Health Psychology Essay

Health psychology concerns itself with understanding fashion, biology and cordial context and their influences on illness and cureth. Health psychologists work with professionals in clinical argonas and also conduct research as well as tutor in universities. Health psychology aims at changing the wellness behavior of separates to help them maintain optimum health and swear off long-sufferings in adhering to intercession regimens. trammel to medical regimens and shorter hospitalizations are indicators of effective health services.Health psychologists mapping cognitive behavior therapy and analysis of applied behavior to achieve this. reciprocation The tariff list is composed of activities that are aimed at improving the adit of services to forbearings and also to improve the overall healthcare of forbearings. In grant of duties to the various health professionals some health psychologists ordain receive more(prenominal) than adept job on the list. This is bec ause of some of the duties which are tight associate do it more reasonable for these duties to be carried divulge by unitary person.The list however has very m each activities which if work load is considered institutes it infallible to down a fifth job prenomen. The fifth job title would be a communion skills counselor. The duties exit past be allocated as follows, the perfume sophisticate counselor lead be responsible for arrange the use of recovery programs and structured programs for import. He/she go forth be running(a) in conjunction with the social worker. The rationale behind this assignment is that the spunk evil counselor is the person most appropriate for dealing with inwardness abusers in assisting them to get rehabilitated.The nature of depicted object abuse is such that it has social and psychological components to it so the collaborationism between the cognitive content abuse counsellor and the social worker is necessary. The longanimous l oad in substance abuse programs is high because of the intensive nature of behavioural change programs that are utilise, therefore the substance abuse counsellor will moreover feed this duty assigned to them. The convict-only psychologist will be assigned to the duty of providing treatment for inveterate pain. The psychologist will be performing this duty only.This will be because of the gargantuan number of patients who shake off chronic pain. Managing these patients adequately means that the psychologist may not nominate enough quantify to attend to separate duties. The baby bird psychologist has devil duties assigned to them. These are providing psychological preparation methods for barbarianren prior to medical procedures and collaboration with local schools. These are two duties which are closely related. By existence involved with local schools the psychologist will already be familiar to the children making it easier for them to get children to cooperate when i n the hospital.The liberal psychologist will have the duty of providing psychological preparation methods for the prominents prior to medical procedures and surgery. The workload for this psychologist is expected to be high since most of the patients are adults, hence the adult psychologist will only have this duty. The fifth job is that of communications counsellor, who will be carrying out duties of utilizing various methods to facilitate adjustment and coping skills amongst the patients. This psychologist will also have the role of diagnosing pains disorders and providing aid in stress simpleness interventions.The rationale behind this assignment is that the two duties are also closely related. The effect of despicable adjustment to a condition and inability is frequently stress (Broome, Llewelyn and Llewelyn, 1994). Some eons the relationship is vice versa, with high stress levels make poor adjustment to ones condition (Lyons and Chamberlain, 2006 ). The substance abuse c ounsellor will contribute to improved patient healthcare by provision of services geared towards behavior change that will alter the patient to be completely rehabilitated.The HBM (Health Behaviour Model) proposes that behavior change occurs when an individual perceives that the benefits of behavior change outweigh the costs or barriers that are associated with the behavior. (Friedman and Silver, ). The substance abuse counsellor will use such a place to predict the possibility of behavior change for the substance abuser. The usefulness of the HBM has been seen in its predictive value of whether individuals will adopt behavior such as safe-sex practices, breast self-examination and exercise (Friedman and Silver, ).The substance abuse counsellor will use cognitive behavioral therapy to educate substance abusers about the strike to steer clear of drugs. Those with alcohol and other drug addiction problems will be helped to lay problems and behaviors that are related to their subst ance abuse. This will frequently be done in a group setting and on occasion on an individual basis (Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2008). Group settings are used mainly because many people get hold encouraged by the feature that they are not alone in the addiction problem.Other activities that the substance counsellor will be involved in accept assisting family members to do with the addictions of their spouses, children or siblings. Since health psychology places emphasis on barroom of illness,the substance counsellor will have the responsibility of initiating, planning and conducting programs which are aimed at the pr unconstipatedtion of addictions. This will help in the achievement of overall demote health since it is often easier to prevent a condition rather than to remediation it. The rehabilitation process for drug addicts has been known to be a grueling with many of them falling off the wagon.Thus a lot of time and patience is required, making prevention the bette r option. The emphasis on prevention is aimed at reducing the number of patients who will need to use substance abuse programs and also at reducing the rate of relapse. This contributes to decreased tick at the hospital. The child psychologist has a role of helping children to respond to the mendelevium in a positive and cooperative manner at the time when a procedure is creation done. This will involves the use of methods that allay the fears and anxieties of the child, such as providing distractions.The counsellor will also explain to a child who is old enough to understand the nature of the procedure they will allow and what to expect in language that they can understand. The child counsellor will also have the responsibility of identifying cases of child abuse and other problems in the family that may hinder proper child development (Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2006). In addition, it is the role of the child psychologist to educate the parent(s) or the guardian of the chi ld on the developmental milestones of the child and to encourage parents to bring their children to hospital if any of these milestones are missed.At the local school, the child psychologist will continue to observe children for any behavioral, social and personal problems. This will contribute to improvement in child health as it will result in early detecting of problems and therefore early management and possibly shorter go ons in hospital. The adult psychologist will be preparing adults psychologically for medication by telling the adult patient what to expect. Before surgery, the adult psychologist will visit the adult patient and discover what fears they may have.The adult psychologist can allay this by explaining the changes that the patient may expect following surgery or after a medical procedure. The adult psychologist can also communicate the patients worries and fears to the physician, surgeon and other health professionals directly involved in patient care. This will ensure that the medical professionals allay these fears and are conscious of them as they take care of the patient. This contributes to better healthcare because a less nervous patient is more cooperative and the patient is more likely to have greater alliance to their medication regimen.Management of chronic pain is a role which will include activities like administration of the McGill Pain Questionnaire to patients. This barb assists in description and measurement of pain (Marks, Murray, Evans et al, 2005). It provides a set of address describing pain from which the patient can choose from. These will assist the remediate to determine the intensity and depth of the pain that the patient feels. The McGill Pain Questionnaire makes diagnosis of pain easier and depending on the type diagnosed the appropriate medication can be prescribed, reducing the patients hospital stay.Another activity that the inpatient only psychologist will be involved in is confirming that a patient is s afely using patient administered analgesia. This information can be elicited through conversations with the patient which will reveal their use of the analgesics that they have. cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)and biofeedback are other techniques of treating pain amongst inpatients. CBT involves the use of distraction and informality techniques (Scott and Briere, 2006). The use of CBT where the patient is advised to note pain relieving and pain modify featureors also help in the management of pain.These are useful in managing pain and when the inpatient psychologist has taught these successfully to the patient then it becomes easier for the patient to portion out the pain and stick to their medication. The overall effect of these is a shortened hospital stay. The communications counsellor will have a role in educating physicians on the importance of maintaining patient-centered references. These consultations as opposed to doctor-centered consultations make the patient to fee l as though they are part of the treatment process.The doctor- centered consultation is perhaps preferred by the elderly but is disliked by most people due to the sense of ignorance that it fronts to inspire. A patient-centered consultation cerebrateses on the needs of the patients and allows the doctor to listen to the patient, involve the patient and finally make a diagnosis and choose treatment. Health psychologists believe that treatment that is arrived at like this has a higher chance of being adhered to (Marks et al, 2005). The communications counsellor will therefore make this known to the medical professionals to enhance adherence to medication regimens.This is important as often the way a patient is handled by the medical professionals influences their adjustment to a condition they have especially when the condition is chronic. Adherence to medication is an indication that the patient is well alter and is coping well. Most patients who have suffered traumatic conditions or who have chronic conditions are predisposed to management of stress disorders. Development of a stress disorder in addition to their chronic condition makes their health even worse and increases their period of stay in hospital.The communications psychologist will identify these patients and plan for and implement interventions that will help to relieve their stress. Some of these interventions include CBT, which can be done individually or in a group. The communications psychologist may also introduce biofeedback. Biofeedback involves the measurement of the functions of a exit such as heart rate, blood pressure, skin temperature and muscle focus as well as sweat gland activity (Scott and Briere, 2006 ). a good deal when a patient stress levels are increased these parameters tend to increase.When calculated and an increase is found, the patients awareness is raised and the patient then can consciously begin to control the unconscious physiological activities. Adherence to th is practice can help patients avoid thoughts and feelings which increase their stress. The communication psychologist will also encourage the patients to verbalize their feelings of anxiety and stress and what they think are the sources of the stress. She/he will then explore with them the topics that they can engage in to help take away their stress. These include physical activities, board games, conversations with other patients.Some stress issues may be related to the family especially where a mother is sick. She may worry about the care of her household and children. To assist this mother, the communications psychologist may need to help the mother work out a plan for care of her household with other family members. Once the stressors have been identified and done away with the patient is more likely to heal faster and be more committed to their treatment regime. The role of the communications psychologist is very important in detecting patients who may go into printing as a result of stress associated with their conditions. ConclusionSome of the jobs of the health psychologists may seem to overlap. These include the jobs of the inpatient psychologist and the communications psychologist since both seem to be dealing with chronically ill patients. They also seem to have a similar objective in that they want to ensure that the patient adheres to their treatment regimen. There are similarities between both jobs, but the focus of the inpatient psychologist is the patient who requires pain management. Overlap is reduced by the fact that should the patient develop stress as a result of poor pain management then they can be referred to the communication psychologist.The communication psychologist will then go on to identify the stressor and put in place appropriate interventions. The overlap is not an entirely bad thing as it will result in some of the workload being shared among the psychologists since there is likelihood of patients being more in one psychol ogists speciality. The health psychologists described above will all be working towards improving the care of their patients. Most of the interventions that they will put in place will lead to either decreased hospital stay or greater adherence to medication. This effectively results in improved health among the patients.