Reflection on Learning and Teaching Adults with Depression - Essay Example

?Reflection on Learning and Teaching Adults with Depression Introduction It is imperative that people learn how to take care of themselves and this is especially true for people experiencing mental problems. The aim is to enable this people to take care of themselves even in the absence of a caregiver or any other person who is responsible for their wellbeing. Nutrition is quite an important aspect in people’s lives. People need to understand what kinds of diet are appropriate for them and how they can ensure that they get them in order to be healthy. Mentally challenged people of all categories need proper nutrition and this is because their various ailments have affected the normal functioning of the body and thus they are unable to react normally like the other people. This means that they may not be in a position to take the appropriate diet and thus find themselves deficient of essential nutrients that their body requires. This means that their bodies may not recover from the mental problems and will also develop other nutrition related ailments that will cause them more problems to their health. This teaching session was based on wellbeing and nutrition and was being offered to five adults over the age of 65 suffering from depression and who are at risk of malnutrition. Aims and Outcomes All initiatives have aims that they wish to accomplish. In conducting the teaching session we aimed at several things. First the teaching session was aimed at giving the people information as concerns their health and well-being. It is important that sick people get to understand what they are suffering from so that they are better able to deal with their problems. Many authors say that psychological well-being of a person is very important to their recovery. Thus when people understand what they are suffering from, it is easier for them to positive about the things they are told to do and in so doing they are able to get well as soon as possible. This teaching therefore aimed at informing about the effects that depression brings on adults and how they could avoid being depressed and the available options in place that could help them. Second aim after information concerning the illness was teaching them on the various interventions that are available for them as patients suffering from depression. Our core concern was the people’s well-being and thus they needed to know what interventions are there to ensure that they can cope with the mental problem. A variety of options were given to them here including specialized hospitals, possible medications and primary interventions such as a stress free environment. The third aim was getting them to learn about their nutrition and how it was important to their development as patients. Depressed patients tend to think a lot and lack appetite and thus the resultant effects may not be good. These people require close monitoring so that they can take food and in the right quantities so that they do not starve or take unbalanced diet. Our intended outcomes for the initiative was a detailed understanding by the patients on the ailment that they are suffering from, the various interventions that are available for them and the various nutritional requirements that they need it order to recover from their ailments. Due to the lack of concentration by the patients, it is important to teach them using tools that attract their attention and thus a lot of animations were used and a number of role playing tasks were also used to enable the patients concentrate while learning at the same time. It was also important that the patients be put in a room to avoid their minds wandering away in an open environment. Professional ethics were also to be observed such that the session was supposed to be carried out with the consent of the patients and this was something that was difficult to get given the condition of the patients. Evaluation of sources of information used Nice (2010:17) describes depression as “a wide range of mental health problems characterized by the absence of a positive affect (a loss of interest and enjoyment in ordinary things and experiences), low mood, and a range of associated emotional, cognitive, physical and behavioural symptoms.” Scholars have problems differentiating clinically significant depression from normal depression. However, the identification of a major depression is based on the persistence of the issue, severity, other symptoms and a considerable degree of both functional and social impairment. Therefore in the teaching session I found information from National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) quite informative and their guidelines helped me in the teaching session as they help me in identifying major symptoms of the disease and how it affects people. The guidelines also offered a range of psychological, psychosocial and pharmacological interventions that helped me in the session. Such interventions as cognitive behaviour therapies, behaviour activation counselling, physical activity, and guided self-help are very important interventions that I used in trying to link theory and practice. They had also to know the value of pharmacological interventions and here the use of antidepressants became important as they had to know when and how to take the drugs in order to recover from the condition. These interventions are what are us in clinical practice and using them on the patients improved outcomes and my understanding of the problem they were facing. I also found materials from other scholars such as Papageorgiou & Wells (2004) whose ideas on the causes and symptoms of depression were of valuable use to me during the session. The book generally talks of depression and the effects it has on people and the society. It contains general information on how to manage depression in patients and what they can do to avoid depression. Of essence was their basis on counselling as an intervention that would greatly help people suffering from the disease to find ways of coping with the disease. I found this quite helpful as I would advise try counsel the patients and find out the causes of their problems and I would also try and advise them on what I thought was the best thing to do. Friedman & Anderson (2010) ideas on managing depression were very helpful in explaining to the patients the available interventions that would help them deal with the problem. They discuss a range of physical psychological and psychosocial interventions that help people with depression. Of particular importance are the cognitive behaviour therapies that the scholars argue is the best way to go about handling the problem of depression. The approach focuses on the need for patients to recognize their thinking patterns and to assess their thoughts and new behaviours to avoid negative thoughts of themselves. In trying to explain the various dietary and nutritional requirements for the patients I found Abou-Saleh, Katona & Kumar (2011) book very helpful because it gave me an insight into the various mental problems available and the various nutritional requirements for each of them. Thus I found out that depression patients required omega 3 fatty acids, vitamin B and other essential amino acids that were important for their mind and body. The patients in this case were at risk of malnutrition and therefore through the strategies in this book I was able to teach them the essential nutrients that they must take like those mentioned above and other dietary requirements that were of benefit to them and their health. Essentially they needed to change behaviour before they could easily start taking food or nutritional supplements that would be important to their health. Simopoulos (2001) in his book on nutrition also helped me in understanding how to deal with dietary requirements for depression patients and this book was quite helpful in the designing of nutrition plans. Generally the knowledge that I gained from the reading of these books was quite comprehensive and gave me enough content and additional strategies such as the best interventions available for dealing with depression, writing dietary plans for the patients, the nutritional components of the patient’s meals and what they needed to avoid in order to be healthy. Evaluation of performance It is very essential that at the end of each and every teaching session or a specified period, performance is evaluated to find out if the teaching outcomes were met. In the session with the patients with depression, it was quite difficult to assess how I faired on with the teaching. However a few simple questions seemed to work and indicate the level of understanding of the concepts that the teaching session aimed at. It is not possible to evaluate your own performance and thus the people who are being taught in the session should be tested to see if they really understood what you told them. This could be a good indicator of performance. This is because when most of the people fail, it means that the delivery of information was poor and also that your performance was poor. In my evaluation I used both oral tests and demonstrations to gauge the learners and to gauge myself. I gave the patients very simple oral questions and asked them about what they had learnt in the sessions to know whether they got anything from my teaching. The questions were very simple and did not require thinking. They were based on the most basic things that the patients needed to understand. The patient’s responses were quite impressive as 1 out of the total 5 people that were asked questions failed to answer completely. Others tried even though their answers seemed vague. They tried to give an understanding of what they thought I was asking most of which was true. From this I therefore concluded that my teaching was quite successful as given the fact that these were patients with mental problems and they could understand what I had said, it meant that my teaching was at their level and that they got the concepts that I was trying to pass across to them. Strengths in relation to teaching I came to learn that teaching others is not quite a simple thing to do. It requires a lot of dedication and determination in order to get others to understand your point. This is even difficult when you are faced with people who have psychological problems and thus they are not able to pay attention to what you have to say. This means that you have to be creative in the way you present information so as to capture their attention to avoid speaking to yourself. However everything becomes good with practice and one is able to deliver results once they gain experience. I learnt that my strengths lied in the fact that I was creative and easily captured the attention of the audience. I analysed the audience and established that the best way to teach them was not by lecturing but through demonstrations and animations on PowerPoint. This attracted the audience’s attention so easily and the people were quite engaged in the whole process until the end of the session. I kept the audience active by asking questions and also by asking them what they thought they would do in a given situation. Their answers helped me build on what I was going to say next and thus helped me until the end of the session. My deep understanding and knowledge on the various issues I was talking about gave me the confidence to speak and this made the people listen to me even more as they felt I was helping them a lot. I learnt that I had little knowledge at first and this was impacting on my delivery and thus I went out to read and gain knowledge before I could disseminate it. I also learnt that I lacked in public speaking skills as I was afraid at the start and spoke using jargon most of which was not understood by the patient. I think learning about public speaking would be very good in helping others also know how to go about with teaching. Conclusion The teaching sessions were quite informative and gave me a deeper understanding of how people with depression behave. I learnt on the best approach to teach them and how to capture their attention. I also found out that the way a speaker carried himself would either make the audience listen to him or not. I also learnt that I was capable of teaching people but I lacked the essential public speaking skills that made me unable to communicate effectively with the audience. List of References Abou-Saleh, M. M., katona, C. L., & Kumar, A. (2011). Principles and practice of Geriatric Psychiatry. London: John Wiley & Sons. NICE. (2010). Depression: The NICE guideline on the treatment and management of depression in adults. Retrieved May 19, 2012, from The National Institute of Health and Clinical excellence: http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/live/12329/45896/45896.pdf Papageorgiou, C., & Wells, A. (2004). Depressive Rumination: Nature, Theory and Treatment. London: John wiley & sons. Simopoulos, A. P. (2001). Nutrition and Fitness: Diet, Genes, Physical Activity, and Health. London: Karger Publishers. Read More