Does the client experience thought blocking

Assignment Help Humanities

Reference no: EM132672199

Applying Assessment Tools

This week you have been exposed to multiple assessment tools through your readings. For this discussion, choose and conduct one of these assessments on a family member, neighbor, peer, or coworker. Share which tool you used and a summary of the results from the assessment. In addition, address your feelings on administering the tool and the insight you obtained through the application of this assessment.

Note: Please do not provide any identifying information on the individual you interview-use a pseudonym.

Choose one of the assessment tools from this unit's studies:

The guidelines for the mental status exam on pages 50-51 of Clinical Social Work Practice text. Use questions 1-14 for the interview.

The Mental Status Exam The mental status exam is a way of organizing and recording information about the mental state of the client, according to guidelines established by medical schools in the United States (Jordan & Franklin, 1995; Othmer & Othmer, 2002; Paniagua, 2001; Robinson, 2001; Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan, 2009; Taylor, 1981). A mental status exam helps the social worker assess the quality and range of perception, thought, feelings, and psychomotor activity of a client so as to better understand how the client's behavior may be symptomatic of a mental disorder. It leads to establishing a diagnosis according to the criteria set forth in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), a classification system that divides mental disorders into categories with defining features. The following are the broad categories that are considered in the mental status exam:

1. Appearance. Is the client well groomed or disheveled? Is his manner of dress appropriate for the occasion of the interview? Is he flamboyant or bizarre?

2. Attitude. Is the client cooperative? Guarded? Suspicious? Aggressive or belligerent?

3. Motor Activity. Is the client calm or agitated? Does he have tremors, tics, or muscle spasms? Is he hyperactive?

4. Affect. Is the client's tone appropriate to the conversation? Is he, for example, talking about a sad event and smiling? Is his affect flat or blunted, apathetic, or labile-rapidly switching up and down. Is he expansive or constricted? A flat affect is a term used to describe clients who seem unable to relate emotionally to other people. Blunted affect describes a client who has a restricted, minimal emotional response (Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan, 2009, p. 221).

5. Mood. What does the client report? How does the client seem? Is the client depressed or anxious? Is there variability in his mood? Mood tends to be longer than affect and changes less spontaneously than affect.

6. Speech. Is the client's tone of voice loud or soft, whiny or high pitched? Are there any unusual characteristics or affectations (such as an accent or a halting manner)? Is the speech rapid or pressured? Does he stutter?

7. Thought Processes. Do the client's thoughts flow logically? Are the thoughts organized or disorganized? Is the client coherent? Are there perseverations (repetitions of thoughts as if the client were stuck)? Does the client experience thought blocking (thought stopping or interfering thoughts) or loose associations (not following logically from one thought to another)?

8. Thought Content. Are hallucinations or delusions present? Does the client speak of being controlled by external sources? Is the content of his thoughts grandiose or bizarre? Is suicidal ideation present? Is the content circumstantial (the client demonstrates the loss of capacity for goal-directed thinking) or tangential (the client loses the main idea of the conversation and is unable to return to it)?

9. Perception. Is the client's view of reality correct, or are there distortions in his thinking? Is there evidence of depersonalization or derealization?

10. Orientation. Is the client oriented to time, place, and person? How is his memory for present as well as past events? (Does he forget what he ate for breakfast but recall childhood events?) How are his concentration level and attention span? Is anxiety, a mood disturbance, or a learning disability responsible for the difficulty in focusing?

11. Cognitive Function. What is the client's general fund of knowledge? Is it intact? (This function can be tested by asking the client to count backward serially by sevens.) It is important to consider the client's intellectual level when assessing cognitive function, as his IQ may impact his ability to perform this as well as other cognitive functions, including the ability to be abstract or problem solve.

12. Abstraction. Is the client an abstract or concrete thinker? (To help you assess this function, ask him to interpret a proverb.)

13. Judgment. Are there any disturbances in judgment? Does the client understand the consequences of his behaviors, and to what degree?

14. Insight. Does the client have insight into his difficulties, or are there impairments (minimal, moderate, or severe) that lead him to deny them? Is the insight intellectual or does he have an awareness of motives and feelings on an emotional level?

Reference no: EM132672199

Questions Cloud

Physical and cognitive development in early childhood : Briefly describe the two stages of preoperational thought and what are examples of these two sub-stages and explain what is meant by operations.

What way are the economic meanings in the investment project : What way are the economic meanings in the investment project evaluation criteria not necessarily suited to the corporate financial objective?

Explain erik erikson stage of initiative versus guilt : 1. Explain Erik Erikson's stage of initiative versus guilt and offer examples of desirable and undesirable outcomes.

What cost of goods sold and gross profit rate would be : United Services and Supplies reports net income of $66000 and cost of goods sold of $343000. If US&S's gross profit rate was 40%, net sales were

Does the client experience thought blocking : Is the client's view of reality correct, or are there distortions in his thinking? Is there evidence of depersonalization or derealization

Socioemotional development in middle and late childhood : 1. How does the development of self-understanding change from middle to late childhood?

How would you respond to the controller : The controller consults with you about the type of accounting used for a special offer to its new car customers. How would you respond to the controller

Define what you would do about the mental health issue : You are a middle school nurse. One of the popular jocks on the basketball team committed suicide over the weekend. It is now Monday morning.

Behaviors of political culture within democratic societies : There are four characteristic attitudes and behaviors of political culture within democratic societies.

User Account

All Pages