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Marriage, Couple, and Family Counseling and the DSM-V

Though the philosophy and values surrounding marriage, couple, and family counseling emphasize prevention and wellness, awareness of diagnosis is important when interacting with other mental health professionals who may view mental health issues through the medical model. The DSM-V, the primary diagnostic system/manual used in the United States by such professionals, identifies and describes individual mental health disorders, not relational issues or disorders.
 

Those mental health professionals who adopt a systems or relational view of mental health have been able to implement small changes within the DSM in its subsequent editions, and these changes acknowledge the systemic influence on certain individual disorders. Nevertheless, there is not yet an adopted diagnostic structure for relational problems. Therefore, you may sometimes need to negotiate your relational perspective with other professionals and communicate client matters with insurance reimbursement boards (who see mental health problems as individual in nature) in their language.

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Hi Dr.Jackson and Class
Advantages and Disadvantages of.Diagnostic Statistical Manual
In response to your your post,the DSM-V known to many as the psychiatry’s bible. This method offers a number of advantages, such as standardization of diagnoses across different treatment providers(Lisa Fritscher,2018).But increasingly, mental-health professionals are considering the drawbacks, including the possibility of over-diagnosis(Lisa Fritscher,2018).The advantages also include the standardization of billing and coding, the DSM provides a number of important benefits to both the therapist and the client(Lisa Fritscher,2018).Beyond the standardization of billing and coding, the DSM provides a number of important benefits to both the therapist and the client(Lisa Fritscher,2018).
Standardization of diagnoses helps to ensure that clients receive appropriate, helpful treatment regardless of geographic location, social class or ability to pay(Lisa Fritscher,2018). However,provides a concrete assessment of the issues and assists in developing specific goals of therapy, as well as a standard of measure in assessing the effectiveness of treatment(Lisa Fritscher,2018).In addition, the DSM helps guide research in the mental health field(Lisa Fritscher,2018).The diagnostic checklists help ensure that different groups of researchers are actually studying the same disorder—although this may be more theoretical than practical, as so many disorders have such widely varying symptoms(Lisa Fritscher,2018).
Disadvantages of the DSM
The latest round of criticism seems to echo a long-running debate on the nature of mental health(Lisa Fritscher,2018).Many critics of the DSM see it as an oversimplification of the vast continuum of human behavior( Lisa Fritscher,2018).Some worry that by reducing complex problems to labels and numbers, the scientific community risks losing track of the unique human element(Lisa Fritscher,2018).
Possible risks include misdiagnosis or even over-diagnosis, in which vast groups of people are labeled as having a disorder simply because their behavior does not always line up with the current “ideal(Lisa Fritscher,2018).”Childhood attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is often singled out as an example(Lisa Fritscher,2018).Shifts in terminology and diagnostic criteria between DSM-II and DSM-IV coincided with a massive upturn in the number of children on Ritalin or other attention-enhancing medications(Lisa Fritscher,2018).Other risks involve the possibility of stigmatization(Lisa Fritscher,2018).Although mental health disorders are not viewed in the negative light that they once were, specific disorders can be perceived as labels(Lisa Fritscher,2018).Some therapists take great care to avoid attaching labels to their clients, although for insurance reasons, a specific diagnosis may be required(Lisa Fritscher,2018).