ARRS Role Spotlight: Andrew McNaney
We often do case studies surrounding our ARRS roles in order to better understand the many ways they engage with our patients and how we can improve on the services we offer.
We plan to share some of these studies with our patients to help them better understand our ARRS roles, the many services we offer, and how they can benefit from them.
This month, we would like to shine a spotlight on our Mental Health Practitioner, Andrew McNaney and the terrific work he’s been doing.
Patient Case Study: Addressing Emotional Dysregulation and Social Anxiety
Introduction
This presentation explores the journey of a female in her 30’s who sought help for emotional dysregulation and social anxiety. Through a series of sessions, she received a full mental health assessment and support to address her emotional, social needs and any overt contributing factors to mental health issues.
Key Challenges
- Emotional Dysregulation: Patient has difficulty regulating her emotions.
- Social Anxiety: Negative thinking patterns affecting social interactions.
- Stress Reaction: Patient has difficulty handling stressful situations.
Support Strategy
Emotional dysregulation work introduced over a number of sessions, primarily addressing distress tolerance. This was primarily addressed through the use of skills such as the STOPP technique, a DBT approach that aims to teach individuals to reassess in a moment of impulsivity their actions and reevaluate the aim for their actions/reactions.
Additionally, to address social anxiety more time was spent over a number of sessions introducing negative thinking work. This began by going through a basic CBT exercise to allow the patient to understand how their thoughts, feelings and behaviours are all interlinked and can all be affected by one another. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a widely used therapeutic approach that is effective in addressing negative thinking patterns and promoting healthier mental processes.
From this, more intense work was done with addressing specific anxieties, and then practical ways to challenge them (behavioural modification on a small scale).
Outcome Achievements
- Improved Distress Tolerance: Skills garnered to manage emotional responses effectively.
- Social anxiety: Reduced through challenging and reframing negative thoughts and targeted interventions.
- Emotional Control: Patient feels more in control of her emotions.
- Positive Connection: Building a supportive relationship with mental health services.
Conclusion
The numerous sessions yielded the desired result of the patient feeling a lot calmer in herself and more able to deal with social and internal stressors, leading to improved mental wellbeing.
The patient was very appreciative for the support, noting that it was the most positive connection she had made with a mental health service.
We’re so excited to celebrate Andrew and the amazing job he’s been doing! His hard work and creativity really shine through, making a big difference for our team. We’re truly grateful to have him with us and can’t wait to see all the great things he’ll accomplish in the future!
To learn more about Andrew and the role of a mental health practitioner, and how he can assist you, please follow the link below.