Practical Guidelines and the Administration of Psychosocial Intervention

Practical Guideline
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Practical Guideline
Practice guidelines play a significant role in enhancing knowledge and skills for effective delivery of care to the patients’ diverse medical conditions or situations. The American Psychiatric Association posits that clinical practice guidelines enhance the quality of care by integrating evidence-based practices and research towards developing recommendations for improved care. Practice guidelines further function to provide educational opportunities for caregivers towards enhancing their decision-making in the delivery of quality patient care. Provided herein is a review of literature on the practical guidelines for treating and managing patients with schizophrenia.
Literature Support
Schizophrenia is a mental health disorder characterized by abnormal interpretation of reality, manifesting in various ways, including disillusionment, hallucinations, and impaired thinking or judgment leading to disorderly behaviors. Extreme cases of schizophrenia can also lead to disabilities. The outlined symptoms are a function of poor quality of life among patients, demanding an effective treatment procedure to control or mitigate their impact on patients CITATION Pat142 \l 1033 (Patel, 2014). The complex nature of the underlying factors causing schizophrenia among patients accounts for the equally diverse treatment, and management approaches for the psychosocial disorder CITATION Pat142 \l 1033 (Patel, 2014). Patel and colleagues further state that it is important to assess and evaluate patients before administering the appropriate treatment as informed by the observed symptoms and severity of the mental health problem. Patel’s article, Schizophrenia: Overview and Treatment Options, further echoes the administration of non-pharmacological and pharmacological therapies as informed by the assessment and evaluations CITATION Pat14 \l 1033 (Patel, 2014).
The 2020 American Psychiatric Association (APA) guidelines on the treatment of schizophrenic patients, Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Patients with Schizophrenia, form an excellent platform for developing practice guidelines for the treatment and management of schizophrenia. The APA guidelines break down the different stages of schizophrenia and provide the appropriate treatment for the same, including psychiatric management for mild cases, administration of antipsychotic and adjunctive medications for acute cases, and use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) CITATION Ame20 \l 1033 (Association, 2020). The Association breaks the treatment and management of patients with schizophrenia into three key sections; assessment and determination of treatment plan, psychosocial interventions, and pharmacotherapy CITATION Ame20 \l 1033 (Association, 2020). Each of the sections has recommendations and suggestions for proposed treatment and management procedures for positive patient outcomes.
Altamura (2015) reiterates the importance of assessing and evaluating patients before developing an appropriate treatment plan. Altamura’s article, integrated treatment of schizophrenia, advocates for integrating pharmacological treatment with rehabilitative and psychosocial therapy for positive outcomes on ...