patients who would fake their way in for a place to stay. He/she was grossly psychotic and definitely high on cocaine.
             Psychiatrists don't typically use stethoscopes and tongue depressors performing a physical exam the way other physicians would do. What's fascinating about mental health professionals is that they don't need to lay their hands on the patients to diagnose them. Mental health professionals perform mental status exams, a noninvasive way of seeing how the patient's mind is functioning. It is the basis for understanding the client's presentation and beginning to conceptualize their functioning into a diagnosis. It is done in steps of categories such as appearance, manner and approach, orientation, alertness, thought processes, mood, and affect. Part of it involves observing and evaluation the patient's appearance and behavior can be one type of a mental exam. Many people would assume that psychiatric patients would have poor hygiene such as wearing disheveled and dirty clothes, greasy and dirty hair, or a secretion of musky body odor, but they vary and surprisingly, manic patients tend to over-groom themselves. Some might shave their whole bodies, pluck every strand of hairs from their face, or even applying exaggerated make-up. This may be a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCD. After the patient has been visually evaluated, the mental status exam is performed. It involves having a conversation with the patient. Dr. Holland describes how she performs her mental status exams. Initially, she assesses the level of attention and concentration. She'll ask, "What's your name? Do you know where you are? Can you tell me what day it is?" while she is also ascertaining if the individual is intoxicated, sedated, stimulated, or distracted. The interview proceeds if the patient is either alert or hyper-alert. However, Bellevue is known for patients who are too drunk or too high t...