Mental Health Intake Form Critique. After Reviewing Several

A clinical assessment is then conducted for treatment needs. Different treatment plans are made for each client. Individualized treatment plans are used to make referrals and they are updated periodically.”

31 y/o AA male patient seen today for psychiatric-mental health assessment. He is awake, alert and oriented x4. He is calm, cooperative and follows commands during assessment. The patient reports he is depressed, difficulty sleeping and nightmares at night. The patient explained his depression is as a result of deep thinking from a news he received two days ago from his elder brother that his mother is ill. Stressors identified by the patient include losing his job a week ago before the news about his mother; his wife is 6-months pregnant with their first child, who currently works part-time at her present job; patient relates difficulty paying monthly bills and inability to provide adequately for his family as a man. The patient denies mood swings, suicidal/homicidal thoughts and ideation. Patient reports his spouse is at work at the moment and he does not want to put stress on his wife due to her current condition. Patient denies been hospitalized for depression or psychiatric illness; and denies family history of mental illness. Patient reports he is seeking help because he does not like feeling this way using terms of “helpless and loss of worth from his spouse”. Patient reports he needs help with his depression and nightmares before his current condition get out of hands and ruined his marriage.

Constant assessment of the clients’ problems and cognitions is very important in evaluating if techniques are being effective. Often in the beginning there is an extensive interview process that can last several hours. This interview gives the therapist insight into the client’s past, what the current problems are, and client goals. The interview will allow the therapist to set up a structured plan for how the therapy will proceed.

This particular mental health intake form contains seven pages of questions concerning the client’s current mental health status and past mental health status, as well as addresses medical history and social environment. The form appears to completely cover the client’s medical and mental health history, as well as gathers pertinent information about the client’s family history. However, there seems to be a lack of questions regarding the client’s environment. For example, there are no questions concerning the client’s living situation.

This intake packet is lengthy. I do believe it would be beneficial to the client if there were not so many questions. People coming in for services already have concerns or issues they are trying to work through. Many times, clients feel overwhelmed or anxious about beginning mental health services. This intake form, with all its questions and nine pages, may contribute to increased anxiety or be overwhelming for people. The questions are

I currently work at an SMI clinic for TERROS and I selected an intake form off of the internet instead of the intake for my work because our intake is a template that generates into a document once signed by all appropriate parties. I must say this random mental health intake form I found is extremely similar. I think these forms are now somewhat standardized and having just recently started filling out assessments of this nature and doing service plans with behavioral health recipients. I must confess it is difficult to get all of these answers out of clients and to keep their attention long enough to complete this paperwork. I feel often times we must resort to generic answers that do not give us a full understanding f who these people are and what their needs are, but it is a good resource to have a basic understanding of a client and when sharing information with other people on the clinical team good note taking skills and complete forms makes communication and client service much more efficient.

There are some questions within the intake form that can be difficult for the client to follow, as they are heavy with regards to medical terminology. When seeking information regarding substance abuse issues the intake form outlines the medical term for the different types of substances a client can be utilizing potentially making it difficult for the client to determine the types of substances that the client has chosen to utilize. Otherwise, the remainder of the form appears to be written in a way that can be understood among different reading levels.

The assessment holistic approach to understanding what has occurred and currently occurring in the clients life as well as understanding what is considered a priority of treatment for them and their guardian. The assessment begins with the presenting issues asking what brought the client in. The section also covers when the problem started, how long it has been going on, what is the level of intensity of the problems, and how frequently do they occur. In the family and social history section examples of questions asked are current household member, how does the client get along with others, client's strengths, and who do they go to when they need help. The next section is the abuse and sexual risk behavior where the client is asked if they feel safe inside and or outside there home and if they have or know of anyone that has been abused or neglected. Developmental history is then taken, which includes history of pregnancy, any disorder or disabilities the client has been diagnosed with, and delays in any motor

The intake form is easy to read and presented in a way that is easy to navigate through. As a client it would be easy enough to go down the list and answer the questions. As a social worker, there may be concern that important questions do not pop out such as suicide idealizations and owning a gun. The question regarding if a client is wanting to harm someone else should also be included in this form for obvious safety

This paper explores three different commonly administered mental health assessments. These three assessments are The Mental Status Exam (MSE) (brief version), The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). The MSE is for client mental status. The BDI accesses the level of depression a client is experiencing. The BAI accesses the level of anxiety a client is experiencing. In doing this assignment and the different practice assessments, we will get comfortable with the instruments that are utilized as a part of diagnosing and additionally treating clients with mental health illness issues. These basic tools are helpful for HUS experts to portray and comprehend the mental status of a client. While acquiring these assessments, certain data is required. The purpose, value, and usefulness of these assessments will be explained. For this paper, an anonymous pretend client will be created and a practice MSE assessment will be conducted and reported. The outcomes give a more overall comprehension of what is happening with the client so that the client can get the best treatment for their psychological illness. That overall comprehension accompanies limitations because there is not enough information provided to adequately

Under the exam portion, it has various sections which prompt the provider to ask the patient about their mood, behavior, any suicidal ideations, about their social history such as smoking, drinking, and any illegal drugs etc. For instance, if someone comes in and shows the signs and symptoms of depression, PHQ 9 is performed and actions are taken accordingly. Like that, there are various questionnaires for various disorders.

My experience in mental health clinical was very different from any other clinical I had before. In a mental health clinical setting, I am not only treating client’s mental illnesses, I am also treating their medical problems such as COPD, diabetes, chronic renal failure, etc. Therefore, it is important to prepare for the unexpected events. In this mental health clinical, I learned that the importance of checking on my clients and making sure that they are doing fine by performing a quick head-to toes assessment at the beginning of my shift. I had also learned that client’s mental health illness had a huge impact on their current medical illness.

When it comes to this program I did not find any information that stated it was developed based on empirical evidence. “Very little empirical data exist to help administrators select a particular staffing model for providing mental health services to inmates” (Hills, Siegfried, and Ickowitz, 2004, p. 37). This could have definitely hurt the program at Montford Psychiatric Hospital, but the staff seemed extremely professional, organized, skilled, and knowledgeable of what they were doing when assessing inmates mental health issues. Additionally, this program is also not based on theory because when a theory is created to change complicated issues, such as mental illness program or other health care programs it can be a daunting task. It is particularly troublesome when there is a lack of empirical evidence to support concepts that can lead towards success.

The mental health intake form I chose from the internet was lacking in multidimensional methodology and lacked significant information about client subsystems. Accordingly, the questions that regarded behavioral functioning did not cover presenting problems thoroughly. Specific questions about coping skills, social skills, and parenting skills were absent. Although, one question was asked regarding the client’s relationship with their children (which could insight into parenting skills), it was too open ended to get any major information. The assessment contained a section on legal history that was also not thorough. The spiritual section lacked crucial information. For instance, it did not ask about supportive relationships (i.e. name of a

Becoming acquainted with a potential client’s history, personality and present concerns is necessary in forming a foundation for counseling interventions. This information gathering phase is referred to as assessment (Mears, 2010). While some mental health professionals will use an interview as their primary assessment tool, others will utilize testing