Completed mental health assessment with PHQ-9 score 18 (severe depression), C-SSRS suicidal ideation documentation, full Mental Status Examination, safety plan, crisis intervention charting, and completed EHR notes. Written by a board-certified PMHNP-BC — not AI.
Brian Foster is an adult male with a two-week history of depressed mood, anhedonia, insomnia, fatigue and passive suicidal ideation without plan or intent. He recently lost his job and reports increasing social isolation and alcohol use. The Shadow Health Mental Health Assessment covers a comprehensive psychiatric interview, full Mental Status Examination (MSE), PHQ-9 administration and scoring, Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS), alcohol use screening with AUDIT-C, safety planning and biopsychosocial treatment plan. Differential diagnosis addresses major depressive disorder, adjustment disorder and alcohol use disorder, with a crisis resource list and outpatient psychiatry referral.
Brian Foster is an adult male presenting with a two-week history of depressed mood, anhedonia, insomnia, fatigue, and passive suicidal ideation without plan or intent. He recently lost his job and reports increasing social isolation and alcohol use. The assessment follows the full psychiatric nursing workflow used at South University, GCU, Chamberlain, Walden, and Capella.
The completed document covers the comprehensive psychiatric interview and social history, full Mental Status Examination, PHQ-9 administration and scoring, Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale, AUDIT-C alcohol screening, safety plan documentation, and completed EHR provider notes. Every item is written by a board-certified PMHNP-BC — no AI.
What students commonly miss: incomplete PHQ-9 interpretation, a vague or missing safety plan, and failure to connect psychosocial stressors — job loss, isolation, alcohol use — to the clinical presentation. Students who document the C-SSRS clearly and link it to the safety plan typically score significantly higher.
PHQ-9 is administered item by item with each response documented. A score of 18 places Brian in the severe depression category. Students must document the scoring rationale and link it to the clinical impression and treatment plan.
The Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale is administered in full — passive ideation without plan or intent is documented with exact C-SSRS language. Students must ask every item, document each response, and formulate the risk level in the clinical note.
The MSE covers appearance, behavior, speech, mood and affect (documented separately), thought process, thought content, perceptual disturbances, cognition, insight, and judgment — each domain using clinical terminology.
Safety plan follows the Stanley-Brown model — warning signs, internal coping, social contacts, crisis resources, means restriction, and follow-up. Crisis intervention charting documents the therapeutic approach and disposition decision.
Appearance: disheveled. Behavior: cooperative, psychomotor retardation. Speech: soft, low volume, slowed rate. Mood: "depressed." Affect: dysthymic, congruent. Thought process: linear. Thought content: passive SI, no HI, no delusions. Perceptions: denies AH/VH. Cognition: mildly impaired concentration. Insight: fair. Judgment: mildly impaired.
PHQ-9: 18 (severe). C-SSRS: passive ideation type 1, no plan, no intent, low-moderate risk. AUDIT-C: 5 (positive — hazardous alcohol use). All scores documented with item-level detail.
Warning signs (hopelessness, isolation), internal coping (exercise, journaling), social contacts (two named), crisis lines (988, local ER), means restriction (alcohol reduction), and follow-up within 72 hours.
Biological: SSRI initiation discussion, sleep hygiene. Psychological: CBT referral, motivational interviewing for alcohol use. Social: employment support resources, reconnecting with support system. Specific, measurable interventions documented for each domain.
Clinical note documents C-SSRS risk level, therapeutic approach, safety contract, disposition decision (outpatient with close follow-up), and criteria for inpatient escalation for continuity of care.
Referrals: outpatient psychiatry, CBT therapist, alcohol use treatment program. Follow-up within 72 hours. Patient verbalized understanding of crisis resources and agreed to the safety plan.
The Brian Foster assessment covers a comprehensive psychiatric interview, PHQ-9 administration and scoring (score: 18, severe depression), C-SSRS suicide risk assessment, full Mental Status Examination, AUDIT-C alcohol screening, safety plan documentation, and completed EHR provider notes.
The Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale documents the nature and severity of Brian's passive suicidal ideation. Completing it and connecting it to the safety plan is one of the highest-scoring elements in the assessment.
Common gaps include incomplete PHQ-9 interpretation, vague safety plan documentation, missing AUDIT-C results, and failing to connect the psychosocial stressors — job loss and social isolation — to the clinical picture.
Brian Foster is assigned at South University, GCU, Chamberlain, Walden, Capella and other BSN and MSN programs requiring psychiatric nursing competencies.
Every document on NursingProxy is written by a board-certified PMHNP-BC — not AI, not tutors, not crowdsourced answers. When you access the Brian Foster documents you receive a full psychiatric interview transcript, PHQ-9 scoring and interpretation, complete C-SSRS administration, full Mental Status Examination, AUDIT-C alcohol screening, safety plan documentation, crisis resource list, biopsychosocial treatment plan, and completed EHR provider notes. Each file is verified to meet the grading criteria used by nursing programs that assign this case.
Students use these materials to check their own work, understand what the platform rewards, and ensure their submission is complete before the deadline. The documents reflect what a competent, thorough nurse would actually produce — not generic template answers.