Typical Psychiatric Patients

Describing a typical psychiatric patient, in my opinion, is similar to trying to describe a typical individual. Just as different individuals have many features and beliefs in common and are also very different, psychiatric patients may have some similarities, however, are in reality truly different from one another. Throughout this Behavioral Health class we have visited the hospital four times and interviewed four different psychiatric patients either at the University Hospital or the Veterans Affairs Hospital. Reflecting back on the patients that we’ve interviewed it’s clear that while some patients may have similar symptoms, each of them has a unique life story and symptoms. From most people’s point of view when they first hear the term “psychiatric patients” the first words that may come to their minds are generally …show more content…
Psychiatric patients are also much closer to their doctors since they reveal personal stories to them that help psychiatrists develop insight about the patients’ diagnoses and aid them in developing more effective and efficient treatment plans. Generally psychiatric problems arise from a combination of social, emotional, and medical factors that the psychiatrist also works to identify and reduce the effect of while determining a treatment plan. While most psychiatric patients can be deemed as similar and typically have significant life events that lead them to develop a psychiatric disorder that leaves them as patients in the psychiatric ward of hospitals, each patient has their own set of previous experiences and past diagnoses. Just as each person in the world is unique, each psychiatric patient is also unique and therefore the definition of a typical psychiatric patient is in itself difficult to