Psychiatric History - Patient Identification

Patient Identification

The basic details of who the patient is are collected. This includes their age, sex, educational status, religion, occupation, relationship status, address and contact details. This serves several purposes. Firstly, it is necessary information for administrative purposes and for this reason some of this is often taken by clerks. Secondly, the questions are largely non threatening and provide a gentle introduction into the meeting of patient and clinician. Thirdly, it provides a format for individual introduction suitable to the culture. Thus the clinician may start by introducing themselves and then move on to these questions. This initial structure can provide a sense of familiarity for the patient who is stressed about what is happening.