Counseling Intake Form Template
Take advantage of a free intake form for counseling practices. With this downloadable template, you can improve efficiency and save time and money.
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Fact Checked by RJ Gumban.
What is a Counseling Intake Form?
Counseling intake forms are given to patients prior to their first session at a counseling practice. Patients are required to fill out the form and provide the with various information, including their personal details, emergency contact information, medical history, and insurance information. Collecting this data prior to the session allows counselors to be better prepared and make more informed decisions. Intake forms also help standardize the process of bringing in new patients, ensures the practice has access to all the necessary information, and helps with insurance situations. Because of the extensive amount of information that is typically included on an intake form, the best way to streamline this process is by using a document that has already been created – which is where we come in. We’ve done our research on the best kinds of counseling intake forms and after identifying the type of information that should be included, we’ve created an intuitive and robust template for you to implement into your practice.
Printable Counseling Intake Form Template
Check out these free intake forms for counseling practices to help record your client's details and consent more efficiently.
Counseling Intake Form Example (Sample)
So that you can visualize what our intake form looks like when it is being used, we’ve created a sample document. The information that is included in our forms is comprehensive, so you can rest assured you have all the necessary details required to give your patient the best quality care possible.
Check out and download the Counseling Intake Form here:
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Who Can Use This Counseling Intake Form?
Our counseling intake form has been designed specifically for patients who are new to a counseling practice. There are a wide range of different counseling specializations and we’ve tried to ensure that all of these are accommodated for in our intake form. For that reason, the following types of counselors will easily be able to implement our form:
- Mental health counselor
- Rehabilitation counselor
- Grief counselor
- Marriage counselor
- Family counselor
- Speech therapist counselor
In order for our intake form to be effective, it just needs to be filled out prior to a patient’s first session. If you work in a reasonably large counseling practice and delegate these kinds of tasks to administrative staff, that is perfectly fine as well. Simply ensure that your administrative staff have access to this intake form and are sending them to patients when necessary.
Why is This Template Useful For Counselors?
Considering the often busy daily schedule of counselors, many are looking for solutions that streamline certain tasks. Fortunately, this is just what our intake form aims to do. Other uses of this resource include:
- Standardization: Using one intake form for all patients in your practice guarantees standardization. This means that regardless of the reason why a patient is being treated, or how long they have been at your practice, the information required to deliver quality healthcare will be accessible and easily interpreted.
- Organization: Having access to an intake form that has already been designed is essential when it comes to organization. You will be able to store this document in a secure and accessible place, so it is readily available whenever required. Maintaining organization is key to an efficient workplace, and this is exactly what our intake form facilitates.
- Saves time: The counseling intake form is also going to save you a lot of time. No longer do you have to draft up your own documents or double-check that the questions included are relevant – we’ve done all that work for you. Now, you can simply click on the form template and download it, ready for immediate use.
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Benefits of Using the Counseling Intake Form
In addition to having various uses, our counseling intake form is guaranteed to benefit your practice in a range of different ways, including the following:
Patient experience
The healthcare industry is slowly but steadily transitioning to a model of value-based care and as such, the patient experience has never been more important. As healthcare practitioners, it is vital that you are doing everything you can to ensure a patient’s experience at your practice is seamless. Using an online intake form helps to speed up the waiting room process, allowing patients to get seen faster on the day of their session. Although this may seem like a minor improvement, reducing the possibility of patients feeling stressed or frustrated is a very important component of improving patient experience.
Workflow
In addition to improving patient experience, reducing wait times helps to increase the efficiency of the workflow. Having manual processes for completing intake forms and other administrative tasks slows down workflow and can lead to reductions in productivity. With our intake form, patients can complete these tasks prior to coming into the practice, which in turn frees up time to offer more appointments.
Reduce costs
If you choose to send your intake forms to your patients to complete online, you will be cutting down on paper costs. Instead of paying to print forms and giving hard copies to patients, you can simply send them the form online (which also has the additional advantage of being environmentally friendly!).
Improve accuracy
Many errors that occur during the healthcare delivery process are caused by human mistakes. While these aren’t always completely unavoidable, using resources like online intake forms can help minimize them. This is because the required information is already included in the online intake form, and counselors simply have to distribute these to patients.
Gathers all necessary information
Using a counseling intake form that contains all of the right information will ensure that you have access to everything you need to make the best clinical decisions for your patients. Intake forms are a vital component of informing counselors of their patient’s previous medical, personal, and social history, which in turn will allow you to treat them more effectively.
Commonly asked questions
Intake forms have a range of different uses. They help to streamline the patient onboarding process and get new clients through your doors in an efficient and productive way. They are also a good tool for getting to know your clients prior to a session. You can come to your first appointment more prepared and with a basic understanding of the needs of your patient.
This will depend on the experiences of each individual patient. However, intake forms aren’t designed to take hours to fill out. You can let your patients know that they should set aside around 5-10 minutes to complete the intake form prior to their first session with you.
Intake forms can vary slightly depending on the healthcare specialization and the type of work that a practice does. For counseling, it is typical to use intake forms that gather the following information: personal details, emergency contact information, employer information, medical history, social history, and information regarding why the patient is seeking counseling treatment.
