Assessment Process And Reporting Client Issues

Impact of Setting on Assessment Process

Assessment Task

1. You are conducting an informal assessment with a client who has come to see you for help with alcohol dependence.

Give one example of something you might say to the client that would empower them to identify and prioritise their own needs, and one example of something you might say that would inhibit their ability to do this.

Alcohol is one of the toxic substances which have been responsible for ruining millions of people’s life and families. People who are dependent on alcohol go into a phase where their entire life depends around alcohol. If the client has to be empowered about his needs, the counsellor has to show him the path of positivity and life without alcohol. It has to be explained to the client that if he eats healthy, exercises regularly, he would come back in shape and would be able to live life productivity and also take care of his family.

An example which will restrict the ability of the client to focus on him can be if counsellor tries to fear him off, and show him how his health is ruined and he does not stand a chance to come back to his earlier life. This would push the client away as he would lose all the hope and continue doing alcohol abuse

1. You will need to draw on a range of information in order to evaluate the needs of a client. List five potentially helpful sources of information.

From the client-This might be collected from interview or questionnaires

From the client’s family-With the consent of client, information can be gathered from his immediate family, close friends and relatives

From Previous Notes-Refer to the previous case notes whenever client has interacted in the past

Health and specialist report-The information available from the their GP or previous specialist report

From other workers-People inside and outside the system might know something which has not been recorded in the case notes.

2. The assessment method that you use for a client will depend largely on context and on the individual being assessed. For each of the following, describe the function of the assessment method, and name a context in which the method would be useful.
3. a) Informal assessment

Also called as non-standardized assessment, it includes clinical trials. Even when this type of assessment is following a set pattern or formulae, deviation is supposed to arise because of the personal nature of interaction and of addressing the client’s needs. This type of assessment is not applicable for interpretation, it just gives an overview but the facts cannot be taken as told. This can fit the context of health and age issues.

1. b) Formal assessment

Formal assessment is also called as standardized assessment; it refers to a formal process in which a specific set of rules and guidelines related to administration, scoring and interpretation are followed continuously in order to ensure the accuracy of the results over a period of time. This type of assessment can be used for achievement tests, aptitude tests and personality tests.

1. c) Domain-based assessment

Validity and Reliability in Assessing Client's Needs

This type of assessment is also called as criterion-referenced assessment, this occurs while assessing an individual against a predetermined criterion or already established standard and to see how well the individual functions according to the set criteria. This type of assessment can be used in driving test.

1. d) Norm-based assessment

One of the popular forms of assessment used by counsellors world-wide, in this type of assessment the client is compared with the sample of others against what is normal for a similar person and so on. This indicates if a person fits into the range of normal or belongs to the group of above normal functioning individuals. This fits into the context of measuring children’s intelligence (Wechsler Intelligence scale for children)

1. e) Strengths-based assessment

As the name suggests, this type of assessment focuses on the strengths of the client rather than what’s wrong. The idea here is to focus on the positive resources and abilities of the client. Example of such assessment is Strength based practice inventory.

1. f) Competency-based assessment

In this type of assessment competencies of the client is assessed in different areas. The person under the assessment has to demonstrate a skill under a set of condition and demonstrate evidence of competency. Following by the procedure the person is deemed competent or not yet competent.

3. An IQ test is an example of an assessment tool that may be used for Norm-based assessment. Select two other assessment tools and describe what they are, and which type(s) of assessment(s) they are used for.

Edinburgh Depression Scale-This type of tool can be used for normal initial assessment by a GP who gives a referral to the psychiatrist. It may result in a mental health plan, medication or psychologist support. It may be used in formal assessment.

Wechsler Intelligence scale for Children- This test can be used to determine if an individual has an intellectual disability. A psychologist is usually involved in assessing both the intelligence and adaptive behaviour of the individual.

4. Describe the impact that setting (e.g. home, community centre) may have on the assessment process.

The setting plays a very important role in the assessment of the client. The setting can have both positive and negative result for the assessment. For example, a client at home might feel comfortable but might not be comfortable sharing the problems knowing the family is around him. Similarly, at times, a client might not be comfortable sharing information at the community centre, due to unknown surroundings. Hence, it is pivotal for the counsellor to assess the clients comfort or discomfort while assessing him.

5. Explain how requirements related to validity and reliability may direct your work in assessing a client’s needs.

Reliability and validity is a key aspect to assessment, it is essential to know if the assessment fulfils the criteria of reliability and validity. Reliability relates to the degree to which an assessment tool produces stable and consistent results. On the other hand validity relates to how well an assessment measures what it proposes it measures.

6. Explain the basic process of documenting, maintaining and storing information about the assessment process (bearing in mind that these practices may vary according to organisation and role, and should always be in line with confidentiality requirements).

Documenting Information about Assessment Process

Organizations have to adhere to the guidelines, legislation, standards and their own policies and procedures while documenting and maintaining client’s information. In order to do so, few things have to be kept in mind while filling out the case notes: Keeping the case notes updated at all time, record the assessment in the case notes, client case plans, notes regarding any conversation with the clients, thus any interaction with the client has to be carefully recorded and kept in the case notes. Due to the process of internal and external assessment it is required to report the outcome of the assessment. In some cases like health and welfare of child at risk, a client committed a serious crime, If a worker is called in the court, suicidal cases few more complete confidentiality cannot be kept and thus the family member have to be informed.

7. Briefly outline under what circumstances you would need to report a client’s issues, and describe what you would need to include in a report.

Circumstances under which the client issues have to be reported as informed by the legislation are:

• Child abuse and neglect-mandatory reporting/mandatory notification- The requirement applies to people working in health, legal, childcare and educational services.
• Elder abuse-Organization protecting the elderly from abuse.
• Infectious diseases-Notification to the public health unit is mandatory.
• WHS Risks-Contact the supervisor in case of any violation.

8. You may conclude that your client needs to be referred to another service. Explain your responsibilities and boundaries when it comes to sharing the person’s information with other services, according to consent and confidentiality requirements.

Confidentiality agreement- Having a system in place for the safe storage and retrieval of client data and records. The confidentiality statement further include limit of confidentiality, when there is existence of co-ordinated services where information is shared across agencies, the issue of duty care and so on. Organization has to ensure that the room containing the information is safe and locked, the filling cabinet to have locked drawers, case notes to be not left where they can be read. Precaution can also be taken while extracting information from the client, the information should be extracted in a private room, only discuss with relevant people and de-identify records by using case numbers when discussing cases.

Consent Agreement-Before any personal information is requested from an individual, informed consent has to be obtaining from the client. A statement for collection of personal information document will be provided to client explaining:

What information has to be collected, information on the general ,medical, health, family history, where there is a need for collection of the case notes, consent has to be taken from the client, else it would fall into an privacy breach.

9. Explain why it is important to seek feedback from the person (and others if necessary) about the assessment process, and describe how you would go about doing this.

Good governance ensures that the feedback has to be taken from the client regarding the assessment process. It is extremely important to have an unbiased appraisal of one’s own performance, a person normal consider him as an over performer, thus it becomes important for the effectiveness of the practise on the client to have a feedback from client, his family or other members. Feedback can be collected through feedback forms, 360 degree feedback process, client complaints, surveys, focus groups; comments posted online, interagency services where the feedback from other agencies can be taken and case conferences.

10. Explain how often you will seek feedback and reflect on your own performance, and indicate how you will respond to feedback so as to improve your performance.

Reporting Client Issues

Feedback from the client is important but it does not form a comprehensive tool for gaining feedback. Feedback should also be taken from interagency regarding: the capacity of the person to deliver the services and meet the need of the client, the referral process between the agencies, appropriateness of the roles fulfilled, how supportive a person has been to other services in the network, all this combined information will help in self-evaluation. Other methods by which the outcome of the service can be measured are: Benchmarking, satisfaction surveys, Audits, KPI and dashboards. A practitioner should do the following on gaining the feedback:

Read- Around the issues one has worked in and wants to further develop

Ask-Others about the way they do things and why

Watch-what is going around

Feel- Pay close attention to the emotions

Talk-Share your views and experience with others

Think-Learn to value time spent thinking about one’s work

 The feedback has to be recorded consistently. Plan do study act model can be further used for improvement of practice.

11. Apart from seeking feedback, give two examples of ways in which you might monitor your process and its success in meeting the client’s needs.

Benchmarking- This is the process of comparing one’s own service process and outcome with those which are considered best in the sector. This is important because if one does not know the result of others, he won’t have a parameter to judge his performance.

Satisfaction Surveys- This Is important as the client is in a better position to respond to the surveys once he is feeling well. The satisfaction can be compared with the current performance or with the previous performance or compare with the industry benchmark

12. Research a service that provides community assistance in each of the following areas. Briefly describe the features of the service, and outline what a client may expect from it.
    1. Employment

A client can ensure assistance in job placement, need recognition of the individual, protect him from unfair trade practices or unfair termination. It also ensures that the individual does not face money problems until he lands a job.

1. Physical and mental health

A client can be getting self-directed support, help living at home, accommodation, specialist services, aids and equipment, career and family support, individual support packages and community life and jobs.

1. Housing

This type of service deals with Homelessness, home owner support, community housing, private renter assistance, supported accommodation and public housing services.

1. Community support

This type of support will contain a plethora of services related to the growth and support of the individual, ensuring continuous support financially mentally and physically to the individual .The community support will bring the individual back to the realms of reality and make him understand the concept of society.

1. Social inclusion

This community service will ensure that an ousted person is pulled back in the society. Care is given to his needs and his problems are acknowledged ad provide him assistance to overcome the challenges with consistent assistance.

1. Education and training

This service will ensure that any person who wishes to study gets enrolled in a school and gets college education. All the support is provided by the community and other service agencies looking for the client support.

1. Financial support

This type of support gives services in concessions, home owner and rental support, funding and grants, money help, disability financial support, carer support and scholarships.

13. Explain why it is important for clients to advocate on their own behalf to access other services. How will you encourage a client to do this?

It is extremely important to maximize the autonomy of the client and self-determination of the client within the constraints of their capacity which is referred as empowerment. Strength based practise has to be used while empowering the client, focussing on his strength and telling him that he can do better by working on his strength is one of the proven method of client empowerment.  Reablement approach works towards developing the client’s ability to care for them and building on their own strength. Restorative care approach is another approach which makes use of multi-disciplinary team to support the client and regain functions