Assessment
Clinical Assessment
Psychological assessment is a process of gathering information through a combination of clinical interview (including questions about the individual’s personal and childhood history, recent life experiences, work and school history, and family background), review of pertinent medical files, and completion of standardized psychometric measures.
The purpose of the assessment is to help arrive at a hypotheses, which may include a clinical diagnosis, about the person and their behaviour, personality and capabilities, and to provide appropriate treatment recommendations.
Psychologists seek to take the information gathered from psychological assessment, interpret it and formulate it into a comprehensive and complete picture of the person being tested.
A psychological assessment report will not only note weaknesses found in process, but also the individual’s strengths. Psychological assessments are performed by a licensed psychologist, psychological associate, or a psychology trainee (such as an intern).
Note: Before undergoing a psychological assessment, one should first undergo a full medical examination, to rule out the possibilities of a medical, disease or organic cause for the individual’s symptoms. It’s often helpful to have this done first, before psychological testing (as it may make psychological testing moot).
Forensic Assessment
Forensic risk assessment generally involves the estimation of the likelihood of future violent behaviour posed by an individual. The assessment process involves the use of empirically supported risk assessment measures, as well as those based on structured clinical judgment. In some settings (i.e., treatment discharge planning), risk assessment also includes a specification of the risk factors present in a case and the risk management or intervention strategies that would be necessary to mitigate risk. In other settings (i.e., sexual predator determinations, prison security-level classification decisions), less attention is given to the specific nature of the risk factors that underlie a risk assessment than to the end result (an estimate of level or amount of risk).
Risk assessments largely transpire within legal contexts. One exception would be the duty to protect that many mental health professionals have in the context of private psychotherapy. Even here, however, a mental health professional is subject to common law and has ethical duties to identify high-risk patients. At some point in their careers, most mental health professionals will be faced with a client or patient who poses a risk of violence.
Risk assessments typically are done by persons within the human services fields, such as psychology, psychiatry, social work, nursing, or substance use counseling. Personnel within prison systems (i.e., correctional classification officers) also engage in a type of risk assessment for offenders admitted to penal systems.