Software Reviews : Clinical Interview. the Mental Health Series Publisher: Clinical Interviews,Inc.,7025 East Lake Road,Box 69,Willard,NY 14588 (telephone: [phone]) Year of Publication: 1986 Materials: One floppy disk,nine-page xeroxed manual Price and Availability: Commodore 64,$30;Apple II + /IIe,$40;MS DOS (IBM and compatibles),$40;shipping and handling,$2.50 System Requirements: For MS DOS version,DOS 2.0 or later and an IBM-PC compatible;for other machines,no special requirements listed Effectiveness: Fair User-Friendliness: Excellent Documentation: Adequate

Abstract

CLINICAL INTERVIEW is a computerized simulation of five patients with mental health problems. Students learn nondirective interviewing skills by typing questions that are answered by the simulated patients. After the interview, the students are told the number of times they used inappropriate words in their questions and the number of topics they covered. Unfortunately, the computerized patients frequently answer in nonresponsive ways. Furthermore, the strong language will offend some. While students liked this CAI program, other methods seem better suited to teaching interviewing skills.