How are things at home? How are things at school? Are you feeling angry or upset about anything lately? Are any of your friends pressuring you into things you’re not comfortable with? Have you had any thoughts of harming yourself or others?

WEEK 2 DB RESPOND TO MY CLASSMATE ELIZABETH

COLLAPSE
When obtaining a health history, it is important to build a rapport with the patient and create a safe space for communication (Ball et al., 2019). Using a patient-centered approach, as discussed by Ball et al. (2019), increases the opportunities to keep the conversation going and obtaining the information needed to treat the patient. In the case of 16-year-old BK, the clinician must take into account the patient’s age and socioeconomic factors. BK lives with her grandmother and her mother is a drug addict who is incarcerated. The grandmother is concerned about drug abuse by BK, stating that BK has been “acting strange, staying in her room all the time and refusing to do all the things she used to enjoy”.

The priority of the clinician is building a relationship with BK in order to get the information needed to provide optimal treatment (Ball et al., 2019). Using the HEEADSSS assessment tool would be beneficial for this situation (Ball et al., 2019). The HEEADSSS acronym stands for home environment, education/employment, eating, activities/affect/ambition/anger, drugs, sexuality, suicide/depression, and safety from injury and violence (Ball et al., 2019). An interview utilizing this assessment tool would consist of the following five questions:

“How are things at home?”
“How are things at school?”
“Are you feeling angry or upset about anything lately?”
“Are any of your friends pressuring you into things you’re not comfortable with?”
“Have you had any thoughts of harming yourself or others?”