child’s complicated illness

 child’s complicated illness

Introduction

Following the child’s complicated illness, the family identified some needs that they considered urgent needs. Melisa’s family had the best interest of the patient at heart. That is why they placed significant effort in understanding and improving the concerns about the child’s development. Among other needs, they considered Matt’s development skills, communication challenges, the wrath undergoing subsequent surgeries, language development problem, movement problems and the consequences of the diagnosis as the most fundamental primary concerns. Due to the seriousness of the child’s heart condition, the doctor recommended multiple extra surgeries in the future. Melisa accepts the option but remains worried over the implications and the risk factor associated with surgery. Melisa also has the most significant worries about their child’s developmental progress. The family realizes that they need an early intervention program that will work towards the treatment of Matt in the long run.

It is prudent for the family to seek early treatment for a child at this age because the child is fragile. Failure to address them early might lead to permanent malfunctions of some body organs and even death. Matt qualifies for early childhood intervention programs to address his health conditions, including his communication and speech development challenges. According to the case study, Matt has already received speech pathologist at home to enhance his communication efforts. Surgeries are necessary for Matt’s treatment in the future following that he was born with heart problems. Matt’s family is required to devise communication means between them and the child. The child may need various services to aid him in social skills, communication skills, self-help skills, fine motor skills and physical skills.

Family’s source of support

The family’s social circle has been very significant in supporting them during the time of ailment. Melisa was the greatest beneficiary of the support from friends and colleagues. Her life would be difficult without this support. Melissa enjoys both formal and formal social support in her daily life. The family has a medical cover, but still, the donations and support were extremely helpful in making Melisa feel better. The support Melisa receives from the people that care for the family helps her to meet her basic needs as well as maintaining social connections. The social connections further help her to avoid getting drowned into deep thoughts of her son’s illness and depression. Her husband was also a critical source of encouragement and a support pillar throughout the process. Clay, the husband, uses his cover to cater for Matt’s expenses, hence helping Melisa to avoid the stress associated with servicing hospital bills. We also realize that Melisa’s consistent and robust support system plays a critical role in helping her recover quickly from the Caesarean section after delivery. The husband sits at the centre of her support system.

Formal support

Numerous researchers have been consistent in their findings that formal and informal support both from family and friends plays a significant role in reducing the burden of the caregiver. Formal support can be defined as any kind of service provided by a trained employee, either on volunteer basis of on paid terms. Informal support, on the other hand, includes support that comes from the social network of the caregiver. It is mostly on a voluntary basis. For this case study, the formal support consists of the speech pathologist that looks after his speech development, early intervention providers and the care coordinator. The pathologist intervenes after Melisa realizes that her 18-month-old son is lagging in his motor skills and language development. She also explores the possibility of placing the child in an early group-based intervention program with the help of the pathologist. The pathologist focused on increasing his functional communication after the parents complained that they were struggling to communicate with him. Matt’s ability to be understood by her mother, father and sibling were characterized by difficulties. Elizabeth Fox, the pathologist, made insightful and critical findings of Matt’s communication problem. The parents realized, with the help of the pathologist, that the child had none of the expressive skills that other children have at that age.

Some of the formal support individuals go beyond their duties to offer social support to the family. For instance, the speech pathologist was paid to observe the child’s communicative behaviours. However, he goes further to encourage the family. Also, the doctors that were in charge during Melisa’s delivery period make to the list of those who offered formal support. Other doctors worked with the infant even when Melisa had no idea of what was going on cannot be overlooked. It is these doctors that discovered a breathing problem in the baby. Even though they first make a poor guess by calling a nose, ear and throat specialist, they later realize that the problem lies in the hart. That is when they called a heart specialist to examine Matt’s heart, and the heart specialist quickly notices that the problem indeed lies in the heart. Another group of doctors at the Premier Medical Center were also very helpful in treating the heart problem. These medical formal support groups primarily made up of doctors helped Matt survive even when everyone thought that he could die since there were minimal chances of survival.

Ellen Thomas also makes a list of the formal support in the case study. Ellen comes in as a service coordinator to study Matt’s developmental functioning. She uses the Hawaii Early Learning Profile (HELP) as a guide to carry out the diagnosis. She tests Matt’s self-help skills, cognitive skills, social-emotional state, his gross monitor, expressive language and fine monitor. She made critical findings from the examination that helped his parents understand the state of their child. For instance, Ellen found out that Matt has most functions for a 10-month or below baby bust still misses some few items such as “looks at pictures one minute when named.” Matt, however, had inconsistent results for the developmental items of a child of his age. At his level, he misses appropriate skills, such as saying some words nonspecifically. It will be remembered that most children between 12 and 18 months hardly have a problem with naming a few names of objects or people they are familiar with. Matt had significant gaps beyond a 6-month-year-old skills baby. He had just started to pull to stand. He also lags in the social-emotional skills since he has skills that fit in the children range of between 9 to 12 months. He has very few skills that match that of a child of his age. In terms of self-help, Matt still lacks behind significantly. He also demonstrates self-help skills similar to that of a 12-month old level kid. There are a few spotty self-help skills for his age. The parents are informed that at his age, he needs to demonstrate emerging skills such as holding and drinking from a cup or various show of discomfort, such as when the diaper is full. Matt still has a shortage of demonstrating most of these skills.

Informal support

As indicated above, informal support is that support provided to a patient or caregiver by their social network and community. In this case study, informal support comprises of support given to Melisa by her husband, extended family and friends from the community. Informal support is of priceless benefits to our lives. Even without the component of sickness, we all need a robust support network. Our lives are better when we have good people around us, who can offer social and emotional support. Having someone to be there for us when we need them most is very critical in our well-being. Through informal support, we can source advice for free hence make better life decisions. Good friends and family members help us think through problems much better or even offer practical assistance that would otherwise be difficult on our own. When we need financial assistance, we look upon our social circle for informal support. When we need such support and more, we call on the people we know. Social informal support when it comes to extreme illness cases becomes even more important than ever. For a needy woman like Melisa, informal support network may be of great importance if she needs more assistance in her daily activities. A more comprehensive informal social network contributes significantly to keeping people safe and feeling supported.

For Matt’s case study, the first striking person who offers informal support is Melisa’s husband, Clay. Clay cuts across all aspects of care for Melisa and their sick child. Clay travels with her wife and child across hospitals to show unlimited support. When the doctor recommended that Matt be taken to Premier Medical Center for further treatment, Clay sacrifices the limited space in the plane for her wife and the child. He drives and arrives shortly after the plane. He keeps encouraging her wife and hopes for the best for his newborn son. Clay is also a hardworking police officer and husband. Due to his hard work, he has been promoted severally. This shows his commitment to provide for his family and to ensure that they have access to their needs. He is flexible enough to take time off from work to be next to his wife and ailing newborn son. The fact that Clay is always around his wife and son consistently is enough to offer credible informal support to the subjects. It is a commitment to show that he is participating and shares experiences with his wife and son. His support to the wife and son is purely intentional.

The extended family, especially Clay’s parents, is other key sources of informal support. Melisa and Clay were fortunate to live close to their hometown where their parents lived. This made their travel to their parents shorter and easier reaching them in case they needed their physical help. They also had other members of the extended family across their hometown. Clay’s parents helped significantly in taking care of Alex during the period Melisa was in the hospital for delivery. The parents reduced the burden on the Melisa and Clay since they would be forced to balance between taking care of Alex and their situation they were handling. Melisa’s sister also participated in taking care of Alex during this period as Melisa and Clay attended to Matt. Melisa physician, though she participates on paid activities, also contributes to some form of informal support. The physician releases Melisa on the second day because she knows the pain of a parent whose child is near death. The physician relates to the experience she went through a few years ago when his daughter had experienced trauma. Melisa’s father also contributes to the informal support when she runs to Melisa’s house to prepare the house for the reunion between Melisa, Clay and Matt.

Other family members and friends not only gave Melisa emotional support but also provided financial support. When they met at Clay’s house, the family members and friends contributed $100 each within five minutes. Melisa had no trouble with servicing medical bills, but the financial support was a gesture of goodwill and reliable support from friends and family members. She was emotionally overwhelmed as a result of their generosity. She was happy and confident when she realized that she has many people behind her back that can offer support. Also, the police department as unit chipped in by giving Melisa and Clay $2,500. This also demonstrated a sign of goodwill from the service where Clay works. It could also be an indication that Clay is a good person at his workplace who gets along with many. Melisa also, as a mother, offered significant support for Matt, his ailing son. We realize that Melisa struggles to make sure her son gets the best treatment to address his developmental challenges, communication problems and heart problem. Matt’s mother has his medical problems in mind every day even as she goes around her routine. Additionally, Melissa plays her roles as a mother and the woman of the house, even amidst her son’s health and her personal health problems caused by caesarian delivery. She still makes sure that she prepares Alex off for school and reports to work where she works as a part-time parent trainer in an early intervention program. When she is home, she plays with Matt and engages him as much as she can. As a mother and a wife, she prepares food for her household, does chores and generally maintains the household. She cares for Matt to the extent that she worries about his ability to survive major surgeries the child will be facing in the future. As a show of care, Melissa contacts early intervention service coordinator and a pathologist to assess and suggest interventions his development and communication challenges.

Additional alternative types of formal and informal assessment

There are so many other alternative types of formal and informal assessment that can be used in such a scenario. For instance, another critical type of assessment for developmental areas is developmental inventory. For cognition, we can use the development inventory to test different developmental domains. It is significantly used to test the domains tested on Matt, such as self-help, language, cognition, communication and social skills. The Bayley scales of infant development is designed to assess areas of behavioural and mental development of a child. It can be used for assessment for children between age one month to 42 months. It is also used to assess motor skills in children. The preschool and primary scale of intelligence assesses the perception of a child and areas of language. This too, can be significantly used in Matt’s case and establish good results. Scales of children abilities has been a globally used form of the formal assessment for children of Matt’s age. The method can evaluate the general intelligence of the child. It is also critical in identifying the child’s strengths and weaknesses in their areas of ability. Some of the areas it is mostly used at include memory, perceptual performance, general cognitive skills and verbal intelligence. The Play-Based Assessment (PBA) is a method used to assess children from birth to six years. It uses children’s playability to assess cognition areas and social, emotional intelligence for children as well as sensorimotor.

For communication and language assessment, we can alternatively use Sequenced Inventory for Communication Development- Revised (SICD). The method can assess children between four months and four years. The technique is beneficial in evaluating a child’s language skills and expressive skills. Additionally, the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamental method can be used in identifying any form of language disabilities in children. It focuses explicitly on assessing speech sounds, language processing and language production. Transdisciplinary Play-Based Assessment (TBA) is used to assess all children below the age of 6. It also uses play to examine a child’s areas of cognition, communication, language and socio-emotional abilities.

Alternatives for assessing the social and emotional ability of a child include the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale (VABS), which is used to asses children between ages of 11 months to 18. The method is useful in examining the social competence of a child since it focuses on communication, socialization and daily living areas of assessment. Transdisciplinary Play-Based Assessment (TBA) method is also useful in assessing a child’s cognition and socio-emotional abilities.

For motor skills development, Development Motor Scales, Scale of Infant Development and Transdisciplinary Play-Based Assessment (TBA) can be used as alternatives. One alternative method for self-help and adaptive issues is the Hawaii Early Learning Profile (HELP). This method is criterion-referenced and can be used to assess any child from birth to age of three in cognition, social development, self-help, motor, language and speech.