Essay on "Assessing Mental Illness"

Essay 6 pages (1546 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Mental Health Illness

The ability for individuals to access mental health services in today's society is more wide ranging than every before. Mental health was once governed by physicians, and now by mental health professionals in a wide range of disciplines. Today, mental health professionals are credentialed in multi-disciplines . For example: family and marital therapist, a chemical dependency practitioner, or nurse practitioners. All of these elements are to serve and improve the ability of patients / clients to receive quality mental health care / services, whether it be a small private practice or a large institutional setting, or a community mental health center.

Assessing a client with a mental health illness requires someone in the field who is skilled, knowledgeable, and understand how to use the Diagnostic Statistical Manual for mental illnesses . There are many different types of mental health professionals who are trained in the field to diagnose and treat mental illness. For the matter of clarity and brevity, we will focus on just three. A psychiatrist is trained in the field of mental, can diagnose and write prescriptions. health, . A clinical psychologist who is licensed, can diagnose a mental illness, however they cannot prescribe medications for the illness . A medical doctor who is licensed, can diagnose a mental illness, and prescribe medications, however most medical doctors do not specialize in the field of mental health, therefore might refer the client to someone who works in this field.

Key Elements and Factors

When a client is diagnosed with a mental illness it is imperative that the medical doctor or therapist who is giving the diagnoses understands the criteria stated in the DSM- IV-TR for mental health illness . The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ( DSM-IV-TR) is a set of diagnostic criteria that indicates what symptoms must be presented, for how long, in order to quality for a diagnosis ( called inclusion criteria) as well as those symptoms that must be present in order for an individual to quality for a particular diagnosis.

Critical Areas to Assess Suicidal Person

According to Schwartz and Roberts (2004) suicide is a national health risk in many counties.. In the United States there's approximately one successful suicide every 20 minutes ( Shea, 1989) . An alarming 40% to 60% of these individuals who successful completed suicide was seen by a doctor the previous month, not a mental health professional ( Shea, 1989; American Association of Suicidology, 2006 ) . In order to effectively intervene in suicidal attempts, it is pertinent for the mental health professional to understand facts about suicide behavior, procedures for assessing an individual's risk of self-harm, and the evaluation of the lethality of client's suicidal gestures . Suicide assessments contain three parts: (1) elicitation of suicidal ideation from the patient ( Shea, 1989), (2) gathering of the data, age, sex, use of drugs and alcohol,

(3 ) mental health professionals decision making itself, in which the mental health professional weighs the danger, and presence of risk factors. In order for suicide rates to diminish or go down, it is essential for mental health professionals to have suicide assessment that are: ( 1) easily learned, (2) easy to retain, (3) no written prompts, (4) the approach should help increase validity when gathering information from the individual (5) the approach should be well maintained in databases regarding suicidal ideation

( Shea, 1989), (6) this approach must be easily taught and ( 7) behaviorally concrete to lend itself to empirical study ( Schwartz & Rogers, 2004) .

For example: you're the mental health professional who is doing assessments in a female prison with inmates who are self-harming, Bonner ( 2001) states one way to rule out suicide attempts is focusing on suicide assessments in relation to inmate problem-solving techniques may serve as one way to detect whether the female inmate should be considered for at risk suicide . According to Bonner ( 2001) conceptualizing inmates who self-harm in one of the three general categories ( 1) those who self-harm as way to cope in problem solving, (2) those who self-harm to overcome deep rooted emotions and ( 3) those who show signs of hopelessness, depression, or want to die . Never put someone who has suicidal ideation in segregated rooms, or strip them of there clothing locking them up in a round rubber room ( Bonner, 2006). This will only create a more distressed individual, and will not solve the problem or the behavior.

Risk Factors

When working with the elderly population, mental health illnesses are usually overlooked by their primary care doctor, because they are to busy focusing on their physical issues, and complaints. Oversight is high in elderly populations leading to more serious risks such as: prescription abuse, suicide, higher mortality rate, and alcohol abuse. Therefore, it is essential for mental health professionals to watch for these signs when they are working with the elderly population

According to the Mental Health Institute ( 2009) gender determines the power and control men and women have over the socioeconomic determinants of their mental health. . Depression is higher in women, than men; however this could be because women are more likely to seek treatment. Alcohol dependence is a very common disorder among men then women, and is twice as high among the male population.

According to Harris, Edlund, and Larson ( 2006) religious providers play a small part in the individuals health care delivery system. Individuals who are strong believers within their faith are more likely to turn to their religious provider first for help, before seeking help with a mental health professional. Those with serious distress, use of outpatient care and medication are more strongly associated with church attendance, and with the importance of religious beliefs.

Homeless

There are many reasons to why one might end up homeless; however mental illness is prevalent among the homeless population. Individuals with mental illnesses require ongoing access to treatment and rehabilitation services. These individuals are human beings who should be treated with dignity and respect . Poor mental health could also lead to poor physical health, especially those individuals who are homeless. Some homeless people who suffer from the more serious mental health illnesses will self-medicate using street drugs, which can lead not only to addictions, but also to disease transmission from the injection use . Better mental health services would combat not only mental illness, but homelessness as well .

Confidentiality

Confidentiality is intended to ensure the right to privacy, and a therapist is ethically obligated to refrain from revealing private client information obtained in therapy unless given client authorization to do so ( informed consent) . However, there are exceptions to every rule, and therapy has exceptions also ( Corey, Corey, Callanan, 2007): when mandated by law as a in reporting child abuse, incest, child neglect, or elder abuse confidentiality can be broken. Therapist and counselors can break the rule if a client is harming themselves or when they pose danger to others ( Swenson, 1997). When a wavier has been previously been obtained in writing. when the therapist is a defendant in a civil, criminal, or disciplinary action arising from therapy.

The National Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ( HIPPA) makes every effort to ensure and protect the security and confidentiality of health information transmitted by practitioners via clinical notes, or over the internet in electronic networks to managed care agencies . In order to ensure that all information is kept private and confidentiality one must not violate the code of ethics in their field. The law mandates therapist's must perform a risk analysis of his or her practice by documenting that computers systems are secure and accessible only to authorized persons. However, we know from experience that computers can be hacked into… READ MORE

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