Tips for your first visit:
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If you are anxious, it may help to ask a close friend or family member to come be a support for you.
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So that you don’t forget, you may want to write down a list of symptoms you are struggling with.
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Remember to be honest.
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If you are currently on medication, it may be helpful to provide a list to the psychiatrist.
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Bring along any medical or mental health records you feel would be helpful.
Who Can Complete: Typically conducted by a Licensed Mental Health Practitioner (LMHP) or Independent Mental Health Practitioner (LIMHP).
What this evaluation should include:
- Presenting Problems
- Demographics
- Medical History
- Social/Work/School/Military history and functioning
- Detailed substance use history
- Legal history
- Family and social history, including past and current exposure to violence/trauma
- History and current mental health concerns
- Past Treatment History
- Mental Status Observations including suicide or violence risk
- Collateral information from referring party, family members, and other providers is ESSENTIAL to a good evaluation
- Diagnosis
- Clinical formulation (the professional’s insight into your past and current strategies)
- Future treatment recommendations
When to refer:
- A Mental Health Evaluation is a logical starting point as a referral if there are any concerns about mental health related functioning.
An Initial Diagnostic Interview (IDI)/Mental Status Exam (MSE) is a brief screening of a client’s mental functioning in the areas of affect, mood, and cognitive ability. May be used to identify specific psychological testing needs.
Who Can Complete: A psychologist, psychiatrist, or licensed independent mental health practitioner (LIMHP).
What this evaluation should include:
- Screening of Client’s Mental Functioning
- Risk Assessment regarding potential to hurt self and/or others
- Diagnosis
- Clinical formulation (the professional’s insight into your past and current strategies)
- Future treatment recommendations
When to refer:
- Utilized with other assessments to determine appropriate diagnosis and treatment recommendations. Typically completed in conjunction with a Mental Health Evaluation.
A psychological evaluation provides detailed insight into the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral functioning of a patient, including a comparison to what is normative given the age and other status of the patient. It may be used to determine specific educational or treatment needs and/or to provide differential diagnosis when a patient’s treatment or progress may have reached an impasse. The evaluation consists of a face to face interview of a patient, as well as assessment using one or more standardized measurement instruments, depending on the purpose of the evaluation and the specialty of the evaluator. In addition, review of records and interview of important collateral sources (parents for example) is usually indicated. For those reasons it is important for the referring professional to be very clear about the reason for testing and the specific questions that need to be answered.
Who Can Complete: Licensed Psychologist
What this evaluation should include:
- Diagnostic Interview determines nature of problem and what specific testing is indicated
- COLLATERAL INFORMATION from referring party, family members, other providers is ESSENTIAL to a good psychological evaluation
- A battery of standardized tests are administered in accordance with the needs identified in the referral question and from the diagnostic interview.*
- Clinical Formulation: this statement is a synthesis of test results and a statement of the implications for the client and should give insight into the nature of the
- client’s problem
- Diagnosis
- Specific treatment recommendations as relevant to the referral question.
- Risk assessment in regard to patient harm to self or other