NURS11157 Social Determinants and Health Behaviors Assignment Sample

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• Subject Code : NURS11157
• University : Central Queensland University My Assignment Services is not sponsored or endorsed by this college or university.
• Subject Name : Nursing

Lifespan Approach to Health and Wellness for Nursing

Table of Contents

Introduction:.

Overview of the Client.

Factors Affecting Health Decisions and Behaviour.

Psycho-physiological Aspects of Health.

Conclusion.

Reference List.

Introduction to Social Determinants and Health Behaviors

This assessment is on the overview of dementia patient, named Floyd, his wife Betty and son Burt. Although Floyd has early symptoms of dementia, still he and his wife Betty lives happily in the community. Things got changed when their son Brut arrived home. Bret seems to be a threat for his parents. Further, factors affecting health decisions and behaviour, and psycho-physiological aspects of health for this scenario has been discussed. Decision-making and behaviour are dependent on the stress, motivation, emotion, and other state of minds, and can be maintained through exercise, and healthy eating. Moreover, psychophysiological disorder is defined by the physical symptoms along with the emotional factors.

Overview of the Client

Client name is Floyd. He lived with his wife Betty form last 20 years. Floyd has symptoms of dementia form the age of 70’s, due to which he lives at home under assistance of community nurses. His wife Betty is in age of 70’s, looks vibrant with beautiful smile and sparkling eyes. They live in local community place of Williamstown, where Betty is well known for her oversized Audrey Hepburn sunglasses and big hats. Betty treats her neighbours well by greeting them every day during morning walk with Floyd and their fox Winston. From last three months, Betty’s is struggling to maintain her house, her collection of rare teapots is also getting less in quantity. Moreover, Floyd’s service medals are also not placed in the display case anymore. Outside lawns are vanished, her flower garden was also destroyed. A window of her house was also broken by the boys while playing cricket and she has covered that by help of cardboard.

During one Friday evening, Betty’s neighbours hear some noises of shouting and barking of Winston from her house. This is due to the fact of returning Betty’s son Burt to home. Burt is in 40s age, 6 feet tall and thick man. Although her neighbours hear the shouting, but they did not interrupt because they do not know much about Bert and thought it was their personal matter. After passing few days, Betty neighbours notice that they are now not coming for morning walk from past three weeks. They get concerned about Betty and Floyd, and called the community nurses to look around this situation. The nurses arrive Betty’s home and thanks their neighbours for the information. During their arrival, they are warmly welcomed by Betty, but they noticed several weird things in the house, like upturning of coffee table. Betty told them that this is due to Floyd. He shouts on Betty and forget that table was there and fell down. When nurses saw Floyd, they noticed swelling above right eye on Floyd’s face. He clarified the nurses that this swelling is because he fell down onto the table. During this conversation, Burt came up by shouting at his mother and called her old cow. Burt comes into kitchen and place beet carton over there and glares at nurses by asking them But Betty overlap this thing and said nurses that his son always plays games. the reason to come. Moreover, he told nurses that he is outside in the lawn with dog and his father must be drunk and fell down. He told the nurses to do their work and leave the house. It is clear from the overview of the client, that he and Betty are threatened by their son Bret. 

Factors Affecting Health Decisions and Behaviour

Efforts to understand the changing health decisions and behaviour depends on the models consists of social and cognitive factors, such as social norms, risk perception, knowledge, self-efficacy, and attitudes (Conner & Norman, 2017). Evidence-based studies suggest decision-making and behaviour are dependent on the stress, motivation, emotion, and other state of minds. When the stress and emotional levels are high, then one must follow health promoting behaviour, such as exercise, healthy eating habits etc (Ferrer et al., 2015).

From above scenario, it is clear that various types of factors that are affecting both positively and negatively to health decision and behaviour. They are mentioned below:

• Health services- Health decisions and behaviour are highly influenced by the quality of health services provided to the person ((Short & Mollborn, 2015). It has been scene in the overview that community nurses review the health care of Floyd’s illness of dementia. Also, it is important to take proper health services for any kind of illness to get better recovery. So, this acts as a major factor that positively affect the health decisions and behaviour of Floyd and his wife Betty.
• Individual behaviour- Individual behaviour play vital role in maintaining health outcomes. Positive change in individual behaviour can leads to reduce the rates of chronic diseases across country. It has been seen in the overview that Floyd has been drunk and fell down. Weather it is in sarcasm or true, alcohol and drugs play major role in health outcomes.
• Mental stress- Mental stress affects the positive health outcomes of disease. It is important to maintain mental health with no stress, anxiety or depression. It is also correlated with the above scenario as Burt came up as a stress factor for both Betty and Floyd. Both of them are facing stress and anxiety issues due to their son, which could negatively affect their health decision and behaviour.
• Social factors- Social factors include the social interactions and social support to the individual (Short & Mollborn, 2015). Betty has shown to be social interactive in nature. She regularly interacts and greet her neighbours, which acts as positive behaviour factor.
• Cognitive factors- Cognitive factors includes the proper functioning of brain. As Floyd has early symptoms of dementia, which could lead in impairment of his cognitive factors.
• Physical determinants- In the scenario, Floyd and Betty everyday go to take morning walk, which helps them to improve their health and behavioural issues. Exposure to natural environment is the best way to deal with mental illness like dementia.
• Lifestyle factors- Another factor related to health decision and behaviour includes the lifestyle of an individual. Communication and interaction are the common factors that influence the lifestyle positively.

(Rebecca & Wendy, 2018).

Psycho-Physiological Aspects of Health

Psycho-physiology refers to the combination of psychological (mental health) and physiological (physical health) of an individual. It plays vital role in development of healthcare system in treatment of various health problems. Psychophysiological disorder is defined by the physical symptoms along with the emotional factors.

From above scenario, it is clear that various types of factors that are affecting the psycho-physiology aspects of health. They are mentioned below:

• Psychological aspects include the mental health illness of Floyd, that is dementia. Dementia is a brain disorder that occurs in the individuals with age. This illness may cause loss in memory, communication and thinking. Various types of therapies are given to the person to treat dementia, such as cognitive behaviour therapy, counselling, music therapy, psychotherapy etc. Mental illness may occur due to stress, past traumatic experience, anxiety, or depression (Tanguy et al., 2018). In the mentioned scenario, Floyd is in early stages of dementia and he is getting treatment for that by help of community nurses. Community nurses use various therapies and interventions to deal with mental illness like dementia. Moreover, Floyd and Betty are also getting stressed and depressed due to their son’s Burt behaviour and attitude towards them.
• Physiological aspect includes body physiology factors like decrease in blood pressure, cholesterol, hypertension, muscle pain. Here, Floyd is facing dementia issues at age of 70s and Betty is also in age of 70s, and during these ages muscle pain is a very common physiological symptom. This could be managed by doing physical exercises regularly, boosting energy levels, and improving immunity. Meditation is an effective way in treatment of dementia, in both physiological and psychological aspects. (Gaffey & Wirth, 2014).

Conclusion on Social Determinants and Health Behaviors

Overall, from this assessment, it is concluded that factors affecting health decisions and behaviour, as well as psycho-physiological aspects of health are important to manage the health conditions of an individual. Efforts to understand the changing health decisions and behaviour depends on the models consists of social and cognitive factors, such as social norms, risk perception, knowledge, self-efficacy, and attitudes. Moreover, various types of factors affect the health decision and behaviour, such as health service, individual behaviour, mental stress, social factors, cognitive factors, lifestyle factors, and physical determinants. Other than this, psycho-physiology refers to the combination of psychological (mental health) and physiological (physical health) of an individual.

Reference List for Social Determinants and Health Behaviors

Conner, M., & Norman, P. (2017). Health behaviour: Current issues and challenges. Psychology & Health, 32, 895–906. doi: 10.1080/08870446.2017.1336240

Ferrer, R. A., Green, P. A., & Barrett, L. F. (2015). Affective science perspectives on cancer control. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(3), 328 345. doi: 10.1177/1745691615576755

Gaffey A.E., Wirth M.M. (2014) Psychophysiological Measures. In: Michalos A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_2315

Rebecca A. F. & Wendy B. M. (2018. Emotion, health decision making, and health behaviour, Psychology & Health, 33:1, 1-16, doi: 10.1080/08870446.2017.1385787

Short, S. E., & Mollborn, S. (2015). Social Determinants and Health Behaviors: Conceptual Frames and Empirical Advances. Current opinion in psychology, 5, 78–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.05.002

Tanguy, G., Sagui, E., Fabien, Z., Martin-Krumm, C., Canini, F., & Trousselard, M. (2018). Anxiety and Psycho-Physiological Stress Response to Competitive Sport Exercise. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01469

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