A 21 year old lady presented at Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) stating that she has these thoughts in her mind that she is going to harm her baby. She was experiencing an excessive fear of what she might do to her baby since these thoughts were telling her that she was going to knock the baby’s head against the wall.
She was physically trembling with fear and anxiety. She had reduced her food intake and this had resulted in considerable weight loss. She was not sleeping at night leading to tiredness, lethargy which was hindering Rachel (imaginary name) from performing her daily chores.
The pregnancy was unplanned but her boyfriend Robert (imaginary name) was very supportive during and after the pregnancy. He was very worried about Rachel since she had a complete change in character and from a happy go lucky person she had turned into an introvert always worried and depressed.
Rachel explained that she had always thought that motherhood would be an enjoyable period in life. She had always dreamt of this period but she had never imagined that it would end up to be the worst experience of her life. She was so focused on her baby that she had forgotten how to live. She was all the time concentrating on her childhood, how much she had felt neglected by her mother at that time and her innermost fear was that she will end up behaving like her; that is why she had stopped working, going out and enjoying everyday life. Despite this, she was feeling guilty that she was not giving enough attention to her baby.
CIT offers follow up sessions for 3 to 4 weeks, during which Rachel was asked to identify her problems and prioritise them. By identifying areas where she would like to improve, she would be lessening her suffering and make herself feel better; this was done together with the nurse.
Rachel was seen by the CIT psychiatrist who prescribed antidepressants with the aim to try and alleviate Rachel’s mood. Glasser (2003) complained that it is a pity that nowadays psychiatrist and medical doctors prescribe psychiatric drugs prior giving counselling sessions first. The role of the nurse regarding her treatment was to educate the patient regarding the importance of concordance and informing Rachel about any side effects that might occur when starting treatment.
The role of the nurse is to help the patient get better by offering the optimum level of care in order to empower her patient and help him/her improve his/her quality of life. Smith, Wolf and Turkel in 2012, explained that for the patient to be cured, s/he needs to be cared for as no curing can occur without caring (p.137). The nursing care plan should be planned together with the patient in order to identify the patient’s needs, plan and set goals to overcome the obstacles. Kelsey (2013) stated that NHS is emphasising on patient participation in the care plan as this will help the nurse to engage more with the patient while the patient will feel more empowered. This concept is firmly believed at CIT, and it was always stressed that all professionals collaborate for optimum care delivery together with patient. The patient also has the right to choose family members and/or friends whom he wished to be involved in his/her care.