Walden Clinicians Social Workers and Mental Health Professionals in US Discussion

Though the DSM-5 is the standard manual for mental illness diagnoses, it is not without weakness. In this Assignment, you analyze the strengths and limitations of the DSM-5 diagnostic system, and you differentiate between normal behavior and diagnosable symptoms using the concepts of dimensionality and spectrum.

To prepare: Review the concept of the dimensional approach with the DSM-5 and review the methods that the DSM-5 recommends individualizing where a person fits on a continuum of their illness in terms of subtypes, severity, and functional impairments. You will find these classifications in different parts of the manual and begin to be comfortable looking through it.

Next, imagine the following scenario:

You are a school social worker who has been asked to address a parent-teacher association meeting. Many parents in the audience have children who have been identified for special education services. They are confused about how to understand the diagnoses they are seeing. Others have worries about overdiagnosis. You have been advised that while these parents are generally well-informed, many don’t understand the dimensional or spectrum aspects. All are worried.

You will start your video with your introductory talk to the parents on these factors. After you provide your explanation, imagine that you open the meeting to questions. You will address the question noted below that is posed by a parent in the audience. Consider your audience, and practice explaining in terms a non-professional might understand. Do NOT read from the book.

Review the questions (in the Assignment instructions below) ahead of time and plan your answer before recording, as you will need to look up and integrate materials to answer the chosen question.

By Day 7

Submit a 3- to 5-minute video, considering the parents as your audience, in which you do the following:

• Briefly describe what the DSM-5 is and how it is      organized. In your description, define the concepts of spectrum and      dimensionality as explained by Paris and in the DSM-5 introduction.
• Explain why social workers and mental health      professionals use diagnoses and what receiving a diagnosis means (and does      not mean).
• Explain general concerns about the risks of      overdiagnosis and misdiagnosis versus not diagnosing. Also explain how      diagnosis is connected to services.
• Explain other details that might help your audience      understand the strengths and weaknesses of the diagnostic system.
• Provide a response to the following parental questions:
• My teenager’s best friend died by suicide this year.       It’s been months, and she doesn’t seem over it. Her teachers tell me she       should get help for depression, but I think it’s just grief. She talks       about her friend all the time and gets very upset. I am worried about       her. Is it normal for her to still be feeling this way? I don’t want to       put her on medication for normal feelings. What is the difference between       grief and depression?

Include a transcript and/or edit closed captioning on your video to ensure your presentation is accessible to viewers of differing abilities.

I will do the video

Resources

American Psychiatric Association. (2013j). Introduction. In Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: Author. doi:10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596.Introduction

Barsky, A. (2015). DSM-5 and the ethics of diagnosis. The New Social Worker. Retrieved from https://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/ethi…

Neukrug, E. S., & Fawcett, R. C. (2015). Diagnosis in the assessment process. In E. S. Neukrug & R. C. Fawcett, Essentials of testing and assessment: A practical guide for counselors, social workers, and psychologists (3rd ed., pp. 43–58). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.

Paris, J. (2015). The intelligent clinician’s guide to the DSM-5 (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press

Wakefield, J. C. (2013b). DSM-5: An overview of changes and controversies. Clinical Social Work Journal, 41(2), 139–154. doi:10.1007/s10615-013-0445-2