Therapy Intake form

What is a therapy intake form?

A therapy intake form is a document that is used by mental health professionals to acquire all important information about their clients before proceeding with therapy. 

The therapy intake form is used to attain a basic understanding of the patient, assess the existing mental health conditions, and the needs and goals of the patient, and prepare a tailored treatment as per the information provided.

What is the importance of the therapy intake form in counseling? 

Counseling as we know is a very detailed process. It requires the therapist to be present, interactive, and empathetic throughout the session.  

One of the things that facilitate an easy flow of the session is a therapy intake form. This is because a therapy intake form possesses answers to all important questions which are required during a therapy session. 

Look at it this way, if you are able to do a detailed intake, with a better understanding of the problems plaguing your patient you will be able to better lay down goals for them. 

An intake form can also help facilitate a therapeutic relationship between the patient and the therapist. This relationship is essential in ensuring successful therapy outcomes for the patient. 

Apart from obtaining the necessary details for therapy, the information in the intake form will allow the therapist to create a structure for the first session and also the potential course for the entire therapy journey. 

This form is an important tool for the initial assessment of the patient to ensure that the best care is provided, that aligns ideally with their health goals and preferences. 

The intake form is the doorway to the process of therapy and therefore we cannot underestimate the power of a well-taken intake form. 

Let’s look at the more detailed goals of the therapy intake form:

Goals of the therapy intake form: 

1. Obtain important information: The main purpose of the form is to get relevant information from the patient. The information includes personal history of the patient, medical history, areas in which the client needs help, purpose of the visit, desired outcomes from the session, etc. 
2. Creating informed consent: Informed consent means the patient is made aware of what they are signing up for when they come to therapy. This process will include informing the patient about what the therapist intends to do with the therapy, discussing goals set by the therapist for the patient, how the next couple of weeks will look like for the patient, informing the patient about the therapist’s preferred orientation, etc. 
3. Educating the patient about HIPAA: As part of the informed consent the therapist needs to inform the patient about the HIPAA laws and the confidentiality that will be maintained during the course of the therapy. If the therapist intents to share with another medical practitioner, he/she needs to inform the patient about the same and get their consent. If the patient in question is a minor, the therapist will need to inform them about the extent of information they will be sharing with the minor’s guardians. 
4. Obtaining the signature and emergency contact information: Once the patient is informed about the aforementioned steps, the therapist will need to obtain their signature to show that they have consented. Other important information such as emergency contact details is also taken. 
5. Perform initial assessment:  After the client is a bit more familiar with the therapist and their practice, they’ll be more likely to feel comfortable opening up. An initial assessment is sometimes just a discussion, but diagnostic tests might be necessary if the client is paying with insurance.
6. Laying down the future steps: After the initial assessment, the therapist will be able to formulate a course of action for the client. The therapist will then share this with the patient to keep them in the loop. 

Foraying into digital therapy intake forms: Is it for you? 

Therapy intake forms have been taken through pen and paper since the beginning. However, with the dawn of telehealth services in the healthcare industry, foraying into digital means of treatment is not unheard of. 

A lot of patients have now begun to opt for online therapy treatments as well. In these cases giving them the option to fill out the intake form digitally is a good choice. It is a fairly simple process and can be implemented with ease.

 But the question arises do you need to consider options for digital intake forms? If your practice falls into any of the following categories we would suggest you start looking into digital therapy intake forms. 

1. 1. You have recently started or plan to start tele-mental health services:
      If you’ve decided that you want to bring tele mental health services, the entire process starting from taking the therapy intake form to the therapy sessions will be conducted digitally.
   2. Your patients are requesting online services: If you notice that a significant number of your patients are requesting online therapy sessions, it will be a good idea to start those services ASAP.
   3. You want to provide services in rural areas: Many rural areas are devoid of mental health services, due to a lack of mental health practices in the area. One way to ensure that they get the necessary services is through online means. If you have set such a goal for your practice you can get started with it through the digital intake forms.
   4. Your industry has warmed up to it: If you see that it has become a common trend in your industry it is best to embrace it in the beginning as opposed to being the last practice to do so and as a result losing patients and revenue.
   5. Your business goals include expansion: A sure-shot way to aid expansion and reach for your practice is starting online services. This will help you pick up more patients and as a result generate more revenue.
   6. You want to ease the intake process: The advantage of giving patients the option of filling out the intake form digitally is that they can fill the form at their own convenience before coming to the clinic. This will save time for both you and the patient.
   7. You want to ensure HIPAA compliance is followed: Digital intake forms are also HIPAA compliant. Just like physical therapy intake forms, digital therapy intake forms have to be HIPAA compliant and all the digital options out there do follow this. 

Some advantages of digital therapy intake forms 

1. Helps establish rapport with patients: The therapy intake form mandates patients to fill in the therapist about the problems plaguing them. It doubles as a link between the patient and the client. 
2. Boosts practice efficiency: Digitizing therapy intake form at your practice means no more tedious, manual workflows such as copying forms, fussing with clipboards, and scanning completed paperwork.
3. Legal compliance: As discussed above, the digital therapy intake forms are also HIPAA compliant making them pass all the legal checks. 
4. Scalability: As these intake forms can be delivered digitally, they can be easily scaled. You just need an active internet connection and you can deliver the forms to the respective patients. As we discussed above, if you are able to provide online therapy services, the intake forms will also help you scale your business, as you get to reach more patients digitally. 
5. Reduces expenses: Did you know that 3% of your annual revenue is spent on paper? That doesn’t even include printing costs or postage if you mail forms ahead of time! These small costs really do add up. Using digital forms rather than paper not only saves trees—it saves wasted money for healthcare organizations.
6. Improves patient experience: Imagine a patient walks into your clinic ready for their first therapy session, but they are first handed a form to fill out before they get what they came for. This process may hamper the patient experience. Therefore, having an option for a digital intake form will allow them to fill in the form before entering the clinic and straight away start the therapy session, which in turn will help improve their overall experience.

How to build and send forms digitally? 

If you’ve come so far, we are assuming you want to get started with digital intake forms. Let’s have a look at how you can build and send forms digitally. 

At Emitrr we provide a range of medical forms you can choose from. You can download these forms or edit them. Check out our collection of forms here

Building your intake forms:

You can also build your own customized forms using these steps:

Step 1: 

Go to forms on the left navigation

Step 2: 

Select ‘Forms and Bundles > New form > Start from scratch

Step 3: 

Drag the elements you want to add to your form from the left panel

Step 4: 

Select Save on the top right corner above the form 

There you have it, your own customized form is ready. You can download it or send it to your patients. 

Sending the Intake forms: 

To send these medical forms you use our HIPAA-compliant text messaging services. You can create a new text message and attach the form as a document and send it to your clients. With text messaging’s 98% open rate, your clients will be able to attend to them immediately and fill in the responses. 

In this manner, you can utilize an existing business messaging software for sending therapy intake forms as well. 

What information does the therapy intake form include? 

A therapy intake form typically includes the following: 

1. Personal history of the patient
2. Medical history
3. Areas in which the client needs help
4. Purpose of visit 
5. Desired outcomes from the session 
6. Consent of the patient 

Legal requirements to keep in mind for the therapy intake form: 

As with every medical field, HIPAA compliance is important for therapists to follow as well. In the therapy intake form the patient discloses important information like past mental illness, current ailments, etc. This information classifies as protected health information or PHI and is extremely personal to the patient. Hence HIPAA works to protect the confidentiality of people receiving medical treatment.

When it comes to disclosing PHI, you can disclose it only if the patient: 

1. Has agreed.
2. Has been given an opportunity to object and has not objected.
3. Has indicated they don’t object to bringing a partner to treatment or having a parent help schedule sessions and pick up prescriptions.
4. Is unconscious, delirious, experiencing psychosis, intoxicated, or otherwise incapable of making decisions.

Some ways in which you can protect yourself from HIPAA violations:

1. Password protect all PHI: Electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI) is more than test results and medical records. It’s anything that identifies a patient, including his or her name, address, phone number, birth date, social security number, photograph, and more. Keep ALL ePHI safe and confidential to avoid fines and penalties. 
2. Have a BAA in place with all vendors that handle your ePHI: A business associate agreement or BAA is to be signed between you and the vendor whose platform you use to store the PHI.  An updated Business Associate Agreement must be in place with each external party that is hosting or has access to ePHI. 
3. Do not send ePHI via regular email: If you need to send any kind of PHI make sure you send it via a means that allows password protection and encryption. 

A therapy intake form is also a great tool to defend oneself against malpractice allegations. 

Hence, to protect their own interests as well as those of the patients, therapists must include therapy intake forms as a part of their initial assessment. 

Conclusion

Digital therapy intake forms are soon going to be unavoidable. As more and more people are becoming aware of mental health and start taking active steps towards the betterment of it, they will seek tele-mental health services.

It also comes with an array of advantages such as increased efficiency in your clinic, better scalability options, and ease of filling. Embracing this digital means of therapy will definitely usher in positive changes and the first step in this process is setting up a digital therapy intake form.