N212: Health Differences Across the Life Span 2

Health Differences Across the Lifespan 2 Study Guide • Crisis intervention: Prevention is the key to successfully moving people through a crisis with fewer associated behavioral disorders and reactions later in life. This process stems from the work of Gerald Caplan. Here we encounter the term debriefing. Debriefing involves one or more therapists coming together with a small group of people who have experienced a crisis. The therapists encourage these people to share their reactions to this crisis. Other forms of crisis intervention have evolved from this. They include telephone-based interventions, such as suicide prevention, poison control, and crisis pregnancy, as well as on- site interventions like those provided by Red Cross at major disasters. • Community mental health programs: One form of a community-based program is day treatment programs. These programs allow people to live at home or in a sheltered environment while coming to a hospital or clinic during the day for individual and/or group therapy. There are different types of day treatments for different types of psychosocial and medical needs. Another aspect of day treatment programs is that they can allow the caregiver some needed relief to help avoid caregiver role strain associated with long term care of a mentally ill person. Sheltered workshops also offer respite to care givers but they are aimed at giving the affected person a safe environment to work. They provide people with mental disabilities a place to work and even earn income. Persons with Down’s Syndrome may benefit greatly from this type of program. Behavior Modification Therapy Behavior therapy involves changing the behavior of the patient to reduce the dysfunction and improve the quality of life. The principles of behavior therapy are based on early studies of classical conditioning by Pavlov (1927) and operant conditioning by Skinner (1938). Classical conditioning is the learning of involuntary responses by pairing a stimulus that normally causes a particular response with a new, neutral stimulus. After enough pairings, the new stimulus will also cause the response to occur. Through classical conditioning, the old, undesirable responses can be replaced by desirable ones. There are several techniques that have been developed using this type of learning to treat the disorders such as phobias, obsessive compulsive disorder, and similar anxiety disorder. Systemic Desensitization This is based on the behavior principle of counter conditioning for assisting individuals in overcoming their fears of phobic stimulus. Systematic desensitization is a behavioral therapy technique where by a person overcomes the maladaptive anxiety elicited by a situation or an object by approaching the feared situation gradually, in a psycho physiological state that inhibits the anxiety. The technique of systematic desensitization involves a therapist guiding the client through a series of steps meant to reduce fear and anxiety. Systematic desensitization is useful in cases of clearly identifiable anxiety provoking stimulus such as, phobias , obsessive compulsive disorder , sexual disorders, and anxiety disorder. Systematic desensitization consists of three steps: 1. Relaxation training 2. Hierarchy construction 3. Desensitization of stimulus ©2017 Achieve Test Prep Page 22 of 140

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