Multicultural Considerations in the Assessment of Addictive Behaviors

© 2012 Laureate Education, Inc. 1

COUN 6204A: Assessment in Counseling and Addiction

Week 3 Case Study: Ethical Missteps in Assessment

Don is a new counseling professional working with clients at a large behavioral health organization. His supervisor asks him to begin using a new instrument, AddictionAssess, to assess addiction. As part of his graduate training, Don had an assessment class. However, he did not receive training in this particular instrument, and he is not familiar with administering the instrument or interpreting the results. Don is concerned that his supervisor will be angry if the does not use the instrument. Don decided to use the instrument with his new client, Mohammed. Mohammed is of Indian descent, is a non-native speaker, and is court-mandated to treatment because of a recent DUI. Don presents Mohammed with AddictionAssess and asks him to complete it in his office. During the assessment interview, it is apparent that Mohammed is struggling to answer the assessment questions. Mohammed explains that he has a hard time reading, so Don allows him to take the instrument home and bring it back to his next session. Don consults the user’s manual for AddictionAssess and realizes that the instrument was normed for use on individuals who were U.S.-born and English-speaking. He also learns that specialized training is needed to interpret the results of the tool. Don is concerned that his supervisor has expectations for him to use the instrument, so he decides to interpret the data as best he can and use the results to inform Mohammed’s treatment.