The First Interview: A Guide for Clinicians

This accessible text demonstrates in step-by-step detail how to conduct a successful mental health diagnostic interview. Keyed to DSM criteria and covering the range of problems and personalities that interviewers typically encounter, it describes how best to elicit critical diagnostic details from even the most challenging patient. Readers will learn how to give free rein to the informative patient, guide the rambling one, encourage the silent patient, and mollify the hostile one. Based on recent research into effective interviewing techniques, The First Interview specifies what should be asked as well as the best methods for asking. Written in a conversational, jargon-free style, this book features numerous illustrative clinical vignettes that bring these effective techniques to life.
For each stage of any first interview, the author shows how to derive maximum information while establishing and maintaining trust and rapport. Sample beginnings model nondirective openings that immediately engage patients and elicit their chief complaints. For the body of the interview, techniques are suggested to draw out feelings and determine symptoms, family background, mental status, personal strengths, and vulnerabilities such as a history of violence or childhood abuse. Other chapters address the management of difficult patients and consultation with relatives and other informants. Throughout, clinicians are advised on how to communicate effectively, using both verbal and nonverbal techniques.
Final chapters focus on reporting the clinician's findings and recommendations to patients and their families in such a way as to provide information, security, and hope. Clearly stated principles will help trainees of all mental health professions evaluate the material they have obtained and communicate diagnosis and plans for management to other health care professionals. Practical appendices include a sample interview and written report, the latest DSM diagnoses in abbreviated form for easy reference, standards for scoring the initial interview, and a list of recommended readings.
Filled with case examples, The First Interview is an excellent introductory text for students in psychology, psychiatry, social work, pastoral counseling, medicine, and nursing. For the seasoned clinician, it offers a refresher course and new approaches to the difficult patient.