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Psychiatry with Developmental Disability ExpertiseWhat:The role of the psychiatrist and other medical professionals within a person’s team is critical, and ensuring objective information is shared with these professionals is one responsibility team members have when gathering to discuss “how someone is doing.” Medical staff are typically trained to assess progress within one-to-one verbal communications with their patients. Working with a non-verbal client or an individual with poor or unreliable communication skills therefore requires the psychiatrist to seek objective information from that person’s team in order to accurately understand dysfunctional behaviors, as well as any effects of interventions that have been tried. Successful outcomes often depend on the skill the medical professional brings to the team with respect to combining treatment models that may sometimes conflict. Why:Team members have the responsibility to make sure information shared with medical professionals is factual. Often times, teams may use daily log books to share progress, and though this type of information is rich with content and has great value, it is often difficult for busy professionals to look through and quickly interpret. Similarly, information presented in this way is not necessarily unbiased. Teams should strive to work towards collecting information on target behaviors/psychiatric symptoms that are well defined and related to diagnosis and interventions. Data must be collected that accurately represents how the person behaves. This information should be presented in such a way that medical professionals are able to easily read and evaluate progress in a short amount of time. How:Presenting data in the form of a behavioral graph allows someone to make a quick assessment, and represents a simple way for team members to share “how someone is doing.” Of course, including individuals who are capable of conveying their own impressions on how a particular treatment is affecting them is important, though team members need to be certain the person’s statements are reliable in order to make sure medical professionals receive accurate information. Likewise, as medical professionals often prescribe medication to assist in treating behavioral concerns, it is critical that team members work with the psychiatrist or other medical professional to clearly understand the likely benefits of any medications that are prescribed, and in this way, the data that are collected can reflect those potential benefits. If the expected benefits are not observed within a reasonable amount of time, team members should work with the medical professional to decide what the next step might be, and consider discontinuing medications that are not helpful. Potentially helpful tools and example graphs:
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| Last updated on July 15, 2008 by Community Outreach Wisconsin Webmaster | |
