My Secret Weapon: Psych Notes Pocket Guide

Please let me introduce you to Psych Notes Clinical Pocket Guide. I often refer to this as my "secret weapon" while I'm at my internship, because it contains all kinds of great assessment tools, disorder overviews, intervention techniques, and a lot of other useful information for professionals who work at an inpatient psychiatric hospital.

I am constantly referring to it when I conduct biopsychosocial assessments, interact with new patients, or write notes in patient's charts. I think this is a great tool for anyone who is entering the field of psychiatry, whether it be nurses, therapists, social workers, etc. The notebook is dense, but really compact (note its size compared to a computer mouse), making it great for portability. 

Psych Notes is divided into seven distinct sections including basics, assessment, disorders/interview, drugs/lab, drugs A-Z, crisis, geriatrics, and tools/index. This makes it incredibly easy to locate the information I need.

The basics tab contains an overview of various psychological theories including psychodynamic (pictured), psychosocial, and interpersonal. Additionally, biological aspects of mental illness, issues related to confidentiality, HIPAA, and patient's rights are also covered.

I frequently use the assessment tab, as it guides the components I must cover during a biopsychosocial interview of incoming patients.

Because the DSM is a bit cumbersome to reference (especially when time is of the essence), the disorder overviews are particularly helpful when trying to evaluate a patient's presenting symptoms, and a possible diagnosis.

Considering the low cost, I think Psych Notes is a great investment to students or new social workers to the field of mental health. Plus, it's water proof, which really came in handy last week when I spilled coffee all over my desk!

















The entire notebook is also available to download via Scribd. Enjoy!

Psych Notes - Clinical Pocket Guide Scanned