Scenario 1 David Thompson, 17 years of age
David was diagnosed with schizophrenia only 12 months ago. He was prescribed medication which has resulted in weight gain and lethargy. Too much medication and he is tired and unable to do anything, not enough medication and he hears voices and is verbally aggressive. He lives at home with his parents and two brothers.
He has completed one semester at TAFE doing Graphic Design but has not been able to attend for the first four weeks of the second semester due to being so unwell. He has withdrawn from his cricket club and has not been seeing his friends as he is very self-conscious about his increase in weight. He is active on the computer using social media and playing games with others over the internet.
David’s parents and brothers are supportive and are concerned about his verbal aggression. They are accessing support through ARAFMI. His mother is taking him to the psychiatrist at CYMHS regularly and they are working on finding him the right type and dose of medication so David can do what he needs to do.

You are David’s worker in the Partners in Recovery program through the Mental Health Fellowship of Queensland. David has emailed you overnight expressing his distress about his current situation. He said he has also done some research into natural ways of feeling better about himself and has asked for you to look into services around the local area for assistance with weight loss and alternative therapies. He would like you to email him back about this as soon as possible.
You know there are a number of services in the area that could be useful but will need to do some research to make sure that you let him know about services that won’t have a negative impact on his current situation.

For your assessment, you need to write an email back to David validating his current feelings and provide information about services that are available. You need to provide contact details for each service and explain to David the reasons you think that service is suitable for him.
Criteria to address in the assessment include:
a) Responded appropriately to the distress of David through validation and respectful communication
b) Communicated in a way that promotes hope, self-direction and respect of diversity
c) Identified appropriate referrals for David’s needs
d) Explain your duty of care and confidentiality requirements in the communication
e) Informed about services in such a way that informed consent was implicit.