Mental Health Evaluation
Private sensitive online mental health evaluation for clinical diagnosis, medication management, child custody, employment concerns, criminal defense and more. See a Board-Certified Mental Health Evaluator.
The thought of a mental health evaluation can be intimidating. It is important to find the right mental health evaluator who will listen, take the time to achieve the right diagnosis, and collaborate with you to formulate a treatment plan to achieve your goals and work towards healing. When mental health evaluations are ordered by the court and the employer, extra care must be taken so the evaluator understands your situation and take the right steps to work towards recovery.
A well-thought-out comprehensive online mental health evaluation by a mental health evaluator for clinical treatment and court can help you achieve your goals and change your life for the better by getting the right diagnosis at the right time.
Our Online Mental Health Evaluation Approach
The mental health evaluation needs to be conducted with the appropriate amount of time and care to:
- Get the right diagnosis
- Understand the cause of symptoms, environmental factors, medical causes, and psychodynamic factors leading to symptoms
- Understand stressors leading up to the event
- Formulate an appropriate treatment plan
- Prescribe the right medication
- Collaborate with the patient and answer all the patient’s questions
- Avoid mistakes and miscommunication
A poorly conducted mental health evaluation can lead to poor communication, wrong diagnosis, wrong treatment plan, and poor treatment outcomes.
Hence, a good mental health evaluator should take adequate time and care to consider all the above factors while conducting the evaluation and make sure that the client feels comfortable, does not feel judged, and that their questions are answered.
How does a mental health evaluation for a court or an employer differ from a regular clinical evaluation?
When the mental health evaluation is for the court, the employer, as well as mitigating circumstances, the evaluation should demonstrate who the client is as a person. The mental health evaluator should also address:
- the clients’ level of insight and motivation to fix issues and receive treatment
- whether stressors have resolved
- whether the client is responding to treatment
- what steps the client has made to ensure that the issues have been resolved
- why previous evaluations may not have been conducted as per required standards of care
- why the previous diagnosis may be inaccurate
- what has changed, why the client is fit to return to work, and why the client is no longer a danger to self or others
At Gaba Telepsychiatry, adequate time is taken to get the best mental health evaluation possible to help you achieve your goals by understanding psychodynamic factors and identifying therapy goals and modalities.
A well-thought-out comprehensive online mental health evaluation by a mental health evaluator for clinical treatment and court can help you achieve your goals and change your life for the better by getting the right diagnosis at the right time.
Gaba Telepsychiatry offers mental health evaluation for the following services
Who should conduct a mental health evaluation?
Dr. Gundu Reddy is a Board Certified Psychiatrist with more than ten years of experience practicing forensic psychiatry and fifteen years of experience practicing clinical psychiatry.
-The United Medical Dental Schools of Guys Kings and St Thomas’ at King’s College London.
-Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York
-NYU Psychoanalytic Institute
Contact Board-Certified Online Psychiatrist MBBS (MD) Now!
Dr. Gundu Reddy is a board-certified urgent psychiatrist with fifteen years of experience practicing clinical psychiatry and ten years of experience practicing forensic psychiatry. She has trained in Medication Management, psychodynamic psychotherapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy.
Dr. Reddy has a special interest in integrative psychiatry and believes that multiple factors should be considered when evaluating and treating a patient, including genetic and developmental factors, medical illness, nutrition, and hormones, as well as environmental and dynamic factors.
Many individuals receive substandard care due to incomplete evaluation, and an integrative approach is needed to provide optimum clinical improvement. Dr. Reddy believes the decision to take psychiatric medication should not be taken lightly and psychiatric medication should be prescribed with the utmost care. The goal of medication management is to achieve maximum efficacy with minimum side effects, and the gentle titration is required.
Dr. Reddy believes that in most cases psychiatric illness is treatable, and most people can achieve significant improvement in symptoms, as well as social and occupational functioning, with high-quality and consistent care. Her goal is to provide the best possible treatment to patients in a telepsychiatry or online psychiatry setting and achieve the same standards of care as if seeing the patient in person.
Please schedule online or call +1(833)312-4222 if you wish to schedule an appointment with Dr. Reddy, the online psychiatrist.
Book an Appointment Online with our Online Psychiatrist for Telepsychiatry Services
Clinical Services: New York, New jersey, South Carolina, Tennessee, Illinois, California, Florida
Forensic Psychiatry Services: All of the US and Canada
What is a mental health evaluation?
A mental health evaluation is a clinical interview conducted with the purpose of screening for mental illness. It is also used to screen for trauma, defenses, personality traits, external stressors, and medical illness which may be contributing to mental health symptoms.
In some cases, the purpose of psychiatric evaluation is to determine safety and risk to self and others. A mental health assessment can also be used for clinical treatment, employment, court, child custody, or criminal defense. By obtaining an accurate diagnosis, the purpose of this evaluation is to formulate a treatment plan and path towards recovery.
What is the process involved in mental health assessment? What to expect during this psychiatric evaluation?
- The psychiatrist or mental health evaluator will meet the client in person or over a HIPAA- complaint video platform.
- The client will sign consent forms.
- The mental health evaluator will ask the client the purpose of the mental health evaluation and try to understand the client’s goals.
- The evaluator will ask the following questions:
- Presenting Complaint
- History of the presenting complaint: This includes recent symptoms or symptoms at the time of the event, any recent trauma and stressors, and other mitigating factors and causative factors.
- Recent Stressors
- Psychiatric History
- Substance Abuse History
- Trauma History
- Developmental History
- Family Psychiatric History
- Medical History
- Social History
- Relationship History
- Forensic History
- History of Violence
- After receiving answers, the mental health evaluator will
- Review collateral information.
- Formulate a diagnosis
- Explain the diagnosis to the patient
- Order lab tests in some cases to exclude hormonal or other medical factors causing psychiatric illness
- Explain medication and therapy options
- Finally, the mental health evaluation will be written up.
If the mental health evaluation is for the court or an employer:
- The psychiatrist will provide a medical opinion, if needed, as to stressors prior to illness.
- The psychiatrist will provide a medical opinion as to whether stressors have resolved.
The psychiatrist will provide a medical opinion as to whether the client needs further treatment. - The psychiatrist will provide an opinion as to the clients’ level of insight and whether or not he or she is likely to be compliant to treatment.
- The psychiatrist will provide a medical opinion as to whether the client is likely to be a danger to themselves or others.
- In the case of a forensic evaluation, the psychiatrist must provide an opinion as to whether the the client expresses regret and remorse for past offenses, whether he or she is likely to repeat offenses, and if the offenses were due to mental illness, explain what steps have been taken to prevent relapse of symptoms.
Can a mental health assessment be conducted online?
Mental health evaluation online via video conferencing is accepted by the court, employers, and other medical practitioners. It is important that the mental health evaluator follows the same procedures and standards of care, similar to the in-person visit.
Just before conducting this evaluation, you will be asked to sign consent forms. This step is done to access the patient’s medical history, symptoms, medication history, and other related information. Furthermore, it gives authorization for doctors to discuss mental health conditions and treatment with your family members.
Who should get a mental health evaluation and when?
A person should seek a mental health evaluation if:
- They are experiencing psychiatric symptoms including, depression, low mood, anxiety, panic attacks, obsessions, compulsions, insomnia, racing thoughts, impulsivity, auditory or visual hallucinations, problems with attention or concentration, anger or rage, irritability, loss of productivity, disturbance of sleep and appetite.
- They are experiencing cognitive difficulties including problems with memory and decision-making.
- They are experiencing problems with attention, concentration, organization, and task completion.
- Their symptoms are causing problems with work or relationships.
- It is ordered by the court or an employer.
- There is an active DHS case (child protective services) or if you are being denied custody of your child.
- Required for aviation, military, law enforcement, and firearms.
- Required clearance for gender reassignment, gastric bypass, and other medical procedures.
Ref:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29380474/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35198133/
How much does an online mental health evaluation cost?
Mental Health Evaluator
A mental health evaluator can be a psychiatrist or a therapist. If you need a mental health evaluation for court, criminal defense, employment, aviation, fitness to drive, or other legal purposes, you usually need an evaluation conducted by a board-certified psychiatrist.
Likewise, if you think you may need to be prescribed psychiatric medication, the mental health evaluator should be a medical doctor or a board-certified psychiatrist. He or she should have completed medical school and residency training, and have a valid license to practice medicine.
How long does it take to complete the assessment by a mental health evaluator?
An initial clinical diagnostic evaluation can take 60 – 120 minutes. An evaluation for court and legal purposes can take several hours.
How to approach a mental health evaluator?
Mental Health Evaluation for Court
A mental health evaluation for court can be requested either by the judge, plaintiff, or defendant’s attorney. They are often requested for the purposes of criminal defense, DUI, child custody, guardianship, medical practice, personal injury, etc.
How a mental health evaluation may help you in court?
- A mental health evaluation or psychiatric evaluation will help you in court both for criminal defense or child custody, guardianship, personal injury, and many other situations.
- The psychiatric evaluation can help the judge and jury understand who you are as a person.
- If you have been accused of committing a crime or behaving inappropriately in the context of mental illness, a mental health evaluation can help explain your illness and how symptoms may have led you to behave in a way that is out of character.
- Mental health assessments can help you explain stressors, provocation, and other mitigating factors that may have led to an exacerbation of psychiatric symptoms. It can also give you a chance to explain how these stressors have been resolved.
- If you have been diagnosed with a mental illness, it is an opportunity to demonstrate that you have insight into your illness; you are willing to receive treatment and take the right steps toward recovery.
- Psychiatric evaluations can also help you demonstrate that you have worked towards recovery and that you are not a danger to yourself or others.
- A well-written mental health evaluation can sometimes strengthen your case to help your attorney request a lesser charge or a lighter sentence.
- A well-written assessment can strengthen your child custody case.
How to get a court-ordered mental health evaluation?
Getting a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation involves the following steps:
- Find a board-certified psychiatrist
- Submit a copy of the motion
- Schedule an interview with the board-certified psychiatrist
- Discuss the reasons and goals of your mental health evaluation
- Get an accurate diagnosis and treatment recommendations
Is online mental health evaluation accepted by the court?
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, online mental health evaluations are usually accepted by the court. Most judges are sensitive to the fact that it is often hard to find a local mental health evaluator and that many individuals cannot afford an in person evaluation and testimony. We usually ask that you check with your attorney before starting an online evaluation for legal purposes.
Online mental health evaluations are commonly conducted for criminal defense, guardianship, medical malpractice, child custody, personal injury defense, fitness to drive, aviation, and many other purposes.
Contact Us
All you have to do is call us or schedule an appointment online via our website. Our clinical services are available in New York, South Carolina, Tennessee, Illinois, Florida, New Jersey, and California.
Gaba telepsychiatry is an online platform where the assessment can be performed via telecommunication from the client’s comfortable space.
Dr. Gundu Reddy is a board-certified psychiatrist with ten years of experience practicing forensic psychiatry and fifteen years of experience practicing clinical psychiatry.