Assessment
The first appointment involves a comprehensive assessment, with the goal of evaluating the patient’s symptoms, understanding the impact of these symptoms on their day-to-day functioning, and developing a treatment plan that we believe will best help the patient in overcoming these problems.
The assessment appointment will take up to two and a half hours. It begins by filling out questionnaires, which should take approximately fifteen minutes. After the questionnaires have been completed, the patient will be interviewed by members of our treatment team for one to one and a half hours. This interview will typically be conducted by a staff psychiatrist, a staff psychologist, and a psychiatry resident. Other members of the team (such as our clinical nurse specialist) and other student trainees (such as psychology interns, medical students, or nursing students) may also participate in or observe this interview.
At the end of the interview, the team will meet for approximately fifteen minutes. The individual will then be given feedback about the team’s impression of the problem and various treatment options. The treatment plan will then be chosen jointly with the team.