Week 6: Adult assessment Flashcards
What is a referral question?
- whether the client is suffering from a mental disorder
- the likely cause of the problem
- client’s current level of psychological functioning
- appropriate treatment
Why is it important to clarify a referral question?
- needed to frame the approach
- needed to figure out assessment
- will affect result interpretation
- will affect recommendations
What are the three sources of treatment evidence when finding out appropriate treatment for a client from a referral question?
- evidence base
- what the client would find helpful
- clinical expertise
What should you consider when clarifying the referral question
- is the client referred by another professional?
- has the client self referred?
- is the question too broad?
- are the expectations realistic
What is a clinical interview?
Asking the client a series of questions (closed and open) related to them and the referral question
Describe a closed question
Only has concrete answers - yes/no, date of birth
Describe an open question
‘tell me about that’ - has an unrestricted number of answers
Why is the clinical interview good?
- allows the psychologist to establish rapport
- provide important information
- determine if the client understands what is happening to them
What kind of information can a psychologist convey during the clinical interview?
- the purpose and nature of psych assessment
- what the client or patient is expected to do
- confidentiality of information collected during assessment
- need for informed consent
- who will have access to the information and how it will be used
What kind of information is collected during history taking?
- demographic data
- medical history (self and family)
- family history
- educational and vocational history
- psychological history
- forensic history (depending on the client)
List the four factors in case formulation
- predisposing
- precipitating
- perpetuating
- protective
Describe predisposing factors
- set up vulnerability for the client
- could be innate, genetic, family history etc
- generally early life problems like interaction with parents
Describe precipitating factors
- what triggered the problem for the client?
- bullied in primary school?
- when did they first start recognising the feelings
- could be a rough week of work
Describe perpetuating factors
- what keeps the problem going/in a loop?
- ways of thinking about the problem/avoidance strategies
Describe protective factors
- the clients strengths
- e.g. intelligence, motivation, personality factors
List three rapport tips
- be comfortable with silence and let people turnover things
- be enthusiastic and empathic, but not to the point that it seems overdone
- be confident and positive in the approaches you’re using
What is a mental status exam?
A comprehensive set of questions and observations used by a psychologist to systematically assess the mental state of a client
List the parts of a mental status exam
- appearance
- behaviour
- orientation
- memory
- sensorium
- affect
- mood
- though content and process
- intellectual resources
- insight
- judgement
Describe appearance
How are they dressed? Is it appropriate for the climate? Are they malodorous?
Describe behaviour
Are they polite or respectful? Extroverted, disinhibited? Downcast, crying?
Describe orientation
Does the client know what time it is? Do they know when their birthday is? Are they lucid?
Describe memory
Does the client show any problems with immediate, recent or remote memory?
Describe sensorium
Is the client able to attend and concentrate?
Describe affect
Does the client display a range of emotions?
