How to use customisable notes for counselling treatment plans
Progress Notes
Progress notes are clinical notes created by counsellors and other practitioners involved in an individual’s treatment and care. In other words, they contain clinical evidence and medical interpretation regarding the care offered to patients and the clinical events pertaining to diagnosis and treatment. These notes communicate sensitive information on a patient’s health and must be stored privately and securely. For any counsellor, progress notes play a pivotal role in treatment planning and service delivery.
Different approaches to preparing treatment plans
A treatment plan denotes specific objectives for therapy and interventions the counsellor will use to help the patient reach these objectives. Usually, a treatment plan is developed early on in the therapeutic process and it serves as a framework to steer your sessions in a manner that fits with what you wish to accomplish. Sometimes people are so used to their depression, anxiety, or intrusive thoughts that they do not realise that these symptoms are impacting their well-being, relationships, or daily functioning.
Each patient requires customised treatment. If a mental health professional develops a detailed treatment plan specifically created to meet their patient’s requirements, they direct their patient towards growth and healing. It is a beneficial practice for the counsellor and the patient.
A treatment plan consists of the following information:
- The patient’s personal data and psychological history
- A diagnosis of existing mental health issues
- Treatment goals
- A timeline for treatment progress
- An area for monitoring progress
Different approaches to preparing treatment plans
Diet therapy
Diet therapy is a wide term for modification of a diet to prevent or treat a disease or to just promote optimum health. The increasing occurrence of mental disorders implies a greater need to comprehend potential reasons, prevention plans, and effective treatment methods. In the past, treatments were more focused on prescription medication and therapies. Now, counsellors examine and establish the role of nutrition on mental health. The food we consume serves as energy for our bodies. It is crucial to know that mental illness has other reasons, varying from genetics to environment. However, food has an impact on our mental well-being.
Therapy
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
A counsellor utilises this method to assist you to ascertain how your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are related. They may recommend objectives to determine detrimental thoughts and reinstate them with positive thoughts.
Psychodynamic Therapy
In this therapy, the counsellor identifies the patterns in your life and assists you determine the root emotional causes of such patterns.
Narrative Therapy
Therapists use a narrative method to visualise an individual’s stories and support clients to nurture a comprehensive sense of self-understanding.
Strengths-Based Therapy
In this therapy, a counsellor mentors you to connect with your strengths and optimise their impact on your life.
Exercise
Exercise can make a big difference. Research on depression, anxiety, and exercise shows that the psychological and physical benefits of exercise can also help improve mood and reduce anxiety.
Meditation
The emotional and physical advantages of meditation can include:
- Gaining a new dimension on stressful environments
- Enhancing the ability to manage stress
- Improving self-awareness
- Emphasising the present
- Decreasing negative emotions
- Boosting creativity and tolerance
- Lowering resting blood pressure and enhancing sleep quality
Yoga
Counsellors are increasingly relying on yoga and its healing powers to help patients maintain their mental and physical fitness. Yoga results in physical as well as cognitive and emotional improvements over time.
Capturing patient data in custom forms
Counsellors accumulate and summarise patient data in custom forms for use in mental health treatment and significantly improve their measures of mental health. Since mental health care data need to be more secure because of the stigma related to having a mental health condition, counsellors prefer to capture patient data in custom forms and not in one general form. The goal of using mental health care data for clinical purposes must be balanced with the requirement to manage data accessibility. Interpreting the data and gaining a complete picture of the client helps a counsellor to build trust and confidence in the process of therapy.
Custom notes and targeted treatment plans
There isn’t a one size fits all method to finishing progress notes and they can be written in several ways based on the client’s specific therapeutic needs. E-counsellors use these progress notes to document every detail of sessions, emphasising each client’s specific condition coming in and the progress made through treatment. Counsellors have a compliance and ethical responsibility to document every treatment session as part of the client’s medical record. The notes highlight any prominent symptoms or other related factors in the client’s presentation, transformations since the previous visit, their response to treatment suggestions, and interventions pertaining to their goals. Several counsellors use electronic health record systems to accelerate the documentation process. Electronic notes also offer additional benefits like being consistently legible.
Description of your client’s behavior
- A description of the client’s presentation – feelings, appearance, behavior, and accompanying symptoms
- Effective Diagnosis
- A safety evaluation
- Any modifications to medications
Treatment plans going forward
- Treatment methods used
- The client’s response and progress toward the goals
- The future plan
- One important factor to consider is a client’s privacy
For more details on customisable notes and their use for counselling treatment plans please visit our website.