Holistic Mental Assessment for Comprehensive Mental Health Care

Running header; mental assessment that illustrates holistic care. 1
Holistic mental assessment.
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Mental health assessment 2
Introduction
This is a critical reflection that aims at illustrating/deconstructing the key approaches and
the professional capabilities in mental health assessment so as to ensure that the client’s holistic
wellness is observed/achieved. This will be achieved by; one, demonstrating an understanding
and knowledge of the clinical formulation and holistic assessment that underpins the
practitioners’ capabilities. Secondly, it will demonstrate the application of critical thinking
process. Lastly, there will be a conclusion to summarize all of the above.
The evaluation/examination/assessment of psychiatric clients is an endeavor that is
multifaceted. In most cases, it is effectively done by mental health professionals,
multidisciplinary team. The examination should be comprehensive. For it to be termed holistic
psychiatric assessment, it has to assess; psychological, physical, intellectual, spiritual aspects of
the client. In physical assessment/examination, it entails performing a physical examination on
the client. It also entails studying and interpreting the client’s biological life stages, laboratory
tests, diagnostic tests and genetic predisposition. On the psychological assessment, there is an
evaluation of the childhood experiences, their personalities and the current and subjective
objectives and symptoms of the psychiatric illness. The former is achieved by performing a
mental examination and psychological tests on the patient. the cognitive functioning is assessed
by using the standard measures, for example, the mini-mental scale examination. On the social
assessment, it entails an exploration of the patient’s culture, familial and environment influences
on the experience and expressions of the illness. On the spiritual assessment, the clients spiritual
and religious dimensions are explored. The nursing psychiatric evaluation entails; assessing the
patient, identifying the problem/issues, coming up with a diagnosis, identification of the outcome
and coming up/formulating a care plan for the patient. the former can be summarized as critical

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thinking as it involves; assessment, problem identification, setting goals, coming up with a plan
and lastly evaluating the action plan/interventions. Psychiatric evaluation is ongoing as the
client’s history is always evolving.
Assessment
The capabilities to assess a client is one of the most important skills that a psychiatric
nurse should have. This assessment enables the nurse to identify and define the client’s problem.
It is also useful as it helps in establishing a relationship between the nurse and the client. When a
nursing assessment is done thoroughly it forms a prerequisite for formulating the nursing
diagnosis and coming up with an appropriate plan of care. The information gathered during the
assessment provides the baseline level of the functioning as it is used in evaluating the treatment
plan for its response before changing the regime (Hinkle and Cheever, 2013). The data is
collected not only from the client but from those close to the client. In most cases, the self-
assessment of the client differs from the perceptions of the family and the coworkers. For holistic
care of the patient, a psychiatric nursing interview has to be done. the conversation between the
client and the nurse should be mutually accepted and should be aimed at a specific
point/direction (Hinkle and Cheever, 2013). The aim of this interaction is to collect information
that will help in understanding and treat the client. The interviewing process and content vary
from time to time according to the individual and the context that the interview is taking place.
The Biopsychosocial history.
This is a comprehensive assessment of the client that entails his/her lifetime biological,
social and psychological functioning. It includes the following; one, identifying data in which the
patient’s demographic data is obtained. This includes the age, sex/gender, the marital status,

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religion, education, occupation, ethnicity and the living situations that are most current (Hinkle
and Cheever, 2013). This assessment is the start of individualized care (patient-centered care).
Two, chief complaint, this is the reason as to why the patient is seeking mental health
care. it is important to obtain the chief complaint using his/her own words (Hinkle and Cheever,
2013). This is because the nature of the illness can be obtained from what the clients report. In
addition to this, the family’s or/and the evaluator assessment of the patient’s situation may differ.
For example, the patient may report being brought to the hospital for a medical checkup while
the family and the evaluator assessment will differ.
Three, the history of the present illness (HPI), it is a systematic/chronological account of
the occurrences or events that have led to the current contact with mental health professionals.
The history of the present illness should include a detailed description of the evolution of the
patient’s symptoms (Hinkle and Cheever, 2013). This includes the onset, the duration and the
changes in symptoms that have occurred over time. The aggravating/exacerbating and the
relieving/ameliorating factors of the psychological distress that is present should be explored.
The nurse should be able to come up with possible precipitating factors that could have led to the
current situation (Blow et al., 2011). The stressful events/situations could be as a result of
positive (job promotion) or negative (job loss, the death of a loved one). This assessment should
also include the somatic functioning assessment, this includes; the sleeping patterns, appetite,
sexual functioning and the cognitive functioning (Hinkle and Cheever, 2013).
Four, the psychiatric history is obtained. This includes the past psychiatric illnesses
history so as to be able to understand the current event/episode, be able to make a correct
diagnosis and prognosis. In psychiatric illnesses, they may be chronic, intermediate or a single
event. The illness course may deteriorate or improve over time.