#forproviders

By Gabriel Sena

  Human beings come with many different challenges.

Have you every thought about the causes of disease? Does the environment cause diabetes, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease? Or are humans a product of their genes, primarily influenced not by their lifestyle or choices, but by their genetic predispositions to the disorder that has a lasting effect on their being?

What if we told you that disease can be a product and result of both environmental challenges AND the very genetic make-up we have been afforded by our parents and ancestors for thousands of years.

And what if we told you that both physical health and behavioral health influence and interact together in human beings to determine disease processes. Interesting, huh?

Let us give you an example: A 25-year-old female has been diagnosed with depression due to her current domestic violence situation. She later develops diabetes due to poor dietary habits. She has also struggled with alcoholism since graduating from high school and continues to drink her sorrows away. What is treated by her PCP (Primary Care Physician)?

If the young woman does not indicate her struggle with depression and merely treats the diabetes with medication, a “void” in treating the young woman as a WHOLE has occurred.

Let's try this again: A 37-year-old male sees his psychiatrist on a quarterly basis to help treat his symptoms of schizophrenia.  He receives a regular medication regimen to help decrease the occurrence of command auditory hallucinations.

His memory has declined significantly since he was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of nineteen years old. His primary care physician continues to treat this patient on an “as-needed basis” but has yet to consult with the psychiatrist.

How much has this patient's cognitive ability been influenced by the deterioration of brain cells due to his psychiatric disease?

What effect, if at all, has the anti-psychotic medications influenced this man's overall functioning?

Who's responsibility is it to ensure that this person is receiving an integrated treatment approach?

Who’s responsible to treat both his physical and psychological/behavioral symptoms?

The challenge, until recently, of treating the two patients mentioned above is that professionals have seemed to shy away from working together in treating individuals using an integrated approach. Consulting and collaborating for the betterment of the individual as a whole, without the fear of touching on the "unknown."  Clinical therapists, Psychologists and Social Workers working together with Primary Care Physicians,  Medicine Men, Curanderas, and Nurse Practitioners as an integrated, Inter-Disciplinary Team.

The challenge is that we are afraid, concerned, un-willing and at times hardheaded and furthermore too proud to consult with others from disciplines different than our own.

After all, we are the "experts" in our field right? However, what if we could take an Opportunity and use it to benefit not only our own learning, but most importantly, create a tremendous Opportunity for our members, clients, and patients...

This integrated care model could quite possibly be the most successful treatment method we fail to utilize when treating human beings and their diseases.

Let's collaborate, let's consult, and let's continue to help those individuals as a whole person.

Not as a physical health patient...

Not as a behavioral health or mental health client...

But as a human being that has been influenced by both environment and genetics with a unique understanding that Physical Health is influenced by depression, anxiety, domestic violence and alcoholism.

And with an increase awareness that Mental Health is influenced by diabetes, dementia, HIV/AIDS, and hypertension.

By Gilbert Valdez & Gabriel Sena

What do you think you know about “development” of the human mind and body?

Have you ever heard someone speak about their emotional age? Or know someone who has an “old soul?” What about the phrase “she/he is very mature for her age”? Age? Maturity?

What does it all mean?

Let’s break down some of these ideas and get a better understanding of what they mean. We will also examine how we can apply this knowledge in the work we do with children and adolescents.

You can’t work long in the field of human services, specifically with children and adolescents, before you hear about the idea of development. We hear it all the time in our work with families who have children with special needs, “the parents may not have much knowledge of child development” or “the parents are expecting a lot out of their child and it’s not developmentally appropriate.”

What does “developmentally appropriate” mean? And is there such a thing as developmentally appropriate? Who is this according to? Did someone Google developmentally appropriateness and decided this or that is how a child or individual SHOULD behave, act, be.

When we take a look at a human’s developmental jigsaw puzzle we must take into consideration events, environment, biology and unknown, uncovered mysteries of the human neuron. Much of which has yet to be explored and understood by scientists around the world. But what we do know is that human beings are dynamic and brilliant complex creatures.

  Take into consideration a young lady who was born out of a domestically violent family. What’s that you say? You are correct I did not say born into, because at times the violence, substance abuse and trauma in some families occur while the child is still in the womb! Hard to believe? Believe it.

Unfortunately, this young person is born into the world already developmentally behind our so-called “appropriate” normal curve. Developmentally, he may never recover from the pain and suffering he incurred in the womb.

These traumatic insults could potentially hurt their ability to regulate (their autonomic nervous system) and later on in life, impair their ability to learn and quite possibly hinder their higher order processes for decision-making. Later on in the child’s lifetime, they may be more vulnerable to experience more stressors such as physical/sexual abuse, neglect and the inability to learn how to show compassion, love, sympathy or the simple, and not so simple understanding of pain, hurt or struggle of others.

So what does this all mean? What is the result of these developmental insults, trauma and suffering? For some it may look like a jigsaw puzzle. Many awkward, unique, important pieces that “should” fit together to form a human energy. Not developmentally appropriate, but developmentally exceptional and distinct.

Perhaps, chronologically they may be the age of a teenager, say thirteen (13) i.e. they have lived 13 years on Earth. However, sexually, this person may have explored sexuality, which may have led to being a new parent during their ripe teenage years. Mentally, due to the trauma, substance abuse and pain suffered in the womb, this adolescent person is unable to read and write, but has been “given” passing grades by teachers in order to “move them along.” Unfortunately, this developmentally exceptional person may, throughout their lifetime, continue to experience life through an unforgiving filter. These effects may have continued inter-generational challenges to his/her newborn child. Thus, the cycle continues. This could be the start (or continuation) of Transgenerational problems (<- a topic for another time).

There are grave consequences from these developmental insults and they can last a lifetime, permeating every developmental stage. But it does not have to be this way. We can change. We can help others. We can foster the environment and conditions where change is not just possible but an expected outcome. We can heal developmental insults.

What do we mean when we say someone has impaired development? What types of development are there? How do clinicians in the field figure out these degrees of maturity? These will be explored next.

We suggest you stick around.

NEXT: The Developmental Jigsaw- Part II