A clinical mental health assessment is an evaluation of a person’s physical, medical, cognitive, psychological (personality, emotions, beliefs, and attitudes), and behavioral history and current condition to determine the presence of any mental health disorder. American Wellness Center, based in Dubai Healthcare City specializes in conducting Mental Health Assessments.
The assessment process is typically initiated by a referral either from a physician, mental health worker, or other person, or it can be directly initiated by the individual. Diagnosing mental health disorders requires comprehensive testing. The process to assess and diagnose a mental health issue is complicated and should be as thorough as possible. Tests and assessments aimed at diagnosing mental health disorders should cover several basic domains of functioning and present a comprehensive picture of the individual.
If you or someone you know is struggling with a mental health disorder, please know that treatment and recovery is possible.
Adults who have one or more set of presenting issues or problems that they, or some other party wish to address, understand, and change, if possible. The clinical assessment process is aimed at making a specific diagnostic determination that will help with understanding these issues, conceptualizing them into an organized and meaningful format, and developing a formal intervention strategy to assist the individual. A certified and licensed clinician can recommend these assessments.
There are several assessment techniques and formal tests that can be used during the clinical assessment process. Assessment techniques and formal testing tools are used to gather information. Interpretation of the responses help understand and make management plan.
Psychometric tests or psychological tests consist of a number of formalized tests that touch nearly every domain of psychological, personality, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive functioning. These tests can be extremely useful in assisting in the diagnosis of mental health disorders. These tests, however, require special training to assess, score, and interpret properly.
Psychiatrists, Clinical psychologist, Adult Psychologist, Mental Health Counselor can perform these tests based on the requirement of the test and according to their qualifications.
Our diagnostic assessments always include the following three areas at a minimum:
By far the most important tool to gather information in the assessment process is the psycho-clinical evaluation. Without the clinical interview data, any other information collected from other tests or assessment techniques has limited value. The interview provides the context for the rest of the assessment.
The interview data provides potentially valuable information that may not otherwise be obtainable from tests, such as observing the individual’s behavior and reactions to current life situation, understanding unique features in individuals’ life, and therefore prescribing the best treatment.
Personality tests are formal psychological tests that measure aspects of an individual’s personality or measure specific personality variables. In general, these tests can be divided into two major categories:
Tests that provide some sort of ambiguous stimulus or task, and the individual is required to give a subjective opinion of the stimulus or to complete the task, such as a drawing task.
Intelligence tests are used to rate the individual’s level of overall intellect compared to others in their peer group. Intelligence tests are important in determining various cognitive strengths and weaknesses in individuals that may be associated with certain types of mental health disorders.
There are a number of different formal intelligence tests. These tests are separately developed for both adults and children, and give a number of different IQ scores (intelligence quotient scores) for different intellectual domains (e.g., full scale IQ, verbal IQ, nonverbal IQ, and so forth). Comprehensive IQ testing will bring forth the way your brain functions highlighting its strengths and weaknesses. A fully qualified clinical personal will discuss with the outcome and actionable recommendations for you to understand and reflect upon yourself in a better way.
If you find a particular area challenging such as: concentration, difficulties in reading, writing or numbers, memory problems or social communication difficulties, then a diagnostic assessment is recommended.
This is a detailed clinical evaluation and from this information, we can generate appropriate treatment recommendations, such as whether medication may be helpful to treat the individual’s symptoms and for young adults in college or university, whether they may be entitled to extra time during exams and or additional learning support.
Common concerns for diagnostic assessment include:
Depending on the nature of the difficulties, further assessment tools may be administered for the following areas:
Neuropsychological tests are specialized tests administered by psychologists trained in brain behavior relationships (neuro-psychologists). These tests can be used to determine the presence of cognitive strengths and weaknesses that may be the result of brain damage, a psychological disorder, a neurological disorder, or a developmental disorder. Neuropsychological functioning generally covers issues such as:
A number of other tests are specifically designed to measure aspects of an individual’s mood (e.g., the presence of depression), other emotional states and psychological states such as the presence of anxiety or psychosis, and to measure a person’s adaptive abilities.
Common requests for such assessments:
You may need to assess capacity where a person is unable to make a particular decision at a particular time because their mind or brain is affected by illness or disability. Lack of capacity may not be a permanent condition. Assessments of capacity should be time- and decision-specific. You cannot decide that someone lacks capacity based upon age, appearance, condition or behaviour alone.
This a two-stage test
In order to decide whether an individual has the capacity to make a particular decision you must answer two questions:
Stage 1 – Is the person unable to make a particular decision (the functional test)?
Stage 2 – Is the inability to make a decision caused by an impairment of, or disturbance in the functioning of, a person's mind or brain? This could be due to long-term conditions such as mental illness, dementia, or learning disability, or more temporary states such as confusion, unconsciousness, or the effects of drugs or alcohol (the diagnostic test).
An important part of the assessment process is to ensure that the individual has a full physical workup to rule out any physical causes/associations that may be related to the presenting psychological problem. Although there are no laboratory or medical tests that can determine the presence of the vast majority of psychological or psychiatric disorders, there are several physical conditions and diseases that either present very similarly to certain psychological disorders or produce side effects that are similar to the symptoms of certain psychological disorders. We at American Wellness Center in Dubai have the most advanced Lab and Physical Testing capabilities.
For instance, individuals with certain cardiovascular issues often experience panic attacks. Not assessing the individual for these cardiac issues could lead to the misdiagnosis of panic disorder in the person and result in a treatment approach that would be relatively ineffective in addressing that person’s panic attacks.
Another example would be individuals with hypothyroidism that will often present with the symptoms of severe depression. Attempts to treat depression with by other means will not fully address the issue and certainly will not treat the thyroid condition. Only treating the hypothyroidism will fully address the issue in this case.
A number of different physical and laboratory techniques are available. Some of the more relevant ones in the assessment of mental health issues include the following:
Of course, using medical doctors (psychiatrists, neurologists, and other physicians) and psychologists can be useful in ascertaining the exact nature of the presenting issue. However, in many cases, it is important to broaden the range of assessment services in order to develop a full picture of the whole person. Using assessment techniques and professionals from other disciplines can widen the assessment process. Professionals who can help include:
A licensed medical professional including a psychiatrist, clinical psychologist can provide you with a mental health diagnosis based on these assessments and tests. You will be evaluated using any number of the above tests and assessments for mental health. Mental health professionals use The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5)to diagnose your disorder based on specific criteria.
Diagnosing a mental health disorder is important for many reasons, one being that it will be used to guide your treatment program and communication among different disciplines.
The score or performance on a test helps the clinician understand something about the person, and during the assessment process, it contributes to understanding what the potential diagnostic issues may be. We recommend to further persuade your conditions and take a pathway towards a better version of yourself.
The American Wellness Center in Dubai Healthcare City, is a multi-disciplinary healthcare facility with special expertise in both Mental and Medical Health Services.
All these elements come together to give us a complete picture of your mental and emotional health.
There is no specific preparation required for an assessment. However, it can be helpful to think about your mental health history and current challenges in advance. Be ready to discuss:
