Assessments and Diagnostics
Part of Sequoia’s specialty is diagnosing the mental health issues that we treat. Learn more about why we take so much time and care to diagnose our clients.
The status of your mental health plays a larger role in the quality of your overall well-being. When mental health issues are left undiagnosed and untreated, many aspects of your daily life may suffer as your symptoms worsen.
Seeking help from a mental health professional is the first step to getting an accurate diagnosis and receiving the appropriate treatment that you require.
At Sequoia Behavioral Health, our team is committed to identifying your mental health issues and providing personalized treatments that are unique to your specific needs.
Taking the First Steps Towards Mental Wellness
It is never too early to get professional help for your mental health issues, even if you’re unsure of what might be wrong. In fact, most individuals that come to Sequoia Behavioral Health haven’t been diagnosed with a mental health condition yet.
Everyone who begins a treatment program at Sequoia Behavioral Health will meet with a professional psychiatrist to start the diagnostic process. Inpatient and partial hospitalization program (PHP) clients will see a psychiatrist within 24 hours of beginning treatment, and intensive outpatient (IOP) clients will see them within 72 hours.
Learn more about our intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization programs to determine which program suits your mental health needs.
During this time, the psychiatrist will work with you to help identify any mental health issues that you may be facing.
Understanding Your Mental Well-Being at Sequoia Behavioral Health
At Sequoia Behavioral Health, our professional psychiatrists conduct thorough mental health examinations to ensure you receive an accurate diagnosis and an appropriate treatment plan.
To help you and the treatment team discover what mental health issues you may be suffering from, a psychiatrist will administer specific mental health assessments and an in-depth psychiatric evaluation.
Identifying Your Symptoms With Mental Health Assessments
A variety of assessments can be used to discover the severity of your mental health symptoms. These assessments are questionnaires that rank the frequency of specific mental health symptoms, and they are especially useful in identifying the presence of various mental health disorders.
PHQ-9: Assessing Your Depression Symptoms
The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) is an assessment that helps identify the severity of your depression symptoms. This assessment has nine questions that will have you rank the frequency of common depression symptoms, usually on a scale of 0-3. This assessment can not only determine the severity of depression symptoms, but can also help identify the presence of possible depressive disorders.
Read our full guide on depression to learn more about diagnosing and treating it.
GAD-7: Assessing Your Anxiety Symptoms
The Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) is another assessment commonly administered alongside the PHQ-9. The GAD-7 is a useful tool to help identify the severity of several anxiety symptoms and may also be used to discover the presence of anxiety disorders.
While the PHQ-9 and the GAD-7 are the most common mental health assessments, there are additional questionnaires that can be used to identify symptoms of other specific mental health conditions and disorders.
Read our full guide on anxiety to learn more about diagnosing and treating it.
While there are other mental health assessments, these two are the most common. Even though they are geared toward diagnosing depression and anxiety, they can reveal certain markers that will prompt the psychiatrist administering them to investigate other mental health issues.
Getting to Know You Better With a Psychiatric Evaluation
Your psychiatric evaluation involves an interview with the psychiatrist, and it’s much more in-depth than a mental health assessment. This evaluation covers a broad range of topics to provide important insights into your personality and behavior patterns.
What Does the Psychiatric Evaluation Cover?
During your psychiatric evaluation, you will discuss various topics that may relate to your mental health. One important topic discussed during the evaluation is your family and personal history of physical and mental health issues. Also, you’ll usually discuss what symptoms you have been experiencing and how long they have been occurring.
To get a full understanding of who you are and what you’re experiencing, you’ll also talk about what your life is like—what are your stress levels, living arrangements, relationships, work life, and anything else that contributes to how you live day to day.
Who Would Benefit From a Psychiatric Evaluation?
Nearly everyone could benefit from a psychiatric evaluation because it identifies several factors that contribute to how we think and behave. That being said, psychiatric evaluations can be particularly beneficial for a variety of individuals including:
- People who may be suffering from mental health conditions
- People experiencing heightened stress, anxiety, or depression
- People struggling with substance dependency
- People with a family history of mental health conditions
A psychiatric evaluation can provide individuals with a better understanding of their personalities and their mental health.
Why Is a Psychiatric Evaluation Important?
In addition to identifying the various factors that can influence your mental health, your psychiatric evaluation is an important part of an accurate diagnosis and an appropriate treatment plan.
Your evaluation provides key insights that can determine the diagnosis of several mental health conditions. An appropriate treatment plan relies on an accurate diagnosis, making your psychiatric evaluation an important step in getting the help you require.
The psychiatric evaluation is also where you will be assessed to determine if certain medications are appropriate to manage your mental health conditions.
Determining Your Diagnosis and Treatment Plan
The psychiatrists and therapists at Sequoia Behavioral Health use the information from the assessments and evaluation to determine your diagnosis and create a treatment plan. A dual diagnosis is common, whether it is multiple mental health conditions or a mental health condition and an addiction.
Read our related article to learn more about a dual diagnosis and how it can be treated.
For most disorders, someone needs to experience a certain number of symptoms listed in the DSM-V in order to be diagnosed. The DSM-V provides classification and diagnostic criteria for most mental health conditions.
Managing Your Symptoms With Medication
Not all mental health conditions will require medication, but we offer services for those that do. Medication and therapy are effective on their own. However, when used together, they can lead to more effective and faster treatment.
Read more about our holistic therapy programming.
When determining which medications are appropriate, your preferences for treatment and medication management are taken into account. If you’ve already tried a medication or don’t want to take a certain medication, you won’t be forced to. At Sequoia, we believe your consent and participation are vital to healing.
You’ll also meet with a psychiatrist weekly to ensure that any prescribed medications are working effectively and helping you meet your treatment objectives. As your symptoms change and your well-being improves, your treatment plan should also change.
Medication management is often necessary to get the most out of your treatment and provide you with long-lasting help.
Your Path to Treatment
Clients that commit to full programming will receive an accurate diagnosis that can be treated with medication and various therapeutic aspects of programming. Your treatment plan is unique to you and your mental health objectives.
Certain clients may not qualify for continued stay if they are a danger to themselves or others, however, when not on medications. Maintaining a safe environment is essential to providing the care you need while on your mental health journey.
Our residential treatment program creates an ideal environment for rest and recovery while you’re on your mental health journey. We also offer an intensive outpatient program where clients can reside comfortably at home, while still receiving quality psychiatric services.
Our case management team will work with you to ensure that once you finish treatment at Sequoia, you’ll have an outpatient provider to continue medication management.
Empowering You Through Collaboration and Compassion
At Sequoia Behavioral Health, we encourage collaboration with our clients to ensure your treatment plan is actively helping you achieve your mental health goals. This is your mental health journey, and we are dedicated to assisting you every step of the way.
If you or a loved one could be suffering from a mental health condition, no matter how severe it might be, then consider reaching out to one of our mental health professionals. We can help you identify the root of the issue and provide a treatment plan that is personalized to your mental health needs.