Which assessment finding for a patient in the community deserves priority intervention by the psychiatric nurse? The patient:
a. receives Social Security disability income plus a small check from a trust fund every month.
b. was absent from two of six planned Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in the past 2 weeks.
c. lives in an apartment with two patients who attend partial hospitalization programs.
d. has a sibling who was recently diagnosed with a mental illness.
ANS: B
Patients who use alcohol or illegal substances often become medication noncompliant. Medication noncompliance, along with the disorganizing influence of substances on cellular brain function, promotes relapse. The distracters do not suggest problems.
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