Posted: September 7th, 2024

Psychotherapy Assignment help – Discussion

Psychotherapy Assignment help – Discussion
Global Assessment of functioning (GAF) is an essential tool in the healthcare sector since it evaluates the efficacy of medication prescribed to a patient. The tool provides important information on whether a practitioner should continue with medication or not (Gspandl et al., 2018). On the other hand, the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST) is a tool for identifying dependent drinkers. It is one of the oldest alcohol screening tests available (Minnich et al., 2019). The role is to screen for alcohol problems in the general population. Therefore, although the two tools are important they are used for different purposes. Therefore, health care workers should deploy them to identify the appropriate responses they should take to promote the wellbeing of patients. For example, GAF is used to prescribe appropriate medication and discontinue ineffective drugs (Gspandl et al., 2018). Conversely, MAST is used for identifying alcohol problems and thus taking necessary actions to alleviate the effects.
MAST helps healthcare workers to identify early signs of alcohol abuse. If they fail to detect it, abuse can lead to severe actions such as morbidity or mortality. On the other hand, GAF also helps identify if specific drugs are effective to a patient (Gspandl et al., 2018). If they are not effective, a healthcare worker will change the prescription thus reducing the risk of toxicity. MAST comprises a 22-item questionnaire providing a score between 1-22 while GAF provides scores between 0 and 100 (Minnich et al., 2019). Therefore, the two tools utilize different approaches in assessing patients. However, the end goal is to promote better health outcomes. Healthcare workers should utilize GAF and MAST tools to assess various health issues such as mental health and alcohol abuse and make appropriate decisions.

References
Gspandl, S., Peirson, R. P., Nahhas, R. W., Skale, T. G., & Lehrer, D. S. (2018). Comparing the global assessment of functioning (GAF) and the World Health Organization disability assessment schedule (WHODAS) 2.0 in schizophrenia. Psychiatry Research, 259, 251-253. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2017.10.033
Minnich, A., Erford, B. T., Bardhoshi, G., Atalay, Z., Chang, C. Y., & Muller, L. A. (2019). Systematic Evaluation of Psychometric Characteristics of the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test 13‐Item Short (SMAST) and 10‐Item Brief (BMAST) Versions. Journal of Counseling & Development, 97(1), 15–24. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1002/jcad.12231

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