Specificity of patients requests in the initial interview.

Abstract

The concept of the patient's request is described in detail in relation to a negotiated approach to conduct an initial interview in a walk-in clinic and in relation to other related concepts such as patient's goals. The verbalization of specific requests of 363 patients to the psychiatric walk-in clinic of a general hospital was investigated, using a structured pre-intake interview. Although a majority of the patients (69.5%) verbalized a specific request, it was significantly less than the percentage (93%) who endorsed at least one request on the Patient Request Form. Specificity was related to socialization in the mental patient role, conditions of entry into the mental health system, and presenting complaint, but not related to demographic measures. The nonspecific patient is likely to come to the clinic at the suggestion of someone else, to be new to the clinic, having no past treatment history, and having general or situational complaints. The implications of these results for the conduct of an initial interview using the negotiated approach were discussed.