The Biggest learning for the year

The biggest learning for the year was performing mental state examination. By assessing the appearance the useful clues can be find out. The focuses are on clothing, grooming and hygiene. Apparent age, manner of dress, cleanliness, posture, gait, facial expression, eye contact, general state of health and nutrition are also noted. Behavioural assessment includes emotional state and attitude, body language and gestures, posture, eye contact, social engagement, level of arousal, anxious or aggressive behaviour, psychomotor activity and movement. Cognition can be refereed as level of consciousness and ability to use memory both short term and long term. Speech is assessed for rate, volume, tone and quantity. Mood is assessed by asking if the person is feeling happy or irritable and rating that in a scale of 1 to 10. Affect is the expression of emotion. Thought content is evaluated by assessing if the person has any delusional thinking, overvalued ideas, preoccupation, depressive thoughts, obsession and anxiety. Thought process is assessed by find out if the patient has pressured or halted speech, frequent changes of topic. Perception is finding out if the person experiencing any hallucinations, illusion or dissociative symptoms. Insight is acknowledging possible mental health problem, understanding the treatment options and complying with that. Judgement is the person’s ability to problem solving and decision making. Risks are also assessed in MSE such as risk of suicide, risk of deliberate self-harm, risk of absconding, risks of physical and verbal aggression, risk of withdrawal.

Reference:
The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne. Clinical Practice Guidelines. Retrieved from www.rch.org.au/clinicalguide/guideline_index/Mental_State_Examination/

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