Answer To: Assessment 2: Critical Review Assessment type Essay Word limit / length 2,000 words Weighting 40%...
Sunabh answered on Sep 19 2021
Running Head: ASSESSMENT 2: CRITICAL REVIEW 1
ASSESSMENT 2: CRITICAL REVIEW 11
HEALTHCARE
ASSESSMENT 2: CRITICAL REVIEW
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Overview of the Type of Risk Assessments Necessary in Acute Mental Health 3
Critique of Effectiveness or Accuracy of Available Risk Assessment Tools/Methods 5
Potential Improvements in Risk Assessment Process 7
Conclusion 9
References 10
Introduction
Risk assessments are combined efforts of identification and analysis for the potential events, which can negatively affect any individual, environment, assets and healthcare is no exception. Risk assessments in mental health combine the considerations of social and psychological wellbeing of an individual. Major purpose of risk evolution is to plan or make decisions based upon the outcomes received from risk analysis.
This paper will discuss the importance of risk assessments to be necessarily consider in mental health assessment. Further, efforts would be made to present critique for the effectiveness or accuracy of available risk assessment tools. Likewise, this paper will conclude with the discussion of potential improvements in risk assessment process emphasising upon acute mental health services.
Overview of the Type of Risk Assessments Necessary in Acute Mental Health
Mental health is one of the most neglected aspects in the society. Risk assessment of the patients in general practice for those suffering from mental health issues is a challenging area in the field of clinical practice. It would be essential to understand that risk cannot be eliminated; however, it can be managed, assessed or mitigated. Therefore, managing, assessing or mitigation of the risk is dependent upon risk identification. It is an integral process towards ensuring a safe and effective care as well as decision making on transition between the services.
Risk can be highly dynamic and is majorly dependent upon circumstances, which might change over briefest of time. Therefore, it would be essential to understand that risk assessment would require inclusion of short-term perspective as well as frequent view. Further, every mental health professional has a specific role to play in both risk assessment and management. This is majorly because perspectives of all the professionals need to be taken into account while formulating for a risk assessment or risk management plan.
As supported by the recovery approach, overall treatment and assessment plan should be prepared with the service user in order to consider their perspectives also as an integral part of risk assessment plan (Duffy, Davidson & Kavanagh, 2016). It would be essential to understand that risk can be safely identified if all the parameters associated with individual’s functioning are taken into consideration. Therefore, four essential parameters to be examined for risk assessment include history, clinical, disposition and context.
Structured professional judgment (SPJ) is one of the most widely used risk assessment tools in acute mental health settings. SJP requires the psychiatrist or the physician to develop various independent risk factors. Development of these risk factors might be followed by weighing each of these factors; thus, facilitating judgment. The physicians or the care providers at mental health develop an initial opinion about the risk.
This is usually documented as low, medium or even high by any mental health clinician, can use this approach. Further, taking into consideration busy mental health services, risk documentation is completed by the use of ‘system 1’ thinking. Kannengiesser and Gero (2019) mentioned and argued upon the fact that System 1 thinking is rapid, emotional as well as instinctive compared to system 2 thinking, which is logical and more deliberate. In acute mental health settings, clinicians might rely on the use of ‘cognitive short cuts’.
These allow them to make judgments, which might have some kind of validity; however, upon scrutiny, could lead to misleading heuristics. One of the most common examples can be availability bias, this include the tendency to focus upon a specific piece of information by ease, through which it could be easily retrieved from the memory and this could lead to poor or false judgments. Further, it would be essential to consider that risk assessment should include key factors, which would then indicate a pattern or a significant increase in the level of risk. Some risks might be specific and could be associated with specific individuals only.
Accordingly, there could be instances where psychiatrists or other clinicians at acute mental health settings might feel anxiety and the sense of prediction might...