Case-study sample sections
Assessing Needs and Planning Care for a Service User with Anorexia Nervosa: Mental Health Nursing Sample
A mental health nursing case-study sample showing how a holistic assessment and person-centred care plan can be structured for an anonymised young service user living with anorexia nervosa. It applies a biopsychosocial approach to assessment, priority needs, communication, legal and ethical practice, recovery, family involvement and multidisciplinary working.
This reader presents sectioned sample content and study notes for academic comparison. It is not clinical advice, a submission-ready answer or a download.
Reading sections
The sections below show how the case study moves from assessment evidence into priorities, person-centred planning, professional responsibilities and review.
Purpose, case context and assessment approach
The sample introduces an anonymised 16-year-old service user living with anorexia nervosa and explains that the work will move from comprehensive assessment into care planning. The biopsychosocial model is used to organise biological, psychological and social factors while keeping person-centred care, privacy, recovery and professional duties visible throughout.
Holistic biopsychosocial assessment
The assessment section uses the nursing process to explain why both objective and subjective information matter. Biological, psychological and social needs are considered together so that the service user's health, behaviour, relationships, environment and wider support network form one connected picture rather than separate lists of problems.
Therapeutic communication and person-centred practice
A substantial part of the discussion focuses on communication during assessment. The sample considers rapport, active listening, privacy, a comfortable environment, sensitivity to verbal and non-verbal cues, empathy and non-judgemental interaction as part of building a therapeutic relationship and supporting informed participation.
Legal, ethical and professional responsibilities
The sample links assessment and care planning to professional and ethical duties. It discusses principles including autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice, alongside child-welfare considerations and the NMC Code, to show how safe practice and dignity should shape decisions rather than being added as an afterthought.
Priority care need one: medical stabilisation
The first priority goal responds to the physical consequences of prolonged food restriction and low weight. The discussion explains why medical stabilisation, nutritional restoration and monitoring of physical complications are important, while also making clear that medication alone is not presented as the complete response to anorexia nervosa.
Priority care need two: psychosocial and nutritional change
The second goal focuses on healthier nutritional behaviour and psychosocial support. The sample connects body image, self-esteem, emotional stress and environmental influences with the need for psychotherapeutic support, psychoeducation, family involvement and recovery-focused planning tailored to the individual.
Recovery, family involvement and multidisciplinary working
The care plan is developed through collaboration rather than by one professional in isolation. The sample considers the contribution of family or carers, shared goal-setting, communication between professionals, information sharing and multidisciplinary teamwork, with the service user's preferences kept at the centre of decisions.
Conclusion and professional learning
The conclusion brings assessment and care planning together as connected stages of the nursing process. It reinforces the biopsychosocial approach, therapeutic communication, user-led goals, legal and ethical requirements and multidisciplinary coordination as key features of holistic and individualised mental health nursing care.
How to study this sample
Use this paper to compare how an assessment leads into prioritised care goals and how each intervention is justified through evidence, professional standards and the service user's circumstances. Do not copy the case wording or reuse its references as a ready-made bibliography; adapt your structure to your own brief and current evidence.