Depression As An HHSM Issue: Case Study Analysis

HMSV3502 Issues in Health and Human Services

Scope of Depression

The depression is a serious disease which influences the feelings, attitude, body, and capability to function of an individual in daily life. Most of the people do not like to talk about it, though it is a common disorder. The causes of depression are not known to anybody, and the symptoms of depression are not always the same in everybody. In some cases, the symptoms of depression could suddenly appear for some unknown reasons or might take place after a shocking event, a personal disaster or a sickness. As a Health and Human Services Management (HHSM) issue, it has been found that depression is more common in women than men. The actual causes of depression are not known, but the factors from genetics, biology, environment, psychology, and society are considered as the reasons for depression.

An individual can have at least five of the following symptoms to diagnose the depression:

• Sad or empty feeling
• Little interest or mind in activities
• Change in appetite along with loss or gain of weight
• More or less sleeping
• Tiredness or energy loss
• Feeling useless or guilty
• Stressed or slowed down
• Trouble in thinking or focusing
• Death or suicide thoughts

It is essential to talk with those closest persons about the personal experiences of depression, as the symptoms and power of depression differ from person to person in daily life. The individual might find these discussions to be difficult, but most of the specialists have agreed that these discussions are supportive for the depressed person. Some standard advice may make it easy for the individual to speak to their family and friends about their specific experiences with depression.

When the individual realizes his or her depression but cannot diagnose it, the very first step is to speak with the physician. If the depression is diagnosed as clinical depression, then treatment both with the help of medicines and therapy could help the individual to solve the issues of depression (Austin, Brody & Packard, 2009). The resources that would be needed before explaining depression are as follows:

• Organizations which educate and offer help
• Financial support for cost management of therapy and medicines
• Coping, encouragement, and support for people suffering from depression
• Facts and statistics about depression
• Medicines and therapies utilized for the treatment of depression
• Alternative therapies for the treatment of depression
• Reading of  patient blogs about the real experience of coping with depression
• Clinical prosecutions that address depression
• Tests for the measurement of the depression

There are many ways to deal with grief and most of the times they are best utilized in combination with one another. The main options available for medical treatment are Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), antidepressant medicines and in some cases, Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) is applied. Education and policies of coping are also significant while learning to control the depression. CBT is the best treatment for depression, single-handedly or in combination with the medicines.  The antidepressant medicines, for some people, might be the first step of treatment for the removal of severe depression (Avenevoli, Swendsen, He, Burstein & Merikangas, 2015). It is inadvisable to control severe depression without the trial of medicines. ECT consist of the implementation of a little electric current on carefully chosen spots of the scalp. These electrical currents are controlled by a psychiatrist and anesthetist and generate a minor attack in the brain. Though several people may be afraid of ECT, this process is the safest process for the treatment of severe depression. So, CBT can be adopted as a strategy to solve the depression.

Need for Resources

The Behaviorism Theory stresses the significance of the surroundings in determining the behavior of the person. The emphasis is on observation of the action and the situations by which the person studies the behavior of others. Thus the depression is the outcome of communication of the individual with their surroundings.

The CBT is the best treatment for depression, single-handedly or in combination with the medicines. The cognitive theory does not reject the behavioral values, and the main idea behind the cognitive theory was to combine the mental actions with the framework of the behaviors (Barth et al., 2016). The cognitive behavioral approaches are cognitive due to their ability to address the mental activities like thinking and emotion.

The Psychodynamic Theory analyzes those cases of depression which are due to biological aspects. It also deals with some cases which are connected to loss or rejections by the parents. The failure of vital relationships like the loss of parents might lead to depression.  The individual recognizes the lost person, and as a result, the suppressed anger for the lost person is turned in the direction of the self (Siu et al., 2016). The inner passion decreases the self-esteem of the person and makes them weak from the inside, and they start to experience depression in the near future.

The Behaviorism Theory and Psychodynamic Theory are not applicable are opposed to the personal view of the individual.  The problem with the behaviorism theory is its failure to analyze the effect of thoughts on mood (Rock, Roiser, Riedel & Blackwell, 2014). The issue connected with the Psychodynamic Theory is that it is extremely tough to examine this theory in a scientific method.

The cognitive theories came into prominence when the early behaviorists seriously failed to recognize the emotions and feelings. The cognitive theory concentrates on beliefs of the individual in place of their behavior (Miller & Hen, 2015). The systematic negative partiality in the thinking procedures leads to the conditions of depression. The cognitive approach helps the individual to recognize and correct their inaccurate, negative and partial thoughts (Barthas et al., 2017). This approach acknowledges and challenges the original expectations and beliefs of the individual. The individuals are able to recover from disappointments more efficiently, and the credit of the good things in their lives is identified and taken by them, with the help of encouragement to improve their approach towards life. It is learned by the individuals that they have the power to manage the situations or events wherever happens to them (Mata et al., 2015). The capabilities of the cognitive approach along with the behavioral policies decreases the chances of relapsing and returning of depression.

Strategy to Solve Depression

The Behaviorist Theory is the psychological theory to realize the behavior of the peoples. The assumptions of this theory are that all actions are either impulses generated by responding to particular stimuli of the surroundings or the outcomes of the activities of the individuals (Dougherty et al., 2015).

The Psychodynamic Theory is a psychological theory which focuses on the systemic learnings of psychology which give importance to behavior, emotions, and thoughts of the peoples and their relations to early experiences.

The Cognitive Behavior Theory (CBT) is a psychopathological concept based on cognitive theory. The cognitive theory defines the perceptions, spontaneous views, and situational effect on their emotional, behavioral and physiological reactions of the individuals (Chukhraev, Vladimirov, Zukow, Chukhraiyeva & Levkovskaya, 2017). They could learn to recognize and assess their thoughts and to rectify their thinking. When they do so, their depression generally gets reduced, and they are able to behave more naturally. 

Conclusion

The paper had considered the depression as an HHSM issue and determined the scopes of issues of depression.  It had recognized the need for investigation and resources needed before finding solutions for the depression or identified in that direction. It had given a brief analysis of the strategy that could be utilized to solve the issues of depression. The management theories and ideas for the depression had also been evaluated in this paper, along with the opposed management theories of depression. Then the best-implemented approach for the depression had been analyzed. Moreover, the summation of all the opinions had been done to gain perspective and helped in addressing the issues of depression.

References

Austin, M., Brody, R., & Packard, T. (2009). Managing and Leading Human Service Organizations: A Casebook (pp. 54-283). California: SAGE Publication Pvt. Ltd.

Avenevoli, S., Swendsen, J., He, J. P., Burstein, M., & Merikangas, K. R. (2015). Major depression in the National Comorbidity Survey–Adolescent Supplement: prevalence, correlates, and treatment. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 54(1), 37-44.

Barth, J., Munder, T., Gerger, H., Nüesch, E., Trelle, S., Znoj, H., … & Cuijpers, P. (2016). Comparative efficacy of seven psychotherapeutic interventions for patients with depression: a network meta-analysis. Focus, 14(2), 229-243.

Barthas, F., Humo, M., Gilsbach, R., Waltisperger, E., Karatas, M., Leman, S., … & Yalcin, I. (2017). Cingulate overexpression of mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase-1 as a key factor for depression. Biological psychiatry, 82(5), 370-379.

Chukhraev, N., Vladimirov, A., Zukow, W., Chukhraiyeva, O., & Levkovskaya, V. (2017). Combined physiotherapy of anxiety and depression disorders in dorsopathy patients. Journal of Physical Education and Sport, 17(1), 414.

Dougherty, D. D., Rezai, A. R., Carpenter, L. L., Howland, R. H., Bhati, M. T., O’Reardon, J. P., … & Cusin, C. (2015). A randomized sham-controlled trial of deep brain stimulation of the ventral capsule/ventral striatum for chronic treatment-resistant depression. Biological psychiatry, 78(4), 240-248.

Mata, D. A., Ramos, M. A., Bansal, N., Khan, R., Guille, C., Di Angelantonio, E., & Sen, S. (2015). Prevalence of depression and depressive symptoms among resident physicians: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Jama, 314(22), 2373-2383.

Miller, B. R., & Hen, R. (2015). The current state of the neurogenic theory of depression and anxiety. Current opinion in neurobiology, 30, 51-58.

Rock, P. L., Roiser, J. P., Riedel, W. J., & Blackwell, A. D. (2014). Cognitive impairment in depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological medicine, 44(10), 2029-2040.

Siu, A. L., Bibbins-Domingo, K., Grossman, D. C., Baumann, L. C., Davidson, K. W., Ebell, M., … & Krist, A. H. (2016). Screening for depression in adults: US Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement. Jama, 315(4), 380-387.