Mental Health Assessment
Like substance abuse assessments, mental health assessments focus on potential mental health or emotional stressors associated with one's biological, psychological and social functioning. A mental health assessment allows the clinician to identify potential disorders that could be impacting one's optimal functioning. Just like a substance use assessment, mental health assessments take typically 1-1.5 hours. I choose to do a comprehensive assessment for each of my clients upon meeting them. The goal is to identify key areas that impact thier functioning and then to build a treatment plan associated with these needs or factors. That way, an appropriate diagnosis can be made (if there is one) so an appropriate and effective treatment plan can be created. For some people, they may have had mental health disorders most of their life and may be seeking a name for their on-going distress and feel relieved to know that they are not alone, or just strange. I would suggest, like most healthcare professionals, to have an assessment instead of Googling symptoms!
Last, it is also important to note that psychological testing and mental health assessments are very different. Psychological testing has several different instruments and screenings conducted to identify personality functioning, IQ or attention problems- there are many types of psychological tests.
Last, it is also important to note that psychological testing and mental health assessments are very different. Psychological testing has several different instruments and screenings conducted to identify personality functioning, IQ or attention problems- there are many types of psychological tests.