Introduction
When treating mental health patients it is important to undertake the assessment basing on an assessment model so that the extent of the injury or infection will be obtained. This paper will focus on the nine stages of bio-psycho-social assessment that is normally undertaken for patients who are seeking for care. It is important to undertake this assessment as it gives a comprehensive overview of the mental health situation and gives the history of the genesis.
The nine elements of the assessment
The first stage in the assessment is that of identification. At this stage, the first impression of the patient is very important as there are some issues and notes which can be taken. The patient will be compared to a portrait so that all the information that pertains to the client will be described. This is an important aspect as it helps to show the signs that are seen when the patient is seen on the first instance. The age, race, gender, grooming and the type of clothing that the patient has will have to be described. This information will help in the diagnosis.
The second stage will be the description of the patient by the client. This is an important aspect that the author brings into public knowledge. It is important to understand the view of the client and how they perceive the situation. Their description of the situation will help the nurse to get some information which could be missing. The patient will not be in a position to give the description of their condition. This is where the client will help to give the required information. The clients will be allowed to describe the patient in their own words. This will give the bets information about the patient.
The third stage is that of getting the history of the present illness. It is important to understand the situation and the reasons why the client decided to bring the client at that particular instant. This is an important aspect that the author brings about. In this case, the author could be of the view that the situation could have worsen and thus prompting the patient to be brought for medical attention at that particular moment. This is an important aspect that the author tries to develop. With this, other information that could be used in the treatment could be sought. With this information, some things will be clearer. I agree with this aspect in that there are some factors which could make a patient to seek for medical attention and yet the illness could have been there for a long period of time. In seeking for help in the treatment of any illness, there are factors that contribute to the patient to seek for medical attention; this is the information that the author is talking about. The key question that the medical personnel should be asking is why the patient is being brought for medical attention at that period of time. This is an important aspect that should be considered. I agree with the author in this matter.
The other assessment element that the author brings about is that of history regarding the present illness. It is important to understand the history of the illness that has taken place. This is an important aspect. In this case, there has been a need to know how something started and this is the situation that made the author to want to get this information. In normal life situations, when a problem is being assessed, it has always been an important factor and to get to understand what has caused some situation to take place. This will help in the analysis and the assessment of the problem that is at hand. It is important to know how the illness took place and the period that it has been seen to occur. Although the author limits the period to the past one or two weeks I feel the period should be adjusted to a period of about one month. My reasoning for this is that the patient could have failed to report the matter on time. This could affect the period that the medical personnel is trying to record. I feel that the period that has been given for this matter is short.
After this, the patient personal history is undertaken. This is the life history of the patient. This is the place where the author could want to get more information. I still insist that this information should be acquired at the previous step. The childhood behaviors of the patient will be got and given in this stage. The assessment model can be seen to be systematic so that the information that is required and the personal history are separated. It is important to separate this information so that when undertaking the diagnosis, the right information is used. The assessment model shows that it is the recent information that matters. After this information is obtained, the nurse will link this information with that of the history of history of current illness. This is a smart way of getting information and a perfect way of linking the information about the recent history and that of the illness. This information perfectly combines to get the right information.
The sixth assessment element that the author brings about is that of history of medical attendance. This is an important factor that will show the treatments that the patient has ever received. This is important information that the author has brought about as there are medical issues that contribute to mental illness. All these should be looked into more intently. It is important information so that the right medication that will heal will be given.
The other element is the mental health history and how the patient has been faring on mentally. This is important information that is handy. The current and the past history regarding the mental being of the patient are undertaken. All the dangerous and the behaviors that are associated with mental illnesses are undertaken and assessed. The author will then link this information with that of medical history to get important linkages that may exist in the patient.
There is also the very important aspect of substance use. The reason that the author has brought this issue of the substance is for the obvious reason that many substance abuse that are undertaken are known to affect metal stability. This could have been the reason for the occurrence of the illness. This is an important point of concern that should be taken into consideration by the nurse. The past substance use and the issues that are concerned with the use should be recorded.
The last element that should be considered is that of undertaking mental status examination. This stage could not have come at a better stage than this. This is because of the fact that all the required information shall have been taken and the remaining aspect is the real assessment of the information.
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