Mental Health Assessment: The Language of a Primary Care Consultation for OET Speaking & IELTS

Emma's son is doing just fine — but she isn't quite herself. She's booked twenty minutes to talk about how she's been feeling, and Mental Health Practitioner Femi Adeyemi is about to show what a genuinely validating assessment sounds like.
Nadia and Tom cover ten essential mental health assessment terms: low mood, anxiety, sleep disturbance, appetite changes, concentration, coping strategies, talking therapy, self-referral, wellbeing, and follow-up plan. Each term is defined and demonstrated in a realistic primary care mental health assessment — covering mood, sleep, appetite, and coping, and closing with a self-referral and a concrete plan — followed by a slower repeat and a short quiz.
Mental health is one of the topics OET Speaking examiners most often cite for lost register and empathy marks, and a high-value vocabulary cluster for IELTS healthcare candidates at 6.0+.
📄 Free transcript PDF (vocabulary table, full script, language notes): medicalvoices.health/en/episodes/12
▶️ Watch on YouTube (youtu.be/dS6Xsx014tU). Episode 12 of Medical Voices — and if you're catching us here on the podcast feed, welcome, new episodes land every week.
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