Some of the psychiatric services available at SouthCoast Psychiatric include:
-Psychodiagnostic Testing
-Psychiatric Disorders
-Dual Diagnosis
-Geriatric Psychiatry
–Anxiety/Depression
–Bipolar Disorder
–Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD/ADHD)
-Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
-Insomnia
–Medication management
Clinical Psychology and The Importance of Mental Health
The health and wellbeing of a person is perhaps their most prized possession. It enables them to live a happy life and tackle the struggles of their everyday lives. Certainly, mental health is an asset and must not be compromised under any circumstances. Consequently, this is why it must be your prime responsibility to take care of your mental health.
What Does It Mean To Be Mentally Healthy?
It is easy to define mental health as the absence of mental illnesses but everything is not always so black and white. You don’t necessarily have to be diagnosed with a serious mental illness to experience problems with your mental health. Sometimes problems in mental health are depicted by smaller changes in your behavior. Moreover, a diagnosable mental disorder can be portrayed by abnormalities in thinking, feeling, or behavior. Mental illnesses include common things like anxiety and depression.
Mental health is more about being able to think at an optimum level. Likewise, our mental health is of utmost importance for you to function without any issues. It plays a huge role in determining your physical health, productivity, as well as social relationships too.
What Causes Mental Illnesses?
There is no single root cause of mental illnesses. It is often a combined result of many factors including complex group of genetics, psychological factors, and environmental factors. A single thing might trigger a reaction that may help identify a mental illness but it cannot be the sole cause of the mental illness.
What is Clinical Psychology?
Clinical psychology focuses on the diagnoses and practical application of research methodologies to treat mental disorders. Clinical psychologists mainly divide their work into three parts which are assessment, treatment, and research.
When is Clinical Psychology Put Into Practice?
Clinical psychology becomes useful in a variety of different situations. The application of this branch of psychology is vast. Some clinical psychologists may specialize in working with handicapped people, prisoners, or alcohol and drug abusers. Other clinical psychologists also contribute heavily to health-care studies.
Clinical psychology also helps determine the state of mind of a defendant or a parolee. For instance, this helps the legal system make more informed decisions.
How Do Doctors Diagnose Mental Illnesses?
Diagnosis is the assessment of the patient’s condition. This includes the administration and interpretation of psychological tests. This elevates the patient’s mental characteristics which help in diagnosing a particular mental disorder.
An interview is a common tool for diagnosis. So, psychologists usually examine the patients in-person and try to notice minor details of their behavior to identify any clear symptoms of mental disorders.
Furthermore, healthcare practitioners also diagnose mental illnesses through a series of different medical tests. They also try to gather the mental health history of the patient and interview them.
What are Psychotherapy and Psychiatric Services?
For treatment purposes, psychotherapy is often the first approach. If psychotherapy fails to help the patient then medication is usually the next option. Above all, psychotherapy is the first and most preferable treatment in clinical psychology.
Psychotherapy helps a patient with mental illnesses through therapy sessions with a psychologist. These sessions give patients a chance to express their worries and give them someone to share their troubles with. This often has a positive effect on patients and greatly improves their level of functioning.
Clinical psychologists usually specialize in such treatments. They can recommend a patient to take behavior therapy, group therapy, or even psychoanalysis.
Finally, we hope this article helps you understand what clinical psychology is and how it can help the society we live in. In short, mental health is crucial to your long term happiness. If you feel like you want to talk to someone, do not hesitate to visit our website to contact us! And, read more about our psychiatric services to find out how they may be a good fit for you.