Mental and Physical Health Issues
Mitigation requires a detailed inspection of mental and physical health issues.
- What is the client’s mental health history?
- What is the client’s physical health history?
- What about the client’s family, parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, etc.?
- Is the client’s family his or her birth family? In one recent case, after interviewing a number of family members, we learned from a shirttail relative that the client was, in fact, adopted
- Are the client’s records under a different name as often happens when certain cultures do not want to leave a paper trail that the government can follow back to them?
- Locating the right records is critical but can often be very difficult
- Knowing the value of what is learned from the records is also important
- Use of the DSM-IV is very important in understanding mental health issues
- We have the experience to know what we are doing