A Case Study on Mental Health Symptoms in Social Care Settings

a)    Write a brief case study based upon a fictitious service user exhibiting a profile of mental health symptoms that is commonly encountered in social care settings. (20 Marks)
b)    You should critically appraise any theoretical problems related to diagnosing the causes of, and thus treatments appropriate for that service user's mental health needs. (60 Marks)
c)    Also analyse the potential of social care practise to support those needs. (20 Marks)

Submission guidelines:
This assignment must be submitted via the H3013 Moodle page on or before 5pm on Friday 27th of November (i.e. no hardcopy submission is required). It is worth 40% of the marks available for the ‘Psychology and Mental Health (H3013)’ module.

An exceptional essay with superior insight into the topic as shown by well-developed, original arguments supported by clearly explained text/graphics. Data are put into a wider context with reference to the literature. Supported by original data which are presented in a very clear way with original and innovative arguments and evaluated clearly with reference to the literature.  

An essay showing excellent insight into the topic with well-developed arguments, well-structured and supported by good journal references used together in an integrated way. very good essay showing secure knowledge of the topic, clearly structured with references used appropriately. Analysis is good but may be limited.

A good essay shows a firm understanding of the topic and some limited effort to put it in a wider context. Evidence and analysis are sufficient but limited. There may be some errors of interpretation. A competent essay takes material from secondary sources with limited evaluation of those sources or relevant data. The structure of the essay may be inconsistent and/or unclear. Referencing may be poor.

An essay that is largely descriptive, reproducing course or other materials with little or no evaluation. There may be internal inconsistencies and bits missed out. The essay may have a poor layout or be difficult to follow, including in too-small a font size, too much text etc.

A weak essay that is largely relevant to the topic but which may contain big gaps in content or knowledge, has little or no evaluation, and may have important elements missing. There are no references cited and little or no evidence for the use of secondary sources.

A weak essay that is generally relevant to the topic but which may contain irrelevant material. There are big gaps in content or knowledge, no evaluation, and may have important elements missing. There are no references cited and little or no evidence for the use of secondary sources beyond basic course material. Simple errors in layout and formatting. A poor essay with some evidence for comprehension but with many basic misunderstandings or misinterpretations of course-based material. The essay shows little evidence for forethought beyond cut and paste from websites and may not be relevant to the topic. The essay looks rushed with little forethought. Some content may be incorrect. 

Developing the Case Study

You should construct a fictious case based upon any combination of mental health symptoms that is relevant to the area of social care that you are most interested in. You may use diagnoses from the DSM-5 (i.e. more than one is allowed), but for each diagnosis that you mention you should describe the symptoms involved. For example, to obtain a diagnosis of depression under the DSM-5 system, an individual does not have to exhibit all the depression-related symptoms to qualify for that diagnosis. Once you have chosen a given combination of mental health symptoms for your case study you should then read the chapters of an introductory abnormal psychology textbook that are relevant to those symptoms/diagnoses. This will allow you to discuss the degree to which an individual qualified or not for any relevant diagnoses.

It will make your task easier if you construct a case study that is based upon some individual, or combination of individuals that you have previously encountered during your social care work placement. This will make it easier for you to provide a detailed account of the complicated circumstances that often result in mental health symptoms and their treatment (or lack thereof). If possible, you should also provide some information about how common your fictious mental health symptom profile is among service users in your chosen social care context, versus in the general population.

Critically appraise: 
You should critically appraise the pros and cons of the various diagnostic/treatment paradigms that we considered in class (including the various causal theories we explored); and relate these pros and cons to the symptom profile of your fictious case. You should discuss what sorts of treatments each paradigm would suggest for your fictious case’s profile of mental health symptoms. You should also consider the relevance of the biopsychosocial, diathesis-stress and positive psychology models as a means of integrating those various treatment/diagnostic paradigms. 

Analyse the potential of social care practitioners to support needs:
You should relate the various models of mental health covered in your lectures to social care practise. You should analyse the potential for social care workers to collaborate with other mental health professionals to support positive changes in the daily living environment of your chosen fictious case. You should analyse the feasibility of each of the interventions mentioned your lectures up to and including those suggested by positive psychology theory. 

Please provide a concluding section summarizing your major conclusions.

Note: Please do not copy and paste text from online materials. Students may be required to provide an oral defence of their work if TU Dublin’s plagiarism software indicates any such problems. It is your responsibility to you submit your assignment to Moodle far enough in advance of the deadline that to resolve any unexpected technical issues (e.g. broken internet connections, confusion about how to proceed with a Moodle assignment submission, etc.).