The Importance of Tracking Patients’ Mental Health and Outcomes

Feb 15

Mental health continues to affect millions of people each year. In fact, according to the 2019 Survey on Drug Use and Mental Health — administered by The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) — approximately one in five adults suffer from a mental illness, with women having a higher proportion than men.

Moreover, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has found that half of all chronic mental illnesses in adults began around the approximate age of 14. They have learned that, from the onset of symptoms, eight to ten years pass before seeking treatment. (1)

In this article, Mental Health Technologies is speaking to Khara Croswaite Brindle — a Clinical Supervisor and Licensed Clinical Therapist — about the importance of tracking and using assessment tools and exploring the different ways this can benefit clinicians and patients, alike.

We also hear the thoughts of Dr. Kellye Schab, a Functional Medicine Specialist and Doctor of Pharmacy — as well as Sage Olson, a Licensed Clinical Therapist and Social Worker.

These 3 experts tackle the following points, with regard to tracking your patients’ mental health:

Determining your patients’ diagnoses
Exploring their progress
Crafting a treatment plan, specific to their individual needs
Accessing useful resources that can help them
Identifying any warning signs that may signal a decline
Preventing and/or deterring suicide or ideations

1. Determine Diagnoses

A formal diagnosis is required for private insurance to cover mental health services.

And, as a clinician, it is vital for you to assess and track your patients’ symptoms in order to confirm diagnoses.

What criteria is does your patient meet for:

Anxiety
Depression
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Mania
Substance abuse

Or other mental health issues? (2)

In the opinion of Dr. Schab, many people oftentimes ignore what is going on in their own heads due to their daily bustle and caring for others around them. It is not until they are asked specific, targeted questions that they realize there may be untapped conditions that need to be addressed. In Dr. Schab’s experience, having this conversation at their practitioner’s office may be the first time they have considered their own needs. (3)

Sage Olson adds that these assessment tools allow clinicians to distinguish between diagnoses that can oftentimes manifest in similar ways and share symptoms, as it is with oppositional defiance disorder and ADHD. (4)

In essence, the initial mental wellness screening allows professionals to see the broader spectrum of potential diagnoses as well as creates a baseline for new — or even existing — patients and allows you to easily track the progress or decline of their current functioning, assess their risk levels, and create an individualized treatment plan.

2. Craft a Treatment Plan

Once you’ve identified your patient’s baseline functioning level, continued tracking of their mental health will allow for a treatment plan to be put into place and modified based on how well it is received.

Do you need to:

Introduce new coping mechanisms for depression?
Tackle anxiety with powerful cognitive reframes?
Navigate through the challenges brought on by addiction?

The numbers that shift from screeners can be a powerful part of the process of crafting an effective treatment plan based on the individual, rather than the diagnosis in and of itself.

3. Access Resources That Can Help

Using a screener or assessment tool can confirm or deny criteria being met for diagnosis, and thus, an interventional resource can be used to alleviate your patient’s symptoms.

For example:

Is your patient a candidate for PTSD treatments?
Are they needing a referral for medication management?
Would they benefit from a different type of therapy — resulting in a warm handoff to another professional?2

Rather than relying on spoken word alone during a 15-minute appointment to determine what resources you need to access, allow scientific data to help guide your decision-making.

4. Explore Progress

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), the ability to track a patient’s progress is especially important when they have been identified as one who will drop treatment if no progress is measured.5

And seeing a visual, such as an assessment score, is a powerful tool to use when reassuring your patients that they are, indeed, making progress towards a healthier state of mind. (2)

Furthermore, in the experience of Ms. Olson, she has been able to use screeners to show her patients that there has been a change, even when they do not see it themselves. In an example, she tells us about working with adolescents with ADHD — although the parents see no difference because their child’s schoolwork is still suffering, through wellness assessments she has been able to track the progress that may not be as noticeable. (4)

5. Identify Warning Signs For Decline

If on the flip side, you notice your patient experiencing a decline in their mental health, this would justify a modification in their treatment plan. (2)

According to Dr. Schab, her thoughts on completing an assessment in an at-home setting is a positive one, as people are likely to be genuine and think more carefully before answering. This small detail may be crucial when considering a decline in mental health, given your patients may feel more inclined to be truthful in regards to how they are feeling if they are answering these questions from the comfort of their own home. (3)

Your patient’s mental health screening may indicate:

Changes in sleep and appetite patterns
Drastic mood swings
Social withdrawal
A drop in functioning, such as with work or school
Problems thinking, concentrating, and memorization
Increased sensitivity to lights and sounds
A feeling of disconnect, either with themselves or with others
Illogical or irrational thinking
Nervousness and suspicion of others around them
Unusual or uncharacteristic behavior that would be deemed peculiar

Whether these symptoms are present at initial evaluation or seen as a decline after a baseline is established, changes of this magnitude would be a cause for immediate concern. (6)

6. Suicide Prevention

Khara Croswaite Brindle, who provides suicide assessment resources to fellow providers and professionals, claims that many clients come to providers with a list of symptoms that are causing them dysfunction or distress, but not all providers actually understand the link to suicide risks.

Studies have shown that some of these patients are coming to their doctor’s appointment or visiting their local emergency room as a final act of seeking help before they attempt suicide, believing that their pain is inescapable. If they feel unable to be helped, they might be inclined to make an attempt.

Therefore, it becomes even more important to normalize screening and the tracking of mental health as an evaluation for increased suicide risk. After all, the more symptoms and risk factors a person exhibits, the greater their risk for acting on suicidal ideations. (2)

Improve Your Patients’ Journey To Wellness

Through the Mental Health Technologies SaaS cloud assessment platform, we offer a convenient and flexible option to accurately screen your patients’ mental health and substance abuse concerns.

You can:

Incorporate your patients’ behavioral health issues into their overall healthcare plan
Create a plan to track your patients’ progress
Improve the overall quality of care that your patients receive
Save valuable time by removing a manual procedure and turning it into a more efficient process
Increase your office’s revenue and subsequently provide a better experience for patients and staff

Request more information and let our highly-knowledgeable staff walk you through our streamlined service and discuss with you how we can help your medical practice and enhance your patients’ mental and behavioral welfare.

Your patients’ journey to improved wellness starts with MHT.

Resources: