Case Vignette: Treatment Plan for Recovery

Identified Problem # 1: Veronica is experiencing symptoms of PTSD that are interfering with her daily functioning

Behavioral Definition:

Long-term Goals:

1. The first goal of treatment in PTSD patients is to alleviate the disease manifestations. PTSD is a behavioral problem that makes the person sensitive to situations and presences that relate to a tragic experience in the past. The goal of treatment, therefore, aims at making the patient less sensitive to such situations and helping them be able to trust other human beings, and fostering the creation of normal family and work relationships.
2. Another long-term goal is to help the patient identify the areas that have suffered the negative consequences of suffering from PTSD. The healing process has to encompass remodeling areas of their lives that have suffered negatively including damaged interpersonal relationships and substance abuse.

Short-term Objectives:

1. The clinician should create a rapport upon which subsequent discussions are to be built. It is crucial to ensure the patient the confidentiality of whatever they share and let them know it’s okay to say anything they feel without fearing judgment.
2. The patient and the clinician should then work together in identifying the painful past episodes. The patient has to understand that it is okay to let the bad feelings associated with the past traumatic event run through them and restores normalcy in their disrupted beliefs and psychological balance.
3. Establishing the correct mode of treatment for the condition forms another short-term objective. It is crucial for the clinician to make sure the choices of treatment are well understood by the patient. PTSD is in most cases handled in a multidirectional approach making it necessary to combine the use of drugs and psychotherapy. Patient preferences have to be put into consideration for the provision of individualized care (Lancaster, 2016).
4. The other short-term goal is to maintain a healthy clinician-patient relationship which ensures the patient is not lost to follow-up. It is crucial to provide conditions that favor the retention of the patient in the therapy program which leads to better chances of recovery.

Therapeutic Interventions:

1. Individualized and group psychotherapy. In this forum, the clinician helps the patient identify the problem and together come up with the most favorable treatment plan. Psychotherapy forms the backbone of the treatment of PTSD with the use of drugs being restricted to the attack episodes to reduce the stress associated with the attacks (Syros, 2017).
2. Use of medication to relieve the stress and anxiety associated with PTSD is used in some patients. The neurotransmitter deregulation caused by stress can be restored to normalcy through the use of monoamine-regulatory drugs such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Medication can also help get rid of other symptoms such as the presence of nightmares on thinking about the past traumatic experience.
3. The use of prolonged exposure techniques in individuals who avoid situations that resemble the traumatic event that happened in the past is helpful in treating patients who use avoidance to forget their past. Careful exposure of these people to the events they avoid helps unmask their hidden fears and offers a good chance for recovery.
4. Cognitive processing therapy is another treatment option for patients who avoid the painful episodes that happened in their lives by not thinking about past occurrences. In cognitive therapy, the patient is allowed to think about their traumatic experiences and write them down, which aids in healing the pain associated with the past painful experience.

References

Lancaster, C. L. (2016). Posttraumatic stress disorder: an overview of evidence-based assessment and treatment. Journal of clinical medicine, 5(11), 105.

Syros, I. (2017). Cognitive behavioral therapy for the treatment of PTSD. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 8(4), 1351219.