Psychiatric assessment

A psychiatric assessment, or psychological screening, is a process of gathering information about a person within a psychiatric service, with the purpose of making a diagnosis. The assessment is usually the first stage of a treatment process, but psychiatric assessments may also be used for various legal purposes. The assessment includes social and biographical information, direct observations, and data from specific psychological tests. It is typically carried out by a psychiatrist, but it can be a multi-disciplinary process involving nurses, psychologists, occupational therapist, social workers, and licensed professional counselors.

A psychiatric assessment is most commonly carried out for clinical and therapeutic purposes, to establish a diagnosis and formulation of the individual's problems, and to plan their care and treatment. This may be done in a hospital, in an out-patient setting, or as a home-based assessment.

A forensic psychiatric assessment may have a number of purposes. A forensic assessment may be required of an individual who has been charged with a crime (usually a violent crime), to establish whether the person has the legal competence to stand trial. If a person with a mental illness is convicted of an offense, a forensic report may be required to inform the Court's sentencing decision, as a mental illness at the time of the offense may be a mitigating factor. A forensic assessment may also take the form of a risk assessment, to comment on the relationship between the person's mental illness and the risk of further violent offenses.

A medico-legal psychiatric assessment is required when a psychiatric report is used as evidence in civil litigation, for example in relation to compensation for work-related stress or after a traumatic event such as an accident. The psychiatric assessment may be requested in order to establish a link between the trauma and the victim's psychological condition, or to determine the extent of psychological harm and the amount of compensation to be awarded to the victim.

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