Holistic Assessment of Strength and Challenges

Session Eight a
 Assessment

• “the thinking process that seeks out the

meaning of case situations, puts the
particulars of the case in some order, and
leads to appropriate interventions.
• “the worker’s professional opinion about the
facts and their meanings”
• …
• It requires that the worker analyze the
interrelationship among the biological,
psychological, and socio-cultural factors as
these pertain to a client’s life situation.
• It is to try to understand why a problem exists
so that some kind of remedy can be
recommended.
Holistic Assessment of Strength and
Challenges
• Assessment is central to social work and should be viewed as
a process, not as an isolated event. It is in itself an
intervention that may create change. It is not static, re-
evaluation happens within the process as it goes along.
• The outcome of assessment is usually the provision of
services and it is frequently used by agencies as the gateway
to resources.
• Assessments are to be undertaken in partnership with service
users; however, it can be questioned how much this can be
reality when social workers have the power and resources for
a range of interventions and services users do not.
 Holistic Assessment …
• It is to gather as much information as possible
about the situation and form some opinion
about its meaning for the client and its
implications for action.
• Assessments in social work start from the
needs of or the concerns about a person. The
principles which underpin the framework of
assessment start with the person at the centre.
The italics is considering the client to be adult.
 Bio psycho social Spiritual Assessment
• Biopsychosocial spiritual assessment
• The process of helping a child depends on
understanding all the factors that have
contributed to and that maintain a
problematic situation.
• This will help the practitioner can formulate,
propose, and implement an appropriate
remedy.
• Bio (biological) refers to the physical and
medical aspects of ourselves
• Psycho (psychological) refers to the emotional
aspects of our lives
• Social refers to socio-cultural, socio-political,
and socio-economic issues
• Spiritual refers to the way people find
meaning in their lives
 Basic Principles of Assessment
1. Assessments are child centered (person-
centred);
2. Assessments are rooted in child development
(human growth and development);
3. Assessments are ecological in their approach;
4. Assessments ensure equality of opportunity;
5. Assessments involve working with children in
families (carers and relevant others); ….
 Basic Principles …
6. Assessments build on strengths as well as identify
difficulties;
7. Assessments are inter-agency in their approach to
assessment and the provision of services;
8. Assessments are a continuing process not a single
event;
9. Assessments are carried out in parallel with other
action and providing a service;
10. Assessments are grounded in evidence based
knowledge.
 Characteristics of assessment
• Assessment and intervention typically occur
simultaneously.
• Assessment is an ongoing process and
therefore subject to elaboration and revision
throughout the contact with the clients.
• Assessment of children is always tentative,
because children's development is in flux and
therefore requires repeated assessment.
 Stages of assessment
The stages in the assessment can be described
as:
• deciding who the client is
• acquisition of information;
• studying facts and feelings;
• balancing and formulating;
• strategies in goal setting;
• intervention.
 deciding who the client is
• The first step in planning an assessment is to decide
who the client is . In many cases the clients are either
children or the whole family. But there are also some
situations where the clients could be some members
of the family or peers of family members.
• It is up to the social worker to decide who the client
should be for the assessment as well as the
intervention. After deciding on who the client is the
social worker should decide which to contact first
depending on the information needed.
 acquisition of information
Assessment Process
1. Who/what is to be assessed? (Parent, child,
both, neighbors, community,…)
2. In what order should the assessment be
conducted? (Who should be contacted first
and what guidelines should be followed in
contact with each party)
3. What collateral information should be
obtained/ (School, medical, legal,…)
…
4. What assessment tool should be employed?
(Developmental history and family
background, tripartite assessment forms,
genogarams, ecomap, …)
5. How should the relevant data be
summarized?
6. How should the assessment be reviewed with
parents and others?
 1. Who/what is to be assessed
• Factors related to individuals
– Age/innate factors (developmental, cognitive,…)
– Past coping/adjustment (home, school, peers,..)
– Medical history
– Abuse history
– Perception of problems and specific meanings
• Factors related to the problem situation/Situational
factors
– Presence of loss factors
– Presence of trauma/violence
– Presence of life threatening situations
– Elements of stigma
– Psychological and environmental problems
– Duration of problem
– Involvement of others
– Nature of involvement
• Factors related to the support system
– Nuclear family
– Extended family
– School
– Friends, peers, social network
– Religious community
– neighborhood
2. Order and guidelines for assessment
Order of assessment for a child
1. The worker meets with the parents
2. The worker conducts 2 or 3 play evaluation
sessions with the child
3. The worker sees the entire family
4. The worker contacts other people (teachers, …)
5. The worker refers the child for psychological or
educational testing
6. The worker obtains reports from the child’s
pediatrician
 General guidelines for contacts with the
parent(s)
There are several important reasons to work with
the parent(s) when the child is the client.
• Forming an Alliance with the Parent(s):
• Obtaining the Child's Developmental History:
• Preparing the Parent to Prepare the Child for the
Assessment:
• Obtaining signed releases for all collateral
contact: Social workers should get an informed
consent from parents or guardians of children
General guidelines for assessment sessions
with the child
• The first session
– To establish a relationship with the child in which
the child fees understood, listened to, and
respected as a person.
– Preparing the office for child evaluation sessions
– Prepare fun activities for the child
• The second and third play assessment sessions
– The sessions will be fun for the child except that
the child comes to the session prepared and
eager. The worker should take special notes
request of play as they may have partciular
significance in understanding the child’s
circumstances
What to look for in child evaluation sessions
1. Developmental factors: Age appropriateness of the
child’s play
2. Mood/quality of child’s play
3. Themes in child’s play and possible areas of conflict
4. Separation anxiety/ability to relate to worker
5. Ability to concentrate in sessions
 Risk and Protective Factors
• Critical part of any assessment
• Although the presence of protective factors
may balance and offset risks, if more than 3
risks factors exist, “the child and parents are
more likely to become overwhelmed, resulting
in a developmental or psychiatric disorder in
the child”
 Summarizing relevant data
• Continually weights the significance of the
findings and immediately starts to generate
hypothesis about what is wrong and how to
help
• The analysis, synthesis and speculation
constitute an on going process that continues
through out the life of the case
Categories can be
• The nature of the client’s problems
• The coping capacities of the child, significant others,
assessing strength and obstacles, risks and protective
factors
• The other persons or systems involved in the clients
problems
• The availability of needed resources
• The client’s motivation to work on the problems
 Feedback/review with parents and other
professionals
• Engaging the parents in the feedback/review
process
• Case conferencing
 ANNEX
• Assessment Tools
– Tripartite assessment tool
– Developmental history and family
background,
– Genogarams
– Ecomap
 Group Work
Work on the case provided below on the
assessment process
1. Who/what is to be assessed?
2. In what order should the assessment be
conducted?
3. What collateral information should be obtained?
4. What assessment tool should be employed?
5. How should the relevant data be summarized?
6. How should the assessment be reviewed with
parents and others?