1 Nineteen Minute Program
Professional Audience:  Psychiatric care professionals, nurses, social workers, emergency health care professionals mental health workers, counselors, related fields.

Objectives:

1. To identify specific characteristics typical of people in crisis.
2. To identify interviewing skills and techniques.
3. To allow the viewer to compare and contrast his/her style of interviewing with the style demonstrated in the program.

A psychiatric assessment involves the gathering of information by direct observation and question. The interviewer is attempting to understand the patient's feeling state, thoughts occupying his mind, and his perceptions. The interviewee-needs to know how these areas are being experienced and how they are being communicated to others.

A psychiatric assessment is necessary so the interviewer can organize the material above the mental functions of the patient. The interviewer will use this information along with a clinical history to arrive at a working diagnosis and to help formulate disposition of plan of action.

The method of gathering material about the patient's mental functions is subject to the interviewer's own style. The key is to develop a relatively consistent way to obtain the data and a reliable and familiar way to organize it.