A well-drafted and structured mental health assessment form is an essential tool for evaluating various aspects of mental well-being. In this post, we dive deep into the intricacies of constructing a robust mental health assessment form. We’ll review the key components necessary for gathering vital information and then talk about how to create one yourself in Google Forms. Sound good? Let’s get into it!
What does a mental health assessment require?
A mental health assessment form is a document that helps a mental health professional or clinician gather information to understand an individual's mental well-being. To do this, a comprehensive mental health assessment form contains information that broadly falls into three categories:
- Biodemographic information: This includes factors that provide context for understanding the individual's background, such as age, gender, ethnicity, etc.
- Description and evaluation of the symptoms: Here, we record the mental/emotional issues and severity of symptoms.
- Detailed Health plan: This section covers the coping strategies and plans to mitigate the symptoms.
The biodemographic section could also include past and present medical conditions, medications, treatments, significant life events, relationships, education, employment, marital status, employment status, living situation, and insurance information.
The second section is an assessment of the clinical issues that the patient reports and the associated symptoms. It’s also a good idea to have some way of recording the severity of symptoms. This helps track the progressive recovery over time.
The last section, along with detailing a recovery plan, should include information on important factors that directly impact the efficacy of the recovery plan. These could be access to mental health services, cultural and spiritual beliefs, safety concerns related to self-harm, harm to others, substance misuse, and even legal issues.
How to create a mental health intake assessment form with Google Forms
Step 1: Create a new Google Form
Go to Google Forms.
Click on the ‘Blank form’ button to start a new form.
Give the form an appropriate title. In the description, you can include helpful instructions for the mental health professional conducting the assessment.
Step 2: Enter fields for personal and contact information
The first thing to do is to get the personal information and contact details out of the way.
Edit the default question to ‘Name’ and click the button next to the question field to change the question format to ‘Short answer.’
Click the ‘Add question’ button to add the next personal information-related question. For most questions in this category, you’ll be using the ‘Short answer’ format. Here are a few questions to consider adding:
- Age
- Ethnicity
- Contact information
- Insurance information
Step 3: Use short answer questions to describe patient
Now, it’s time to move on to the bio-demographical information. Let’s introduce a new section to our form.
Click the ‘Add section’ button to introduce a new section to your form.
Title the section. Then, click the ‘Add question’ button.
The questions for this section have to provide a quick observational evaluation. Let’s opt for a multiple-choice question format so that the mental health professional filling out the form can easily record specific mental health parameters in a standardized manner.
It’s also a good idea to have a place to record issues and symptoms as reported by the patient to the health professional in their own words.
Add a question with a ‘Paragraph’ answer format to do this.
Step 4: Use multiple choice or linear scale for severity of symptoms
Now, it’s time to record the severity of reported symptoms on the form. This helps track the individual’s recovery with the recommended strategies. Here are the most common symptoms experienced by individuals suffering from mental health issues:
- Persistent sadness
- Excessive anxiety
- Changes in sleep patterns
- Sudden changes in appetite or weight
- Difficulty concentrating or making decisions
- Irritability or agitation
- Social withdrawal
- Physical aches and pains
Draft questions around each symptom that also gauge its severity. Then, add the questions to your form.
Opt for the linear scale question format and assign appropriate labels to it. Learn how to add a linear scale question to your Google Forms. Add a linear scale for all the symptoms you want to include in your form.
Step 5: Enter paragraph question to describe health plan
Now it’s time to add a detailed health plan and coping strategies section to this form.
Let’s add a new section to the form as described in Step 3. Then, add questions for:
- Detailed diagnosis
- Detailed health plan
- Recommended coping strategies
You should opt for the ‘Paragraph’ format for all these questions.
Step 6: Use Form Publisher to enter health care worker signature and create documents
Only one more step to go, and your mental health assessment form is complete. You need to add a place on your form where the mental health professional filling out the form can sign their name.
You can easily add a question for the name as shown in Step 2, but to add a place for signatures, you’ll need a little help from a simple add-on known as Form Publisher. Learn how to add signature requests to Google Forms and read on to see Form Publisher document creation capabilities!
Create your mental health assessment form online with Form Publisher’s help
Making a mental health assessment form with Google Forms and Form Publisher is easy. While Google Forms provides an easy and accessible platform for form creation and distribution, Form Publisher offers extra features.
This is why you must always make mental health assessment forms online! Form Publisher allows you to automatically convert these filled forms into documents that you can easily store with the individual’s other records.
This makes information retrieval a breeze later. Want to know what else Form Publisher can do for you? Explore Form Publisher now!