Screening for danger

An essential part of our approach to child and adolescent mental health is the idea that you don’t need to take an exhaustive history in order to provide a constructive intervention. 

But we do need to make sure that we don’t miss anything dangerous and the following 5 questions provide a quick screen (a kind of psychiatric urinalysis)

1. Alcohol & other drugs
• how often do you use alcohol? other drugs?
2. Panic/Anxiety
• do you often get nervous; shaky; sweaty, palpitations, butterflies and short of breath?
3. Intrusive thoughts
• do you have many thoughts, impulses, or feelings that come to you when you don’t want them to?
4. Self-harm
• has it got so bad that you have felt like hurting yourself?
5. Sleep
   • tell me about your sleeping pattern.