Depression.......

Hi, my placement now is in musculo.

I had a gentle man who was attending to the hospital for a while with ongoing condition.
On my first assessment on him, he did not present that much pain which had been bothering him for a long time. The only activity that increased the pain (up to 2/10) was SLS in occasion. So the pain was well managed at that stage; however, there were many things needed to be considered besides the original problem. His mental status had been changing regularly due to depression which was one of his considered conditions.

He was aware of this condition and had been trying not to think about it too much; because, it was affecting onto his mind as negatively. As you know this condition, it is hard to be active and motivated in any exercises when someone is depressed in general. He was not an exception and was having struggles to break the cycle. He was trying hard on HEP as much he could as possible, since he had been told many times the importance of regular exercises, these needed to be consistent, and he was very aware of it.

However, I could notice during the Sx that he was having a feeling of guilty not doing well on his HEP as depressed. I understood how he felt regarding exercises and his previous history. I was seeking his interests in any activities during the session, but I felt like I was giving him more pressure as time went by.

Lots of encouragement and education was my intervention mainly on him, but what else I could have done? I was told there was not much we could do in terms of physio point of view. I understand that treating the mental condition is out of our scope; however, I just want to give patients a little of help without increasing their feeling of guilty for next time. Does anyone have any idea to help me out??