Mental health articles

The mental health assessment process Mental health professionals must complete an assessment with the person in order to decide what the problem is and to decide on the best therapeutic intervention to use. Before any mental health assessment or therapeutic intervention is made it is important that a person’s informed consent is sought. See Chapter 6 on ‘Law, Policy and Ethical Issues’ for a discussion around consent. A thorough assessment may mean the difference between success and failure of any plan. For example, an interview with the person who exhibits challenging behaviour might reveal that the undesirable behaviour occurs at certain times of the day. Observing the person directly around those times might reveal what makes that behaviour happen. This will then help for developing strategies to be used to make the behaviour less likely to happen again. Physical, psychological and social factors working together can contribute to the development of a mental health problem (see also Chapter 1 for a discussion on mental health assessments). In the same way various physical, psychological and social interventions are available to treat these mental health problems.Whatever methods are chosen they should reflect the needs and wishes of the person who is having the therapy. The person you care for should be involved as much as possible throughout the process.

Tags: Health, Mental health