Mental Health Assessment Tools - How Consistent Are Mental Health Symptoms Assessed?
There are many ways that healthcare professionals can evaluate their patients. They can utilize questionnaires and interviews to determine the existence of, severity, duration and frequency of a wide spectrum of symptoms.
The landscape of symptom assessment however, is highly varying. Even within tools that are specific to disorders the way a patient's experience is assessed can affect the diagnosis.
Interviews and questionnaires
Mental health is filled with questionnaires and questions for interviews that are designed to evaluate symptoms, their severity and duration as well as frequency. These tools are employed in research and clinical settings to help determine patient treatment plans, discover the root of psychological issues, and pinpoint socio-environmental or neurobiological issues. However there has been little research on the commonality of symptoms being assessed across this vast assessment tool set. This study looked at 110 questionnaires and interviews that were either specifically designed for a particular disorder or an approach to cross-disorders (see (15).
The results of this study revealed that there was very little consistency in the symptoms being assessed. Only 21% of the symptom themes were covered across all assessment tools. The symptom themes covered were attention and concentration, mental levels of energy; pains & discomfort; anger and anxiety; fear, panic & anxiety; mood & outlook and interest, energy and motivation.
This lack of consistency reveals a critical need for more uniformity in the tools that are available. This would not only help to make them more user-friendly but also offer a more consistent method to determine the severity and presence of symptoms.
The categories of symptoms were determined based on a set of pre-defined lists of symptoms, which was compiled from different diagnostic and classification systems like DSM-5 or ICD-11. This can cause patients to be analyzed with biases, as some symptoms could be considered more or less important. For instance, high fever and fatigue are both typical symptoms of illness however they aren't necessarily an indication of the same cause, such as infection or injury.
The majority of the 126 assessment tools that were analyzed were scales for rating, with most of them being self-rated questionnaires. This type of scale enables patients to separate complex feelings and emotions into simple responses that are easily quantifiable. This method of assessment is particularly beneficial for screening purposes, since it allows doctors to recognize individuals who are experiencing significant anxiety even when they aren't meeting a diagnostic cut-off.
Online Platforms
Online platforms are becoming increasingly popular to manage and deliver of psychosocial and psychological services. Some of these tools provide the ability to collect data from individuals in a secure and secure setting, while others permit therapists to create and deliver a variety of interactive activities to their clients using a smartphone or tablet. Such digital tools can be a useful tool in assessing the mental health of patients, particularly when used alongside traditional assessment methods.
Recent research found that diagnostic technology using digital means are not always reliable. These tools must be evaluated in the context of their intended usage. Utilizing case-control models for these tests can give a false image of the technology's efficacy and should be avoided in future research. Additionally, the findings of this review suggest that it could be beneficial to switch away from the pen-and-paper-based questionnaires currently in use to develop more advanced digital tools that can provide more accurate and comprehensive assessments of psychiatric disorders.
These innovative online tools can help professionals increase their efficiency by decreasing the amount of time required to prepare and deliver mental assessments to clients. In addition, these tools can help with conducting continuous assessments that require repeated tests over a certain period of time.
A client could for instance, record daily reflections on their emotions on an online platform. The counselor could then go through these reflections and see how they are related to the treatment plan of the patient. These online tools gather information that can be used to modify treatment and track the progress of a client over time.
Additionally, assessment for mental health can also help enhance the quality of therapeutic interactions by allowing healthcare professionals to spend more time with their patients, and less time recording sessions. This is especially beneficial for those working with vulnerable populations such as teenagers and children who suffer from mental illness. These online tools can also be used to lessen the stigma associated with mental health. They provide a safe and secure way to identify and evaluate mental health issues.
Paper-based Assessments
While questionnaires and interviews are a useful tool to assess mental health, they can create problems. They can lead to unreliable interpretations of symptoms and can create incoherent impressions of the underlying cause of the disorder. They frequently fail to consider the environmental and social elements that can cause mental disorders. They also tend to be biased towards specific kinds of symptom-related themes. This is particularly relevant for psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder. In this case it is crucial to use a mental health screening tool that can be used to identify risk factors.
There are currently several different paper-based tests that can be used in testing mental health. These include the Symptom Checklist for Depression and the Eating Disorder Inventory-Revised. These are easy to use and can help clinicians develop a comprehensive picture of the root cause. These tools can also be utilized by family members, caregivers and patients.
Another tool utilized in clinical practice is the Global Mental Health Assessment Tool - Primary Care Version (GMHAT/PC). General practitioners can utilize this computer-based assessment tool to pinpoint and evaluate mental health issues. It also creates an electronic diagnosis and referral letter. This has been shown to improve the accuracy of diagnosis for psychiatric disorders and reduce the time required to schedule a consultation.
The GMHAT/PC can be a valuable resource for both the clinicians and patients. It provides information about a wide range of psychiatric disorders and their symptoms. It is simple to use and can easily be completed in several minutes. It also includes guidelines on how to deal with symptoms and warning signs. The GMHAT/PC also is available to family members who wish to support their loved ones.
The vast majority of diagnostic and assessment tools for psychiatric disorders is disorder-specific. This is because the tools are built on classifications like the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and International Classification of Diseases, which use pre-defined patterns of symptom criteria to categorize the severity of a condition. The large amount of overlap between instruments specific to disorders in terms of symptom evaluation suggests that these tools don't provide a complete picture of the underlying psychiatric issues.
Stigma Worksheet
Stigma is the accumulation of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that create and perpetuate prejudice and discrimination against those suffering from mental health issues. Its effects extend beyond the personal experience of stigma and encompass societal structures, such as laws, regulations, and the prejudices of health professionals, as well the discriminatory practices by social institutions, agencies and organizations. It also includes the social perceptions of people with mental disorders that fuel self-stigma and discourage people from seeking treatment or help from others.
A number of assessment tools are available to diagnose and treat psychiatric disorders including symptom-based questionnaires interviews, interview schedules, structured clinical assessments and rating scales. However, many of these instruments are created for research purposes and require a high level of skill to utilize. In addition, they tend to be specific to disorders and cover only a small range of symptoms.
The GMHAT/PC on the other side, is a computer-based clinical evaluation tool that can be used by general practitioners in their routine practice. It can detect the most common psychiatric issues, but not ignore more serious ones. It also generates automatically an appointment letter to the local community psychiatric services.
Another aspect to consider when using tools for mental health assessment is the selection of the appropriate language. Some psychiatric words are considered to be stigmatizing (such as "commit" and "commit suicide") and others trigger negative emotions and thoughts, such as embarrassment and shame, and reinforce the myths surrounding mental illness. Choosing less stigmatizing language can make an assessment more valid and encourage clients to be open with their feelings.
While the stigmatizing influence of mental health disorders is real but it can be quelled through positive anti-stigma initiatives by communities, individuals, and groups. To reduce the stigma, it is important to educate others about mental illness, stay away from insensitive stereotypes, and report instances of stigma in media. Even minor changes can are significant, like changing the language used on health posters that are displayed in public areas to a non-stigmatizing one and educating children about stress and how to deal with it.