting a wide-based perspective with regard to the mental status of clients via client living intricacies and even the maintenance system. Based on the results of the assessment, a precise diagnosis is made, allowing the classification of the client’s specific area of mental health concern to be diagnosed along with possible risk factors for the problem.
Planning encompasses the development of a care program that will address the needs of a client in both the short and long run. It involves making recommendations to community resources and networks, rehabilitation of the clients, say for housing, counseling, and treatment for the mentally addicted patient. For instance, a client should be able to offer proper interventions and be conjunctive with the client administration facility staff and other professionals in the healthcare sector. Proper essential interventions need to be made, including medication management, psychoeducation, individual and group day treatment, and living skills.
Finally, the theoretical review of the impact of the intervention on the client’s mental health is done through careful and appropriate evaluation in order to identify the efficiency of the interventions that have been used and make necessary adjustments to the care plan. It involves the evaluation of several follow-up assessments done on the client to get an update on his progress and any emerging needs and ensure that there is continuity of care (Julius, 2024). The following is the nursing process for the care given at the homeless shelter to the mentally challenged client in a detailed, balanced response, wholly and individually, that reflects on his unique circumstances and challenges.
Conclusion
In conclusion, treatment environments rooted in the community comprise those services offered through a group home, partial hospitalization programs, and day treatment programs in the community. There would be a spectrum of placements available for differing levels of appropriate supervision and scrutiny, as determined necessary. Besides, the identification of communicative issues pertinent to the care of psychiatric patients and applications of the nursing process in the care of mentally ill clients in a homeless shelter are all vital to the provision of proper care. From the aforementioned perspective, health professionals are able to apply these approaches in an effort to contribute to quality and value gains and the general health of psychotics in a community setting.
References
Julius, S. (2024). What Is Partial Hospitalization Treatment. Www.townsendla.com. https://www.townsendla.com/blog/partial-hospitalization-treatment
Steele, D. (2022). Keltner’s Psychiatric Nursing E-Book: Keltner’s Psychiatric Nursing E-Book. In Google Books. Elsevier Health Sciences. https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=l1NhEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Keltner%E2%80%99s+Psychiatric+Nursing+by+Debbie+Steele&ots=av8Ap1ghNP&sig=83HCv5yKh59HPrJvjbhmwncaVMk&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Keltner%E2%80%99s%20Psychiatric%20Nursing%20by%20Debbie%20Steele&f=false
Treatment Settings. (n.d.). Www.hopkinsmedicine.org. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/substance-abuse-center/treatment/settings
Types of Mental Health Treatment Settings and Levels of Care | North Texas Help. (2019). Northtexashelp.com. https://www.northtexashelp.com/mental-health-treatment-settings.html