Assignment: Clinical Assessment Chaz Hedgspeth Axia College

What other information would you like to learn during the interview with the family? What questions would you ask?

If I were interviewing the family I would want to know extensive information about the child, including her home life, her life at school, and what types of relationships she has in both environments. Does she interact with the children well at school? Does she get punished for doing bad and rewarded for doing well? I would also want to know when she started behaving this way in the first place. Has she always behaved in this fashion? When did the behavior begin? Knowing if the behavior has affected her everyday living would be essential as well and if they feel like she is a threat to herself. Do her teachers say anything about her in the classroom? Is her attitude affecting her grades? Do you as the parents feel like your child is a threat to herself or anyone else around her? Finding out all of the information about the child’s life is essential to getting a complete outlook on what the possibilities of her behavior are.

In addition to the clinical interview, what other types of assessments would you utilize? What would you hope to learn with each type of assessment?

Since a patient is able to be assessed from the different psychological perspectives, I would want to assess the child with a combination of each of the perspective theories. First, I would want to assess the person’s past experiences and relationships. Second, I would want to know if there is something in the child’s life, such as external stimuli that is causing stress to the child. Third, I would want to find out if there are assumptions or interpretations that are affecting the child. Fourth, I would want to find out how the child sees themselves as well as how they see the world and environment around them. Finally I would assess the child in the home, at school, and in everyday life. With each assessment that I proceed with I would hope to gain information on where or why the child started showing this particular behavior. Through all of the information received, I would be able to come up with an appropriate conclusion for where the behavior is stemming from.

If you were preparing to diagnose Clara, you would refer to the DSM-IV classification system to evaluate her condition on five separate axes.
What TYPE of information would go into each axis? (You are not asked to suggest information that is specific to Clara…only to describe the kind of information that would be entered in each axis.)

I am going to refer Clara’s diagnosis to the DSM-IV classification system on five separate axis. On each axis, I am going to explain what kind of information is going to help evaluate her condition. Axis I would be major depressive disorder, and I am going to put in information that would suggest that the child is suffering from a mood disorder. On Axis II I would put information down that would suggest that the child has a dependent personality disorder. On Axis III I would put information about any medical problems the child is suffering from. On Axis IV I would put information about problems the child is facing from a psychosocial perspective or an environmental problem. On Axis V I would put information about a global assessment of the child’s functioning such as how she functions socially, psychologically, and during school. With providing all of the information accordingly, I will be able to assess what axis the child’s behavior will fall on.

Do you think that diagnosing Clara would be beneficial or harmful? Explain why.

Clara’s diagnosis has a possibility of being beneficial or harmful to the child. The main thing that is wrong with a diagnosis is that it is not 100% accurate all of the time. Sometimes the validity and reliability of the assessments can be skewed because of several immediate factors. Through an inaccurate diagnosis the child can have the wrong diagnosis leading to the wrong treatment for the child in the long run affecting the child’s medication and affecting the way clinicians try to help the child after the diagnosis has been complete. Through an accurate diagnosis however the child has the best opportunity to be treated correctly and work through the disorder to hopefully alleviate it in the future. Clinicians would also be able to treat the child accordingly providing proper medication as well as the proper approach for treating the disorder. At the end of the day, it is the parents decision on whether or not to diagnose the child because there is no promise that the assessment will help in the end, and that is something that the parents have to take into consideration when making the decision.