Patients History: A 76-years old Black African-American Male with Disabilities Living in
an Urban Setting
A 75 years old male visit the health care facility to resolve his physical disability issues.
The safety and quality of patient’s care depends on an environment where care is provided.
Having an African older disable person at the facility will require special attention and special
care because they are a minority and people with disabilities have less access to health care
services.
Communication Technique and Interview Description
An aged disabled male paralyzed, and with intellectual disability, is unable to move on
his own visits the facility for physiotherapy. While speaking with a person on wheelchair, it is
important to sit first in order to come at eye level with them. Make sure to verbalize any feelings
or thoughts while talking because such people rely on visual cues (Myers, 2010). Keep your
questions simple and responses easy to understand. Give some extra time for information
exchange. Some might not be able to give an exact picture of how they are feeling because of
difficulty in understanding cues. Be prepared to use visual information and to receive visual
information from the intellectual disable (Brown, McHugh, & Standen, 2011). People with
intellectual disability have a higher risk of health concerns and including suicide and depression.
Care and better services can play a very important role and also helps the person to prosper
during his lifetime. So it becomes a challenge for the health care provider to diagnose situations.
Risk Assessment tool
The risk assessment tool used for the person will be HEEDSSS (home, environment,
employment, depression, safety, sexuality or suicide). Through this assessment tool the nurse
will be able to analyze the patient’s current situation, how is he managing at home, financial
support, and how he is dealing with stress or depression. Treating an aged person is a challenge
for the health care provider. They also need support from their families. Challenging behavior
occur in patients, they are aggressive most of the times. Extra care and attention is require in
dealing with such challenges.
Questions to be asked
Targeted question for the patients will be:
1. In the past week, how much of physical activity you have done that increases your heart
beat?
2. Did you need help from anyone in the past 5 year to perform your everyday activates
(such as eating, bathing, walking or taking medicines)
3. Have you ever been treated by a psychologist?
4. Who are you staying with? Does your family support you?
5. Over the past week how many times you feel depressed or hopeless?
Through following questions doctor will be able to gather information about the patient and
will treat him accordingly. It is very important to get information about the patient before
treatment. People with intellectual disability are socially isolated, they are not allowed to build
friendships or sexual relations (Emerson, 2001). The only relationship they have is with their
staff or care provider (Singh, Lancioni, & Winton, 2009).
References
Brown, D. J., McHugh, D., & Standen, P. (2011). Designing location-based learning experiences
for people with intellectual disabilities and additional sensory impairments. Computers &
Education,, 56(1), 11-20.
Emerson, E. (2001). Challenging behaviour: Analysis and intervention in people with severe
intellectual disabilities. England: Cambridge University Press.
Myers, K. A. (2010). Understanding communication preferences of college students with visual
disabilities. Journal of College Student Development,, 265-278.
Singh, N. N., Lancioni, G. E., & Winton, A. S. (2009). Mindful staff can reduce the use of
physical restraints when providing care to individuals with intellectual disabilities.
Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities,, 22(2), 194-202.