Psychiatric evaluation

What the appointment is like

Most of it is you talking and someone listening carefully. There are questions, and they go in order, but the shape of the hour follows what you bring to it.

You will be asked about what brought you here and when it started, how you sleep and eat, what your days look like, what you have taken before and how it went, and what your family history holds. You will also be asked directly about thoughts of harming yourself. That question is asked of everyone.

Nothing has to be prepared. If you do not know the name of a medication you took four years ago, that is a normal thing not to know.

What it covers

• Full diagnostic evaluation against DSM-5-TR criteria
• Mental status examination
• Suicide and safety risk assessment
• Standard measures such as PHQ-9 and GAD-7, repeated over time so you can see the change on paper
• Review of medical history, current medications and past treatment
• Children, adolescents, adults and older adults

What you leave with

A psychiatric evaluation does not necessarily produce a definitive diagnosis at the first visit. It provides a clear clinical assessment and collaborative treatment plan. When the available information supports a diagnosis, we explain it in plain language. When more information or time is needed, we explain what we are monitoring and why.

You also leave with a plan: what is being suggested, why that and not something else, what it should do, how long before you would know, and what to do if it goes wrong. If the plan involves medication, see medication management for how prescribing works here.

Who this is for

• Never been assessed

  You have been managing something for years without a name for it, or a family member has asked you to get it looked at.

• Already on medication

  You were prescribed something by a primary care physician and want a psychiatric opinion on whether it is the right one.

• Something changed

  What used to work has stopped working, or a new symptom has arrived and you want to know what it means.

What we believe about a diagnosis

A diagnosis is a working explanation, and it earns its place by being useful. A good one tells you what tends to help, what tends to make things worse, and what to watch for. One that does none of those things is only a word, and you are entitled to say so.

So the evaluation is explicit about its own uncertainty. You hear what fits, what else was considered, and what would change the answer. Where the picture is still forming you are told that, and told what is being watched. The same principles run through every service here, and they are set out in full in how care works.