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12/04/2023

What Are Five Main Components of Mental Health Assessments?

By
Holly Wilson
|
Aug 16, 2022
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Mental health assessments are examinations used to ascertain whether a person is healthy psychologically and socially and is generally developing and/or living well. They are often used to screen for mental health disorders like depression or neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's.

Interested in how to select the right tools for an accurate diagnosis? Uncover the obstacles to early intervention and proactive care with our eBook Reaching Better Behavioral Health Outcomes.

What Are Five Main Components of Mental Health Assessments?

Mental health assessments are essential at every stage in life as they reveal how well individuals handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Regular assessments are especially important as we age as aging is associated with an increased likelihood of developing neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases. According to the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a cognitive impairment or dementia diagnosis requires a deficit of at least two cognitive or behavioral functions. These functions evaluate the ability to learn and remember information and to reason and complete chores. Other functions assessed include visuospatial proficiency, speech, reading, writing, behavior, and personality.

It’s essential to understand the main components of mental health assessments to select the ideal evidence-based tools for your organization and its purpose(s) in leveraging these helpful solutions.

What Is Included in a Mental Health Assessment

A common type of mental health assessment is a "mental status evaluation" (MSE). An MSE is a structured assessment of the patient's behavioral and cognitive functioning and is necessary to helping ensure a more accurate psychiatric evaluation. When performed effectively, an MSE illuminates signs and symptoms of a mental illness or its risk factors. The MSE is also used to identify a working diagnosis and establish areas of potentially worthwhile intervention.

What are five of the main components of a mental health assessment? Here are those frequently cited as some of the most important for an effective MSE.

1. General appearance and behavior

The appearance of a patient may give clues about his or her mental state. Key factors such as chronological age and whether patients look their age, what their dressing style says, and whether they are well-groomed or can maintain eye contact are informative. In addition, assessment of appearance and behavioral can help identify problems with alcohol and substance use.

2. Mood and affect

Mood and affect are both related to emotion. The subjective and objective aspects of mood must be assessed; affects are the expressions reflected in movements or changes in voice tone, posture, or stance. It’s important that both affect and mood are aligned.

3. Thought content

A health provider must ask direct questions to better determine and assess a patient's train of thought. Are their thoughts logical or consistent? Are they blocking any thoughts? Through the process of assessing thought content, providers can often detect negative feelings, such as hopelessness.

4. Cognitive functioning

Cognitive functioning relates to intellectual abilities. This mental health assessment checks the capacity to read, write, and immediately remember significant events in the recent past. Furthermore, a provider may use this assessment to determine if a patient can recognize familiar people and places. Cognitive functioning also includes the ability to focus or perform simple calculations.

5. Judgment and insight

While judgment is determined by how well a patient solves problems and makes informed choices, insight is evaluated by gathering as much information as possible from the patient's perspective. Topics can include the reasoning for a visit to a behavioral health specialist and an understanding of the challenges that have led to the visit.

How the Mental Status Examination Is Used

Now that you’ve learned about some of the key components of a mental health assessment, let’s review how the MSE is employed. A healthcare provider, such as a behavioral health specialist or pediatric care provider, uses this tool by asking direct questions and observing objectively. Specific tests may be performed depending on patient needs or what the clinician wants to know about a patient.

The examination typically begins with a general observation of consciousness, appearance, activity, and emotional state. This is combined with a brief memory test to rule out the presence of a pathogen. A more thorough investigation will be made by the health provider using a cognitive evaluation in which neurological and psychological functions are assessed.

The cognitive assessment evaluates:

Attention
Language
Memory
Praxis (i.e., the process by which a skill is enacted or the performance of an action)
Prosody (i.e., rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech)
Thought content
Visuospatial proficiency (i.e., ability to perceive and manipulate objects and shapes in space)
Executive function
Orientation
Thought process
Gnosia (i.e., ability to recognize and identify)
The examination may also include a brief standardized tool, such as the mini-mental state examination (MMSE).

What Is the Difference Between MSE and MMSE?

An MSE is used initially. Other standardized mental health assessment tools may be used if needs warrant a more comprehensive examination, such as the MMSE.

Whereas the MSE is a brief neuropsychological screening test, the mini-mental state examination is used for more detailed testing in the cognitive section of MSE. This detailed assessment helps to remove ambiguity in the initial screening.

Strengthen Your Mental Health Assessments With nView

If you're looking for a new mental health assessment tool or one that can better support your organization and patients than a current solution, ensure it incorporates all MSE components. The mental health assessment tool you select and rely upon must be easy to administer, readily accessible, and provide real-time data you can quantify for analysis. Once you make an accurate diagnosis, then treatment and other interventions can improve as you more specifically address a patient's mental health challenges.
Is your organization looking for a solution that will strengthen how those with mental illness are identified, diagnosed, monitored and receive the mental health care and support they need? Contact nView today to learn about our evidence-based behavioral health solution. Our team will walk you through this solution, which includes mental health questionnaires, screening solutions, structured diagnostic interviews, severity measurement scales, and post-diagnosis monitors, and explain how we're delivering the data that's helping providers make better decisions so patients can lead healthier lives.

07/28/2023

Diversity is often understood to refer to the presence of particular differences between individuals in a group of people or a society. The most prominently recognised types of difference are sometimes called “The Big Seven”. They are:

Age
Gender
Race
Religion
Ability (physical and/or mental)
Sexuality
Socio-economic Class
This list is increasingly seen as limited in its scope, and not necessarily inclusive of all the ways in which difference manifests in 21st century Britain. LGBTQ+ diversity, ethnicity, neurodiversity, family background (e.g. adoption or non-conventional family background), heritage and culture, regional differences, first language, and complexities of societal privilege are not comprehensively reflected in this list.

What is Equality in Counselling?

Equality is the principle that every person should be treated fairly and equally. This is an extremely important value for the counselling profession to uphold at all levels.

The most up-to-date BACP Ethical Framework highlights that we not only have a duty to demonstrate equality and respect diversity in our interactions with clients, but we also must uphold these values in relation to our colleagues. This extends to counselling organisations, colleges and universities too. Awareness of equality and diversity in counselling touches on the ethical principles of respect and justice outlined in the framework:

Respect: “We will… endeavour to demonstrate equality, value diversity and ensure inclusion for all clients.” and “We will take the law concerning equality, diversity and inclusion into careful consideration and strive for a higher standard than the legal minimum.” (BACP, 2018, p. 20)
Justice: “the fair and impartial treatment of all clients and the provision of adequate services.”. (BACP, 2018, p.11).
How Diversity Impacts on the Therapeutic Relationship

Potential Barriers to Relating

Diversity and difference in the therapeutic relationship can create challenges to the therapeutic relationship and may present barriers to relating. Potential issues include:

Lack of knowledge about the client’s culture – A client may wish to talk about attitudes, customs or cultural references which are unfamiliar to the therapist. In cases where there is a lack of cultural knowledge on the part of the therapist, it is important that the therapist does not rely on the client to educate them. Undertaking professional development around working with particular client groups is likely to be beneficial, and it is also important to remember that we cannot know everything – developing a strong therapeutic bond with a client can often be enough to explore at depth without having to understand all the ins-and-outs of the client’s cultural background. Additionally, a client may choose a therapist who they feel is likely to be a close cultural match, or who specialises in issues relating to particular cultures. As therapists, we trust in the client’s ability to autonomously select a route through therapy which will best support their journey.
Accessibility – Not all buildings/therapy spaces are accessible for all clients. This can create a very real, physical barrier to relating. The BACP Ethical Framework stipulates that we should “make adjustments to overcome barriers to accessibility, so far as is reasonably possible, for clients of any ability wishing to engage with a service.” (BACP, 2018, p. 20).
Communication – Interpreters may be necessary for those for whom English is not a first language, or for clients who are hearing-impaired and wish to access counselling. Challenges arising from the use of interpreters include the necessary adjustments to confidentiality agreements to include the interpreter, as well as potentially less fluid communication between therapist and client and the possibility that some meaning could be ‘lost in translation’, particularly subtleties of inflection and emphasis. Specialist services exist for clients with language needs, including bilingual therapists and counsellors who are able to use sign language to work directly with hearing-impaired clients.
Diversity as a Benefit to Therapy

Diversity does not necessarily create barriers to relating; in fact, it may be that speaking with a therapist from a different background or perspective offers something valuable to the client. For example, a client who is experiencing difficulties with aspects of their culture or beliefs may find it beneficial to talk with somebody who is completely unconnected to the issues they are bringing. Additionally, somebody may wish to work with a therapist of a different gender, age or with another difference in order to gain a fresh perspective or address relational patterns in the therapeutic work.

Our Personal Perspectives and Unconscious Bias

We all have unconscious biases and it is likely that on some level we will sometimes make assumptions about our clients based on their characteristics, backgrounds and even their looks. These assumptions are a response to our experiences, or introjected values, and if left unexamined and unscrutinised, may cause difficulties or even damage the therapeutic alliance.

It is important that in our personal development we strive to recognise what assumptions and beliefs we hold regarding difference and diversity, and to be mindful of how they could impact the way we interact with clients. Supervision and an ongoing process of personal reflection are both vital for developing and maintaining good standards of practice, and nurturing our therapeutic relationships when working with difference.

07/24/2023

https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubpdfs/whatiscan.pdf

07/24/2023

It has been estimated that roughly two-thirds of those harming a vulnerable adult are family members, most often the victim’s adult child or spouse. Research has shown that in most instances the abuser is financially dependent on the vulnerable adult’s resources and have problems related to alco...

07/22/2023

A great resource when seeking behavioral health providers

Browse verified therapists in Saint Louis, MO, available in-person or online: Rachael Livasy, LPC; Tosha T Pearson, MEd, LPC; Erin Wendling, PLPC, NCC; Megan Ferber, LMFT, PhD; Rachel Glik, EdD, MA; Andy Orayfig, PsyD; River Chew, LMSW, REAT-IT; Wild Sage Counseling, LLC, MA, LPC