A patient diagnosed with a serious mental illness lives ...

[washai]

A patient diagnosed with a serious mental illness lives independently and attends a psychosocial rehabilitation program. The patient presents at the emergency department seeking hospitalization. The patient has no acute symptoms but says,
 
  I have no money to pay my rent or refill my prescription. Select the nurse's best action.
 
  a. Involve the patient's case manager to provide crisis intervention.
  b. Send the patient to a homeless shelter until housing can be arranged.
  c. Arrange for a short in-patient admission and begin discharge planning.
  d. Explain that one must have active psychiatric symptoms to be admitted.

Question 2

The nurse wants to enroll a patient with poor social skills in a training program for patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. Which description accurately describes social skills training?
 
  a. Patients learn to improve their attention and concentration.
  b. Group leaders provide support without challenging patients to change.
  c. Complex interpersonal skills are taught by breaking them into simpler behaviors.
  d. Patients learn social skills by practicing them in a supported employment setting.

[jaykayy05]

Answer to Question 1

ANS: A
Impaired stress tolerance and problem-solving abilities can cause persons with SMI to experience relatively minor stressors as crises. This patient has run out of money, and this has overwhelmed her ability to cope, resulting in a crisis for which crisis intervention would be an appropriate response. Inpatient care is not clinically indicated nor is the patient homeless (although she may fear she is). Telling the patient that she is not symptomatic enough to be admitted may prompt malingering.

Answer to Question 2

ANS: C
In social skills training, complex interpersonal skills are taught by breaking them down into component behaviors that are covered in a stepwise fashion. Social skills training is not based in employment settings, although such skills can be addressed as part of supported employment services. The other distracters are less relevant to social skills training.