In the age of the Internet, identifying and monitoring mental health problems has, to a certain extent, become something one can do at home. This does not mean that complete mental health treatment is available via cyberspace. However, the lacuna of general awareness that existed until only ten years ago has been filled by readily available information on the Internet.

Mental health software is a great self-help tool, but its scope in that field is necessarily limited. Accurate diagnoses and therapeutic measures will remain the exclusive domain of mental health professionals.

In that respect and to such practitioners, mental health software is a genuine boon. It is useful in assisting clinicians in maintaining updated case histories and records. This is very important because of the high rate of litigation associated with mental health cases in America today. Psychiatrists are often called upon to testify on the state of a defendant’s mental health status. In such cases, easy retrieval of records is of the essence.

Medical records in mental health can also be formatted and streamlined to the required Federal standards by using specialized software. Mental health software also helps mental health professionals in scanning and matching mental disorders to appropriate medications and maintaining billing flow charts.

Owing to the exceptional confidentiality parameters surrounding professional mental healthcare, software packages for practitioners now also include features to hide PHI (Protected Health Information) from anything but authorized eyes. This is especially useful for individual practitioners who do not have the benefits of a full-fledged clinic’s security measures at their disposal.

Mental health software also helps clinicians in maintaining comprehensive appointment schedules. Since a psychiatrist or psychologist might have as many as twelve fifty-minute appointments in a single day, this is a major advantage to them.

Clients to mental health clinics are usually not admitted arbitrarily. The process usually consists of an initial interview with a community worker or a mental health professional. If a client is considered in need of residential or out-patient treatment at a mental health clinic, an extensive history of the mental illness will then be recorded. Such assessments will also include interviews with other doctors and family physicians who have noted the onset and progress of the ailment.

The staff at mental health clinics usually consists of psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health nurses, and support personnel who are specially trained. The scope and activities of mental health clinics in America generally falls under the purview of the CMHC (Community Mental Health Centers). This body issues licenses to clinics and centers for the practice of mental health-related treatment.

Considering that mental health crises do not always announce themselves in advance, a mental health clinic or center usually offers twenty-four-hour emergency services. These include inpatient hospital referral, since many cases are diagnosed in hospitals while the client is under treatment for other health problems.

Mental health problems affect people from all age groups, and American mental health clinics also offer services specifically for the aged as well as children and adolescents. The reasons that commonly lead to a referral for elderly persons range from senile dementia and Alzheimer’s disease to problems related to chronic alcohol abuse. Mental health problems typical to the aged fall under the category of geropsychiatric medicine.

Teenagers and young adults often find themselves in need of mental health services because of substance abuse, inherited mental problems, and Attention Deficit Disorders (ADD).

The services available at mental health clinics necessarily include group therapy, individual and family counseling, and a social awareness cell. The latter would be staffed by personnel who could explain the various issued surrounding metal health in layman’s terms to clients and their families. They are also an integral part of the evaluation process.

Paranoia is something I've always worried about contracting. I'm afraid I might have picked it up somewhere in the past few years. I won't even eat chicken nuggets anymore because I'm too worried about getting infected with the Avian Flu.

How can you tell if you're paranoid? There are several ways. Do you think that people lie to you a lot? Do you question government policy? When companies advertise new products do you question if they're being honest with you? Do you wonder how much they are actually profitting from each sale?

If you answered "Yes" to any of those questions, then you are not paranoid. Documented proof has been established to support all of your fears, concerns, worries, pessimism, cynicism, and lack of faith in many facets of life. If you don't believe me, then you're only being paranoid. Search the Internet and you'll find many facts supporting my claims, including proof that the moon doesn't exist.

If you are scared of an alligator or snake attacking you while you're relaxing on your toilet, you may or may not be paranoid. I confess that I'm unable to state with absolute certainty that there is a 0% chance of a reptile biting your butt while you're taking care of business.

If you're concerned about nuclear war and the devastation and eradication of life on Earth, you're probably not being paranoid. Nuclear weapons exist, and probably will continue to exist until the leaders in some country decide to oust the rulers of those other nations who dare possess such weapons of mass destruction.

Have you ever been fearful that you've started too many sentences with the phrase, "If you are?" You should consider that your fear is based on reality and consider going back to school for writing. If you're concerned that you've forgotten periods or commas in your writing, don't let needless worry consume you: proofread and perform an edit. The solution is just that simple.

If you think you're paranoid because you fear people talking about you behind your back, you needn't give it much thought. People are most likely talking about you behind your back. How can you tell? Have you ever talked about someone when he or she wasn't present? Has anyone ever spoke to you about someone when he or she wasn't present? If you've answered "Yes" to either of these then that means you're talking to yourself. If you find that you talk to yourself more than you talk to other people, you might want to consider socializing more often. As for people talking about you behind your back, it's very likely. Now that you know the truth, you can stop worrying about it. They're only talking about you behind your back for your own good.

If you're afraid of the dark, chances are that at some point in your life, something bad has happened to you while it was dark. If you're worried that there are monsters inside your closet, chances are that you have been violently attacked by monsters coming from your closet at least once in your past. If you're afraid of people close to you dying, chances are that you have heard of death and understand its implications.

While you're absorbing all of my confusing facts, remember that worry is not reality. Reality is what exists in your present. Yes, people will die, you'll get screwed over in business deals and as a consumer, and you'll get the Avian Flu from chicken nuggets. The point is, worrying about such inevitable situations is a waste of time. In relative terms, you only have a short time before you or someone close to you dies, or before you get attacked again by monsters hiding in your closet. Use the time wisely. Avoid contact with people, avoid eating chicken nuggets, avoid residing in a potential target for Ground Zero, and make sure your lights are always on and all your closets locked. Once that's done, your spirit will be free to enjoy life once again, fear and worry only a forgotten nightmare that caused you to wake up screaming a long time ago.

If you suffer from social anxiety, then you are among the millions who have been told by your doctor that you're abnormal and need medication. If you prefer alternative treatment, then this article is worth reading. If you prefer alternative treatment because you already do enough drugs, then it's merely recommended reading. If you get bored and fall asleep by the second paragraph, then it will just be light reading.

Avoidance of social situations can be a positive reaction to feelings of insecurity. It indicates some level of intelligence. You've probably learned from past experiences that you'll be scorned or shunned from society for being different. Idiots, however, will keep talking to people, never learning that they are not wanted.

Moving frequently during my childhood, I learned how to not make friends for very long, and how not to form healthy relationships. Having a lack of healthy relationships as a child means that as an adult, I'm much better at playing video games. An arcade is a great place to form bonds and make new friends. After you've accomplished socializing in the arcade, go home and look back fondly on all the good times and social experiences you had while at the arcade earlier that night. Realize that the next time you go to the arcade it will be rich with experiences and new people who share similar interests. You'll never see those people again, but always cherish those memories and look forward to meeting new people the next time you have a roll of quarters bulging in your pants.

Historically speaking, many great accomplishments have been achieved by people who had a mentall illness and/or suffered from social anxiety. If you are a mentally ill person with a high IQ, it's important that you help in the advance of civilization. Here are some advancement ideas: poetry, art, culture, technology. If you're mentally ill with an IQ that's above average, it's important that you change the world with some of the latter-mentioned accomplishments. Unfortunately, a possibility exists that you'll be prevented from a great destiny by your anxiety, concentration, and fatigue. If that's the case, you'll merely be a weirdo with a pocket full of prescriptions while in your social circles.

If you find yourself in a social situation, don't panic. Just be yourself. Don't be afraid to fidget your extremities (don't fidget so much that other people get scared). Stutter a bit while you're speaking. Walk away in the middle of a sentence and come back a few seconds later. People are generally good-natured; they will either appreciate your honesty or feel sorry for you and offer you a cookie, or the telephone number of a crisis clinic.

Social contact with one's family is sometimes complex and causes anxiety. If you haven't talked to your parents in a while, give them a call -- it's good practice for the times during which you socialize with people who don't love you. Sometimes it won't be a good experience, but put your failures behind you (where everybody else is talking about you, behind your back). Personally, I recently had a negative experience while practicing talking with my mother. She was expressing positive sentiment about my birthday, but suddenly she demanded I pay her nine months back rent for residing in her womb, and she also requested extra monetary compensation for the food I ingested during my stay. I was taken aback by her verbal invoice, and thought I had done something wrong again while attempting human social contact. A few seconds of thought later, I aggressively reminded her that I never signed a lease, and I'll never pay for food through a straw unless it's a root beer float.

No longer is it possible to assess and/or treat a mental health population without also interfacing with forensic issues such as legal infractions, Courts, violence, sexual behavior problems, delinquency, crime, Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity, substance abuse, and others. The training and approaches to the mental health population is different than that for a forensic population. So what is to be done, if a person has both issues? We must be cross trained for dually affected clients.

How Are the Populations Different

A Mental Health population is comprised primarily Axis I disorders, such as Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, Major Depression, PTSD, and Anxiety Disorders. Daily functioning is on a continuum. Recovery is quick for some and slow for others and is also on a continuum. Well controlled intermittent, mild to moderate episodes of a mood or anxiety disorder will not necessarily interfere with daily functioning. Someone with severe, chronic Schizophrenia or Mood Disorder requiring periodic hospitalizations and extensive community support, will have impairment in daily functioning. Goals for these folks are often pro-social and involve being an active member of society. A therapist can be fairly sure that the mental health client without forensic issues will be relatively honest in his or her interactions and the therapist can take most of what he/she says at face value. An emphasis on a strengths model works well when no personality disorder is involved.

A forensic population can be defined as having personality disorders, interpersonal difficulties, behavioral problems, multiple problems and life long courses of various levels of dysfunction or difficulty. Again, this population fills the full spectrum of effective daily functioning. However, social functioning is often the most severe impairment. There are issues of trust, appropriate relationships, ego centrism, moral development, honesty, manipulation, and danger to self and others. They often have a negative view of themselves and others, especially authority figures. Moral development is often delayed leaving them at the egocentric stage of development. This means that what serves the self is what matters and empathy for others and the ability to have an honest relationship with another person may not yet have developed. Their goals are often self-serving.

The capacity to understand the importance of the best interest of the group through laws and rules that we voluntarily follow, may not be well understood. Many, if not most, have histories of childhood abuse, neglect, or exposure to domestic violence. The assessment and interventions with this population is necessarily different that those for a people with no Axis II disorder or trait. The people with forensic issues do not always tell the truth because of their lack of trust in relationships. The therapist cannot take what he/she says at face value. The therapist must separate the sincere from the manipulative moves for self-gain. The internal boundaries are such that they need the therapist to put external boundaries into place for them. Information must be checked with other sources of information.

How Assessment Tools Differ

In a mental health population, assessment can quite effectively be done through instruments such as the MMPI-A, BASC, and MACI. These self-report tools are quite sufficient for this population and will elucidate psychological dynamics and mental illness, if present. Self-report is not as much of an issue as it is in the forensic population, where third party verification is more important. However when a youth has multiple problems, both mental health and forensic, a combination of tools is preferred.

Forensic evaluation tools rely less on self-report because of the trust issues and because it is not always in the client's best interest to be completely truthful. Self-report assessment instruments can be used, but third party and official reports should also be used in the evaluation phase of a forensic assessment. Courts are concerned with public safety, therefore, the need for tools that assess future risk of dangerousness to others. Risk of future aggression and sexual behavior problems that have been derived from statistical models (actuarial tools) should be part of the evaluation since clinical assessment of risk of future dangerousness is only a little better than chance. While risk assessments are not perfect, they are better than clinical judgment in this area.

How are Interventions Different?

Major Mental Illnesses, while often chronic, can often be very effectively treated with medication and therapy. At the higher functioning end of the continuum, therapy can be supportive, psychotherapeutic, family, or cognitive behavioral. Therapists are trained to accept what the client presents and start where the client is functioning and how the client sees the world. The clients are usually self-motivated and seek therapy voluntarily. They accept responsibility for their behaviors and for making changes in their lives. Use of a strengths model is often very effective. Many people recover fully and lead quite "normal," non-disrupted lives. When someone is on the lower end of the continuum, with major disruption in every day functioning (work and family),despite medication and therapy, major supports for housing, jobs, and activities of daily living and medication are needed for a very long time, perhaps a life time. However, their life goals are often still pro-social. Serlf-directed care works well with the mental health population without Axis II diagnoses.

In the area of intervention, different approaches are needed for the forensic population. Some level of social and family dysfunction is generally intergenerational and lifelong. These clients are often Court ordered to an assessment or therapy or they are having significant problems at work or within the family causing others to seek assessment or therapy for them. They do not always accept responsibility for their actions or for changing. There are skill deficits that need to be addressed, such as social skills, anger management, and problem solving. You cannot take what these clients say at face value. Third party information is always needed. This is because you need to trust someone in order to be honest with them and most of these folks have been abused, neglected, or exposed to domestic violence and a suspicious arm's length treatment of others is a coping strategy that is difficult to give up.

This population often has multiple problems so that Multi-systemic Therapy that approaches many areas that need to be addressed is often effective (treating the whole person). Group work and trauma therapies are also good tools. Self-directed therapy may not be effective because of the need to protect oneself from what may appear to be an unsafe world. Nurturing, setting good boundaries, and structure are essential in this work. Motivational interviewing and stages of change can be very helpful. When clients have issues in the mental health and forensic arenas, both approaches must be used to the extent possible.