Trong một cuộc kiểm tra trạng thái tâm thần, quan sát được tổ chức để thiết lập các giả thuyết về hoạt động tinh thần của khách hàng hiện tại. Mặc dù kiểm tra tình trạng tâm thần cung cấp thông tin chẩn đoán quan trọng | 216 Structuring and Assessment During a mental status examination observations are organized to establish hypotheses about the client s current mental functioning. Although mental status examinations provide important diagnostic information administration of the exam is not primarily or exclusively a diagnostic procedure nor is it a formal psychometric procedure Polanski Hinkle 2000 . After a brief discussion of individual and cultural considerations each assessment domain covered during a traditional mental status examination is described in the following section. Individual and Cultural Considerations Like most assessment procedures mental status examinations are vulnerable to error because of interviewer cultural insensitivity. To claim that client mental states are partly a function of culture is an understatement an individual s culture can determine his or her mental state. Despite potential misuse or abuse mental status examinations can be highly useful provided the examiner is knowledgeable and sensitive about multicultural issues. After all as captured by the following excerpt from Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe 1959 1994 the perception of madness depends on a person s perspective After the singing the interpreter spoke about the Son of God whose name was Jesu Kristi. Okonkwo who only stayed in the hope that it might come to chasing the men out of the village or whipping them now said You told us with your own mouth that there was only one god. Now you talk about his son. He must also have a wife then. The crowd agreed. I did not say He had a wife said the interpreter somewhat lamely . . . The missionary ignored him and went on to talk about the Holy Trinity. At the end of it Okonkwo was fully convinced that the man was mad. He shrugged his shoulders and went away to tap his afternoon palm-wine. pp. 146-147 Sometimes specific cultural beliefs especially spiritual beliefs sound like madness or delusions to outsiders. The same can be said about beliefs and
