[Nursing Experience Applying a Bereavement Counseling Model on an Elderly Patient With Depression].

Grief counseling is an effective treatment for those who have experienced a loss. In this case study, therapeutic communication was used as part of a nursing intervention to assist an elderly patient with depression to overcome grief and continue with life. The stage-based Four Tasks of Mourning proposed by William Worden were employed. These tasks include: (1) accepting the reality of the loss; (2) working through the pain of grief; (3) adjusting to a new environment without the deceased; and (4) focusing attention on other relationships. The nursing intervention occurred between December 14, 2015 and February 3, 2016. During this period, the author offered grief counseling to help the subject endure the loss of their kin, express their grief and pain, overcome difficulties in making adjustments, and move on from the loss by developing new life goals. The subject eventually acknowledged the irreversibility of what had happened and accepted the death through self-reacceptance and the support of friends and family. The patient was thus able to overcome his grief-induced behavior patterns, and rekindle his hopes for life and existing relationships. Therefore, the author recommends that nursing personnel assess carefully the reactions of elderly patients with depression to loss and provide adequate grief counseling that helps them fulfill the tasks of mourning.

[Nursing experience helping a client with schizophrenia improve her family relationships: application of reality therapy].

Reality therapy has been demonstrated to be an effective strategy in achieving behavioral change. This case study used reality therapy as a therapeutic communication tool to help improve the family relationships of a client with schizophrenia. We used a four-tiered questioning technique to address, respectively, the aspects of "want," "doing/direction," "evaluation" and "plan" (WDEP). Nursing interventions were held between October 21st and November 19th, 2010. The authors used the reality therapy framework and WDEP system to guide the client to explore her inner needs, review problems objectively, and determine where efforts could be focused most effectively. Better appreciation of her abilities and strengths and encouragement of effective actions helped improve client relationships with her family members. This study introduced reality therapy and shared clinical experiences in order to help readers better understand reality therapy as an alternative framework of communication in nursing care.