MENTAL HEALTH ASSESSMENT - REVIEW

Define the behaviors that are considered in an assessment of a person's mental status

Consciousness, language, mood and affect, orientation, attention, memory, abstract reasoning, thought process, thought content, and perceptions

How van an examiner gather data indirectly

By listening and observing the way the patients response

The focus of the Mental status assessment of infants and children addresses what?

The behavioral (attention span),
cognitive, (language, abstract thinking), and
psychosocial development of the child COPING with their environment.

What is the full mental status exam?

A systematic check of emotional and cognitive functioning.

What is the purpose of the full mental status exam?

To determine mental health strengths and coping skills to screen for any dysfunction.

How can mental health status usually be obtained without the PT knowing you're doing it?

Through the context of the health history interview.

When would a full mental status exam be conducted? (3 main things)

1. If family members express concern
2. If presence of cerebral pathological condition or aphasia
3. Conditions of psychiatric mental illness are noted

What influences must the examiner be aware of that might affect findings of a mental health exam?

Preexisting illness
Medications

List the four components of the mental status assessment.

Appearance
Behavior
Cognition
Thought

What is the MiniMental State exam? What isn't it?

A quick and easy means of assessing cognitive function, not mood or thought processes.

What type of measurements can the MiniMental State Exam?

Initial and serial measurement to follow a patient over time.

The MiniMental State Exam is used to detect and differentiate what?

Used to detect dementia and delirium.
Used to differentiate organic disorders from psychiatric illness.

What is the Denver II screening test used for?

To assess the mental status of young children.

The behavioral test is used on _______ and the ABCT is used on whom?

School-aged children
Adolescents and aging adult.

This test asks the person to categorize, name, remember, and count the items in the test

Set test (FACT)

pondering a deeper meaning beyond the concrete and literal. At what age does it usually develop?

Abstract reasoning
12-15

Use this test to assess the person's alertness, motivation, concentration, short-term memory, and problem-solving ability.

Set Test (FACT)

FACT - Define and used for what

Fruits, animals, colors, towns
Dementia

ABCT

Appearance
Behavior
Cognition
Thought Process

Lack of emotional response; no expression of feelings; voice monotonous and face immobile

Flat affect

The power of concentration, the ability to focus

Attention

Being aware of one's own existence, feelings and thought

Consciousness

Using the voice to communicate

Language

This memory evokes day to day events

recent

This memory brings up years worth of memories

remote

This is apparent when a person's response is much greater than the expected reaction

mental disorder

temporary expression of feelings or state of mind

affect

a prolonged display of feelings that color the whole emotional life

mood

Brain disease of a known specific cause is called _______, and give some examples

Organic disorder
delirium, dementia, intoxication, and withdrawal

This is an illness in which organic etiology has not been resolved, and give some examples

psychiatric mental illness, such as:
anxiety and schizophrenia

awareness of the objective world in relation to one's self

orientation

An awareness of objects through the 5 senses

perception

what the person thinks - specific ideas, beliefs, and use of words

thought content

the way a person thinks, train of though

thought process