Personal Action Plan

Names: James Anderson

Age: 35 years old

Gender: Male

Race: white

Marital status: Divorced

Occupation: Unemployed

Sexual orientation: heterosexual

Language: English

Religious: Christianity

Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA

Symptoms and Diagnosis

Recently, Mr Anderson has been complaining of his stomach after every meal. The patient has a breathing problem. He indicates that he has difficulty in breathing. Besides, his breath always smells like fruit. Additionally, Mr Anderson has been sweating more often even in cold days and urinates a lot. He also has a flushed face, and his mouth and skin are always scaly. Mr Anderson has a higher blood sugar level. He has 8% A1C level. The blood sugar level of this patient is 205mg/dl.

Psychological Factors

Three years ago, Mr Anderson divorced his wife due to interpersonal differences. The wife complained he had increased his alcohol intake. Also, Mr Anderson was frequently getting into a war with his wife while drunk. Besides, last year, this patient was restricted from ATD disease/ his doctor also reported that he had been suffering from BA and vitiligo. Last month, I treated Mr Anderson for autoimmune thyroid disease. Additionally, Mr Anderson has lost hope in life and is suffering from psychological and low self esteems. The patient's mother, Mrs Jordan, who brought him to the hospital, has indicated that his son has passed through a stressful life event. His father abandoned them while he was six years old, and he was usual bullied as a teenager.

Special Consideration

Mr Anderson has been suffering from heart disease form three years now besides he can’t see clearly and seem to have lost his gearing capability. He has a wound on his feet that has refused to heal. He is also a heavy drinker, and he relies on alcohol to relieve his depression regarding the loss of his family and lost his job. Mr Anderson is an introvert person who has no friends and always lives lonely lives. The only friend he had was his dog that his son killed. Mr Anderson his jobless because he lost his job six months ago. His house got burnt with all of his properties four months ago after electric default in his home. Currently is leaving with his mother and stepfather who despise him.

Assessment

Mr Anderson is aware of his low self-esteem, and that is why he indicated that he consumes alcohol to gain confidence. However, he does not know that he has developed type one diabetes. He noted that he had a kidney problem due to his heavy drinking and frequent sweating and urinating; however, after I conducted a diagnosis in him, I told him that he has type one diabetes. At first, he was confused, and he thought it was the end of the world for him. However, after the counseling process, he promised to stop his alcohol consumption, increase his interactions with people in a social setting, and take his insulin to help him live a healthier life.

Brief Transcript

COUNSELOR: Hello, I am Neicey, I’m am your counselor

CLIENT: Hi, I'm James.

COUNSELOR: How are you feeling today?

CLIENT: I’m feeling okay, I guess.

COUNSELOR: Thank you for sharing that with me and for filling out the self-assessment questionnaire before meeting with me today. Well that is a great thing that you chose to get out of bed even though you didn’t feel like it. Why did you choose to drink before coming here?

CLIENT: Well, it makes me feel less sad and helps me deal with everything.

COUNSELOR: So to start off with for our next session, try to have a glass or two of water when you wake up instead of alcohol. I mean you have already taken much effort to come and see me today. So, I’m going to challenge you to that for our next session.

CLIENT: Okay I can try to do that.

Importance of Primary Counselling Skills

Applying necessary counseling skills helped me in interacting with this patient. It enables me to create a conducive atmosphere for Mr. James to be free and open with me. It is essential to lead the client and address assumptions initially and plan for the termination in the initial sessions. This allows the patient to build trust leading the client to help a counselor to prioritize his questions and look for a particular answer during the counselling process (Dollarhide, Shavers, Baker, Dagg, & Taylor, 2012). Additionally, counsellors are required to address assumptions to allow them to come up with a proper medical diagnosis.

Health Behavior Measurement

I used a self-report model to gather information regarding the client overall wellness and health. I used this model because he allowed me to conduct a poll administer questionnaire and survey by asking the client to tell me about his believes, attitudes and well-being (Kessler & Alverson, 2013). I use a specific format to facilitate client self-exploration. I began by asking the patient about his demographic, skill, behavioral factors, environmental factors and health factors (Kessler & Alverson, 2013). This method was essential in the self-exploration of the patient.

References

Dollarhide, C. T., Shavers, M. C., Baker, C. A., Dagg, D. R., & Taylor, D. T. (2012). Conditions that create therapeutic connection: A phenomenological study. Counseling and Values, 57(2), 147-161.

Kessler, T. A., & Alverson, E. M. (2013). Influence of lifestyle, health behavior, and health indices on the health status of underserved adults. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 25(12), 674-681.