Depression and anxiety are common, under-recognized, and consequential in home-health patients, worsening medical outcomes, function, and adherence, and a small but critical subset of patients are at risk of harm to themselves. Validated screening, a compassionate and structured response to identified risk, and the judgment to distinguish a primary psychiatric presentation from a medical or delirium cause are skilled nursing work, not a layperson's impression.
The purpose of this module is to give clinicians the skilled framework and chartable language that demonstrate mental-health screening, risk assessment and the safety response, and connection to care were reasonable and necessary and required the skills of a licensed nurse. It is the primary home for mood, anxiety, and psychiatric-symptom assessment; cognition lives in Cognitive / Mental Status and psychosocial stressors in Psychosocial / Caregiver. The overriding rule is that identified risk to self or others is met with immediate safety measures and escalation.
