Assessment
The psychiatric interview
A flexible structure for listening, clarifying and understanding the person’s account.
Assessment
Listen carefully. Build a clear clinical picture.
Interviewing, history, mental state and formulation.
Assessment
Presenting complaint and chronology
Turn a list of complaints into an account of onset, course and functional change.
Assessment
Past, personal and family history
Understand the life course without reducing the person to a list of vulnerabilities.
Assessment
Taking a substance-use history
A clear, nonjudgmental account of exposure, patterns, consequences and change.
Assessment
The mental status examination
Describe the current encounter with clear boundaries between observation and report.
Assessment
Clinical formulation
Move from a summary of facts to a reasoned, revisable understanding of the presentation.