A psychiatric interview as a clinical practice has undergone a marked change during the last 50 years. It began by the use of question-answer type to the use questions in the modern psychiatric interview which lays emphasis on a free-flowing exchange between the two parties. It is worth mentioning that even when different interviewers adopt a somewhat uniform approach in conducting the interview, they may have markedly different effects on a child or an older patient.
When interviewing a child, there is need to use a relationship-based approach where the child will feel attached to the psychiatric both physically and emotionally. For instance, a child will be told on how he or she related to the interviewer which creates a good rapport between the two parties. However, when conducting psychiatric interview with an older patient, dimensional approach would be the best where questions are classified based on the symptom the patient inhibits (Year, 2009). For instance, the older patient may be asked about their background, life history and finally the disease diagnosed.
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Notably, different interviewing techniques can be employed when interviewing a child patient and an older patient. While interviewing a child patient, facilitation technique can be appropriate where the psychiatric repeats what the patient says implying that he or she understands and listens to what is being said. On the other hand, facilitation technique can be important where both verbal and non-verbal cues such as nodding of the head are used which encourages the child patient to continue talking. Lastly, engaging a child in playful activities is an important approach for the interview because it draws the attention of the patient to what is being discussed. (Leffler, Riebel and Hughes, 2015). On the other hand, while interviewing an adult patient, the use of open ended question technique is appropriate because they are considered genuine thus produces spontaneous formulations. In addition, reassurance technique can be used among the older patients because truthful reassurance can lead to increase in trust and compliance during the interview. Lastly, the use the therapeutic alliance technique among the older patients is appropriate because it involves establishing a relationship with the patient that will effect beneficial change in the patient (Huang and Carpenter, 2011).
The Latinos represent the unique population in the U.S. because of their cultural and ethnic backgrounds. This type of population is considered special thus needs specialized and unique consideration when conducting a psychiatric interview. The Latinos are partially or poorly served or excluded from existing treatment programs which are not relevant to their needs. While conducting initial interview with a Latino patient, one should be able to understand cultural and ethnic considerations of the patient. For instance, among those experiencing depression in the Latin population, a clinician should be able to elicit depressive symptoms by asking questions on whether the patient sometimes has trouble with the nerves when he or she is really stressed (Apesoa-Varano et al., 2010). On the other hand, motivational interviewing technique should be employed to create a client-centered and culturally matching therapeutic environment (Wei et al., 2014). During a psychiatric interview it is important to realize that the symptoms of panic attack may vary from culture to culture among the Latino, Cuban and Dominicano.
