Order Description
The reflection will be about: The use of alcohol among patients suffering from mental health problem and the amount of problems that can come from alcohol abuse was shocking for me as I came from a country where alcohol is rarely used (Egypt). I will give few examples of patients that I met during my mental health rotation and how is alcohol was the primary
reason of their mental health problems
Mr E: I met Mr. M during my placement in St john of god hospital. He is 37 years old male, he left school when he was 14 and started to work hard in building industry until he was able to manage to have the deposit for his first house when he was 18 years old and then he started to work in real estate and he made a lot of money through his investment in real estate and he is now a millionare. He is married and has 4 kids. He doesn’t have any family history of substance or alcohol abuse or even psychiatric problems. He started drinking when he was 16 years old and few years later he started to be excessive alcohol abuser , he started to drink because he felt bored he mentioned that he doesn’t have to work hard to make money in last 10 years he works only 2 days a week and he can still manage to make good amount of money. In last 4 years he started to get really depressed and has been diagnosed with major depressive disorder which could be a consequences of alcohol abuse, moreover, he started to be really aggressive after drinking and he is facing few court cases for assaulting people after being intoxicated with alcohol, his wife is about to leave him because of his drinking habits. Pt was admitted in drug and alcohol unit in St john of god hospital as the psychiatrist thinks that alcohol is the main cause for his depression and violent behaviour.
Mrs.S: She is 42 years old x-policeman, she has 2 grown up kids and she was married twice and both end up by divorce. She started her job as a policeman in 2002 in police force and she faced few sexual harassment during few years of working in police service (as she mentioned) and because she has a risk factor of being from a family that both parents are alcoholic specially the father, she started to drink heavily since 2005 therefore, she was forced to resign from police force in 2009 and her last husband who is the father of her 2 kids divorced her because of her drinking habits. Moreover, recently she started gambling and she lost everything she has in gambling and now she can’t even find a place for accommodation and she was admitted in st john of God hospital for alcohol abuse.
Mr. E He is 67 years old male who was seen by Dr Howp01age in Norwest private clinic after referral from GP due to major depression symptoms. He is a retired mechanical engineer, and after retirement he started to drink more aggressively as he started to be bored, however he has a very good social and financial life. After 5 years of heavy drinking he started to be isolated and suffering from major depression symptoms and started to have suicidal ideations.
Moreover most of the patients that I encountered in Bungarribee house in Blacktown hospital who suffer from psychotic symptoms they excessively uses that alcohol and they have to be referred alcohol rehabilitation centres after treatment of acute psychosis.
In my reflection I would like to talk about change of my way of thinking about how alcohol is horrendous to mental health and how I was underestimating the number of people consuming alcohol and it affect their mental health as I came from a different culture where alcohol was not that common.
We have to mention the hazard of increase alcohol consumption in Australian youth and in Australian community in general.