The Role Of Psychological Assessment On Counseling And Clinical Practice

The assessment process is the back bone to any package of care and it is vital that it is personal and appropriate to the individual concerned. Although studies have found that there is no singular theory or understanding as to what the purpose of assessment is, there are different approaches and forms of assessment carried out in health and social care. These different approaches can sometimes result in different outcomes.

To ensure that all possible clients of all walks of life are successfully benefiting from the counseling profession, advancement in the assessment field should be of a primary concern for present and future counselors. It is understood and respected that a multitude of counselors vary in the foundations of their theoretical framework and collectively not all counselors participate in assessment with their clients, but as the counseling profession continues to grow the demand of expansion is critical.

Largely, the entire test proved thought provoking as this was a subjective test. Meaning everyone's values are not the same, everyone is not driven by the same motives. This could be problematic in obtaining valid results. It has given this writer cause to carefully examine assessments that are being administered clients. Reliability and validity have a great importance in how counselor should utilize assessments and can assist in finding appropriate instruments in order to be more effective with clients.

Counseling uses two types of assessment to get a better understanding of their clients which are testing and diagnosis. Clients have the privilege to understand the purpose of what an assessment process involves and counselors are responsible to maintain the security test that they use and the proper supervision for the test-taking process (Remley & Herlihy, 2014, p.289). Chapter 11 discusses the dynamics of using psychological tests when assisting to resolve clients’ problems.

The ACA Code of Ethics (ACA, 2014) is a critical resource for counselors involving assessment. Section E in the ACA Code of Ethics (ACA, 2014) is devoted to explaining evaluations, assessments, and interpretation. E.1. states, “The primary purpose of educational, mental health, psychological, and career assessment is to gather information regarding the client for a variety of purposes, including but not limited to, client decision making, treatment planning, and forensic proceedings” (ACA, 2014, pp.11). Counselors should only use assessment tools in which the clinician has been trained.

Clinical assessments have their place in almost every facet of the psychological and educational realms. I have been tracking down and examining what the most important aspects of assessment are that come into play in regard to drug and substance abuse, custody battles, as well as the importance the role of adhering to the ethical standards of utilizing culturally informed assessments. Clinical assessments within mental health centers are carry great importance in the identifying underlying behavioral problems, diagnosis, and treatment of patients. Behind every assessment is a clinician who

Evaluation, as involved with counseling, is a process of assessment of the client. It may involve a standardized model of questioning, testing or a means of gathering information in which to use in the formulation of a diagnosis in a client. Evaluation is an important part of diagnoses and as such is listed in the Code of Ethics (American Counseling Association [ACA], 2014), (“American Counseling Association Online education resources CE ethics publications careers conferences,” n.d.)in section E. An example of an instance in which a counselor would evaluate a client is in the event the client presents as a suicide risk.

When issuing a client an assessment, the counselor would need to explain to the client what they would be taking an assessment for. The counselor would need to explain why they need to assess the client, and what the scores would show the counselor (Whiston, 2013). In the Strong Inventory Assessment, this assessment helps counselors to look for patterns of interest (Grutter & and Hammer, 2012). The counselor would need to identify the validity of the assessment (Whiston, 2013).

Psychologists work in a vast array of areas with a myriad of clients; school children may be assessed for special services or supports in school based on individual needs, adults may self refer for various reasons including stress, marital issues, anxiety, or an infinite assortment of other potential personal reasons, or those facing the legal system may be assessed for their ability to stand trial. It is up to the psychologist to be educated in the tools available to them in their chosen field and how to best use them in the situations presented so the client is best served. In order to best select a proper assessment tool, often it is necessary to conduct an intake interview in order to obtain historical background from the

Becoming acquainted with a potential client’s history, personality and present concerns is necessary in forming a foundation for counseling interventions. This information gathering phase is referred to as assessment (Mears, 2010). While some mental health professionals will use an interview as their primary assessment tool, others will utilize testing

In Mental Health practice, the assessment of a patient is a vital part of their treatment as it is required to be aware of their ailment before a treatment plan/course is made. Therefore, risk management is a practice that involves the assessment and engagement of an individual through standard assessment tools and approaches so as to devise a means to manage an individual’s risk behaviour(s). Assessment is essential when it comes to nursing practice, as it is a major key element of knowing what care is required as well as knowing if the right form of care is delivered successfully (Combst et al., 2013). The questions that usually come to mind will be how the assessment is carried out and how will the practitioners and clients react to the outcome of this assessment. The aim of this assignment is to critically analyse the assessment tools, models and approaches utilised in mental health practice. Furthermore, a consideration will be given to the limitations of the assessment practice such as the reliability of the assessment tools. To carry out this task, a fictitious individual will be used in this report. A number of possible ailment and presenting risk behaviours are listed then an eventual analytical procedure for the individual’s assessment will be explained.

There are many individuals involved in the process of assessing and individual as well as many different assessments in a variety of settings. Some of the individuals that can be involved in the assessment and diagnosis include: pediatrician, child and adolescent psychiatrist, educational psychologist, speech and language therapist, specialist teaching service, class teacher, social worker, occupational therapists, and physiotherapists (Worth,

A psychological assessment is the venture of a capable experts, generally a psychologist, to operate the techniques and tools or materials of psychology to ascertain either common or unique facts about another person, either to notify others how they function now, or estimate their attitude,behavior and functioning in the future. The issue of assessment is generally diagnosis or classification. These are the movement of placing a person in a certainly or loosely characterized category of people. This leads to swiftly grasp what they are similar in general, and to evaluate the existence of other thematic features based upon people similar or likely to them. Case history data, clinical interview, psychological tests and behavioral observations

There comes a time when we all come across a specific test such as school tests, driving test, or even as simple as food tasting test. However, there is a difference between regular tests and testing’s when referring to psychological testing. There are several different psychological tests that many psychiatrists, psychologists, and school counselors use to determine certain abilities, however each of the tests are used for a specific purpose. It is vital for the individuals to contain high knowledge of the tests before applying it to others.

Assessment in nursing has been determined by the problem-solving framework of the nursing process and nursing models. It is a dynamic and continuous process as clients needs change; it promotes individualized care and responds to clients in a responsible and timely manner to improve or maintain their level of health (RCN, 2004). A health assessment not only comprises of gathering health information about a patient, but also analyzing and synthesizing the information, and evaluating the effectiveness of nursing interventions on patients health care outcomes (Weber & Kelley, 2013).