Screening and Assessment, Active Listening, and Clinical Interviewing

Skills and Assessment Tasks
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Skills and Assessment Tasks
Screening and assessment are distinctive processes used to establish the issues a client is experiencing. Screening is used to identify whether a client has an issue or condition that merits further evaluation (Reynolds et al., 2021). Screening is not used for diagnosis and cannot establish the seriousness of a condition. An assessment provides an in-depth evaluation of the issue or condition identified through screening (Reynolds et al., 2021). It helps establish possible diagnoses for the condition. A test differs from the overall assessment in that tests are standardized tools for psychological evaluation, while assessments include tests, medical records, and observations.
Active listening involves paying full attention to the patient and responding in a way that demonstrates an understanding of what the patient is saying (Kramer et al., 2019). It also involves encouraging patients to elaborate further on their thoughts or feelings without judgment. For instance, mental health professionals can nod when a patient expresses their thoughts to indicate they are listening and understand what the patient is communicating. Also, when a psychiatric nurse interacts with a psychotic patient, active listening involves being nonjudgemental and showing support, even when the nurse disagrees with the patient's out-of-reality experiences.
During an interview or interaction with a client, mental health professionals ask open and closed questions. Open questions allow patients to express their feelings and thoughts, providing detailed responses. In contrast, closed questions allow patients to provide brief or single-worded answers, providing essential details within a short time (Lee & Hunsley, 2018). It is vital to mix open and closed questions, beginning with open questions followed by closed questions, to obtain as much information as possible. For example, during an intake interview, a mental health professional can ask the client 'What brings you here today?" or "Have you seen a therapist before?" The former is an open question, while the latter is a closed question that can be answered using yes or no.
Intake is a type of clinical interview. An intake interview occurs the first time a client comes to see a mental health professional. The goal is to determine the nature of a client's problem and assess it for DSM diagnosis (Kramer et al., 2019). Intake also helps the professional establish whether the client has come to the right place. For example, a nurse psychiatrist interacting with a referral client for the first time can ask the patient, "Who referred you to me?” to collect information about the clie...