Discussion 1: Treatment Evaluation

Pedro

The case I have chosen is, “Working With Clients With HIV/AIDS: The Case of Pedro”, Pedro is a 58 year old heterosexual male currently separated from his family. Pedro was hesitant to trust and work with a social worker because he did not think she would or could help him. The social worker was able to build trust and rapport with Pedro, so it will be essential for the social worker to do a great job of meeting Pedro’s needs.

Evaluating Pedro

One of the screening tools I have chosen for Pedro is the The Duke Health Profile. According to Schuntermann, 1997, in the US National Library of Medicine and Health journal acticle posted, this “is a 17-item generic questionnaire instrument designed to measure adult self-reported functional health status quantitatively during a one-week time window and can take less than five minutes to complete. There are 11 scales. Six scales (i.e., physical health, mental health, social health, general health, perceived health, self-esteem) measure function, with high scores indicating better health. Five scales (i.e., anxiety, depression, anxiety-depression, pain disability) measure dysfunction, with high scores indicating greater dysfunction.” I believe this would be important and helpful to evaluate Pedro because it will assess his overall health and functionability. I would re-evaluate Pedro throughout his case to ensure each area of his health and functionality is improving. It is important to assess his mental and emotional health while receiving treatment for HIV/AIDS, as some of the medication can worsen mental health issues. It will also be important to evaluate Pedro after he is clean off of drugs again, to ensure drugs was not causing the issues identified on the scale, but also after he starts any medication for mental health issues that are identified, such as an antidepressant, to ensure his symptoms are improving.

The second screening tool I would use is the DAST-20. This screening tool will be essential to determine whether or not Pedro is suffering from addiction presently, when completed with a drug and alcohol evaluation, but also will be able to identify whether or not it was an abuse or dependence issue, and if there is a positive drug screening at the drug evaluation, (to verify validity and reliability of his answers given to the evaluator regarding his drug use), than it will be helpful to determine if Pedro needs outpatient or inpatient treatment for his drug use. According to (SAMSHA, nd) the dast can be helpful in “identifying individuals who are abusing psychoactive drugs; and 2) to yield a quantitative index score of the degree of problems related to drug use and misuse. DAST scores are highly diagnostic with respect to a DSM diagnosis of psychoactive drug dependence.”

The third scale I would use for evaluating Pedro would be the “Five Factor Wellness Inventory is used to promote a healthier lifestyle including emotional health, physical health, spirituality, coping skills, and social networks.” This inventory scale could be used together with the Duke scale, to ensure validity and reliability, but also can be helpful to help identify strengths and interests for Pedro so the social worker and Pedro can help make a plan to improve his life in all of those areas. This can also help ensure that Pedro is able to learn positive new coping and relapse prevention skills, and ensure he is able to be successful with sobriety and making healthy lifestyle choices and changes.

References:

DAST-20 (n.d.). Retrieved January 29, 2016, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9213865

Five Factor Wellness Inventory By: Myers, Jane E., Sweeney, Thomas J., 20050101, Vol. 17 Database: Mental Measurements Yearbook with Tests in Print

Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen S. M. (Eds.). (2014). Social work case studies: Foundation year. Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader]. Working with Clients with HIV/AIDS: The Case of Pedro

Screening Tools. (n.d.). Retrieved January 29, 2016, from http://www.integration.samhsa.gov/clinical-practice/screening-tools