Examine how psychological perspectives are applied in health and social care settings
Andy attends a Mental Health Clinic called Thinkaction weekly based in Chatham. This service is
used by clients with common mental health problems like stress, anxiety, and depression over
the age of 17. The aim of this service would include to help improve the wellbeing of service
users through free, confidential talking therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy and
other techniques in regular workshops which will aid to promote a positive mental health. The
referral process of Thinkaction is via self-referral completed online.
Keira on the other hand attends Drug Rehabilitation called Port of Call located in Medway. This
service is used for people affected by drug addiction and are having difficulty becoming drug
free without intensive support. The aim of this service is to help those with a drug addiction
understand the issues surrounding drug abuse and navigate towards the most appropriate help,
which may mean attending a drug rehab facility, at the right time. This service offers advice and
guidance to drug addiction recovery. This service is used by clients who are over the age of 18.
The referral process of Port of Call is via self-referral.
For Andy, in order to treat and manage his PTSD, his mental health clinic, Thinkaction provides
CBT, group therapy and counselling sessions. CBT is a part of cognitive perspective as it is a
talking therapy that can help Andy manage the problems, he faces due to his PTSD by changing
the way he thinks and behaves through replacing his negative thoughts with positive ones. The
group therapy sessions will help trauma survivors, like Andy, feel heard and supported while
also learning new coping skills by talked with another person who has been through the same
trauma he has been through. This means that group therapy belongs to the social leaning
perspective as through the conversations with others he can feel inspired by a role model in his
group who will encourage him to feel less anxious which can motivate him to stop self-harming.
Moreover, the counselling sessions are a part of the humanistic perspective as he will be able to
freely discuss his problems with his counselling without the fear of being judged.
For Keira, in order to treat and manage her drug addiction, Port of Call will provide her with
behavioural therapy, individual counselling and CBT. Behavioural therapy belongs to the
behavioural perspective as it focuses on behaviour modification by using techniques such as l
therapy techniques use reinforcement, punishment. Operant conditioning focuses on how
reinforcement and punishment can be used to either increase or decrease the frequency of a
behaviour. For example, she may be given a gift whenever she has resisted the temptation to
give into her drug addiction this can help reduce the frequency of her taking the drugs to cope
with her anxiety. The cognitive perspective can also help to treat Keira as CBT will help her as
the one-to-one sessions will help to draw out her negative thoughts and talk about the source of
these thoughts. This will be done to resolve her feelings of anxiety and low self-esteem
following her surgery so that she no longer will rely on drugs to make herself feel better. The
humanistic perspective can also help Keira as individual counselling can freely express her
thoughts and feelings as her counsellor will not judge her for the negative feelings that have led
her to becoming addicted to drugs but instead will make her feel valued and appreciated.
One similarity between, Andy and Keira’s settings is that they both provide CBT as a treatment
option. This form of treatment will be incredibly useful for what both Andy and Keira are going
through as CBT would effectively look into their thoughts and feelings and use them to find
effective solutions and resolving strategies to combat their drug addiction (Keira) and self-
, harming (Andy) by replacing the negative thoughts with positive ones. However, one difference
between Andy and Keira’s settings would be that at Think action they offer Andy’s CBT as part of
a group therapy. This helps to condition Andy’s trauma and anxiety following his road traffic
accident by providing support through other individuals with the same trauma as him which will
inspire him to get over his anxious thoughts if he sees those around him making progress.
However, at Port of Call, the CBT offered is only person-centred and a group option is not
available. This means that Keira’s drug addiction treatment would not benefit from the influence
of seeing her peers benefit and slowly overcoming their addiction in a similar way to her own.
Another difference is that unlike Think action, Port of call provides behaviourist treatments. This
would highly benefit Keira as reconditioning can help her to disassociate from her negative
thoughts and helping her to unlearn these thoughts as they influence her drug addiction.
However, as Think action does not have a behaviourist treatment, Andy is unable to disassociate
from his anxious thoughts which have influenced his self-harming. However, another similarity
between both setting would be that they involve individual counselling. This would benefit both
Andy and Keira client-centred therapy will enable them to discuss their negative feelings
without the fear of being judged as the counsellor will offer unconditional positive regard. As a
result, they an individually identify the factors which are stopping them from being able to live
their life to the fullest and receive the best possible support in order to manage and treat their
specific behaviour and thoughts.
Social Functioning
Social functioning a person's capacity to contribute to society and the way a person interacts
with their surroundings and their capacity to carry out their responsibilities within such
environments as work, social interactions, and partnerships and families. Some difficulties Andy
has with social functioning would be that his PTSD will implement avoidance in his daily life. As a
result, he will begin to consciously avoid circumstances that trigger memories of the trauma. For
instance, as he has been in a road traffic accident which has led to the death of his partner, he
might begin to avoid driving or even being in cars. He may also feel unable to enter that region if
the terrible incident occurred there. Moreover, he may distance himself from friends and family
due to the guilt and blame he places on himself after the accident or thoughts that people
around him have trouble understanding what he has gone through. This could also lead to
potential angry outbursts which further distances himself from those he loves. On the other
hand, Keira’s drug addiction will have an impact on her as it may lead to problems at work as
she may frequently miss work due to a sudden disinterest in work as a result of physical health
issues such as immense fatigue and mental health issues such as depression.
Social Functioning Behaviours
Concept of Role
Concept of role is the process in which we investigate behaviour of a service user, multiple
researchers have taken place to understand how certain illnesses can cause individuals to step
away from their regular roles and take on a role of their patients. Talcott Parsons’ (1951)
developed the idea of the ‘sick role.’ The unwell individual cannot fulfil their normal social roles
in society such as being a parent, school child or office worker, this leads to them adopting a sick
