Assignment task: At the community mental health center, you are assigned to counsel an adult client who has major depressive disorder, recurrent with psychotic features, as well as borderline personality disorder. She is a 55-year-old who also has addiction issues. She is beginning to lash out at her family because she feels abandoned by them. She stopped taking her prescribed psychotropic medications a year ago. This has triggered her utilization of drugs and alcohol. She is becoming increasingly depressed, isolated, sleeps 14 hours per day, and overeats the rest of the day. She tells you that she has stopped all socializing and needs to get back into life again so that she can cope with her mental illness and work through her abandonment issues. She is willing to attend whatever groups you think will help her.
You will take this case to your next team meeting to discuss with your colleagues before presenting the information to the client. Be sure to include the following in your discussion:
- Provide 2 goals for the client.
- Identify 2-3 objectives per goal.
- Present at least 2 types of group therapy that you could use to assist this client effectively, and explain how you would utilize the chosen groups.
- Identify 1 potential benefit and 1 potential drawback of each of the type of therapy selected.