Psychiatric Medications Q 22
Dervid, an adolescent boy, was admitted for substance abuse and hallucinations. The client’s mother asks Nurse Armando to talk with his husband when he arrives at the hospital. The mother says that she is afraid of what the father might say to the boy. The most appropriate nursing intervention would be to:
A. Inform the mother that she and the father can work through this problem themselves.
B. Refer the mother to the hospital social worker.
C. Agree to talk with the mother and the father together.
D. Suggest that the father and son work things out.
Correct Answer: C. Agree to talk with the mother and the father together.
By agreeing to talk with both parents, the nurse can provide emotional support and further assess and validate the family’s needs. Observe family interactions and SO dynamics and level of support. Substance abuse is a family disease, and how the members act and react to the patient’s behavior affects the course of the disease and how the patient sees himself. Many unconsciously become “enablers,” helping the individual to cover up the consequences of the abuse.
Option A: Review family history; explore roles of family members, circumstances involving drug use, strengths, areas for growth. Determines areas for focus, potential for change. Explore how the SO has coped with the patient’s habit, (denial, repression, rationalization, hurt, loneliness, projection). The person who enables also suffers from the same feelings as the patient and uses ineffective methods for dealing with the situation, necessitating help in learning new and effective coping skills.
Option B: Assess the current level of functioning of family members. Affects an individual’s ability to cope with a situation. Determine the extent of enabling behaviors being evidenced by family members; explore with each individual and patient. Enabling is doing for the patient what he or she needs to do for self (rescuing). People want to be helpful and do not want to feel powerless to help their loved one stop substance use and change the behavior that is so destructive. However, the substance abuser often relies on others to cover up their own inability to cope with daily responsibilities.
Option D: Identify and discuss sabotage behaviors of family members. Even though family member(s) may verbalize a desire for the individual to become substance-free, the reality of interactive dynamics is that they may unconsciously not want the individual to recover because this would affect the family member(s)’ own role in the relationship. Additionally, they may receive sympathy and attention from others (secondary gain).