week 5 paper

Psychological Evaluation

Katrina Colon

Grand Canyon University

Psychological Evaluation

Introduction

Counseling is one of the most common ways that people’s psychological problems treated. Individuals with any form of psychological problems are advised to see counselors, who make the effort of formulating treatment strategies that the individuals can utilize to improve and recover from these conditions. In many occasions, individuals who have these problems do not accept that they are psychologically in need of counseling and thus many people get their cases move from bad to worse simply because they do not accept that they have a problem. The most common way of determining an individual with any form of a psychological issue is evaluating the behaviors that the individual is involving in (Reid, & Westergaard, 2011). Understanding these aspects about counselling, some institutions have rules that when students involve in certain behaviors they have to attend a counselling session as a consequence. This paper provides an evaluation of the case of Eliza, a freshman university student majoring in Engineering after she was caught with alcohol in the dorm.

Part 1 intake

At counseling, a psychosocial assessment is a necessity for all individuals that visit the counselor. This assessment helps the counselors to understand the situations of a patient and thus manage to determine the most effective treatment arrangements that would be most beneficial to the patient. There are however some different psychosocial assessment that could be used to obtain information from a patient. To determine the most appropriate method to utilize, counselor evaluates the intake document of the patient.

For Eliza, the intake document does not contain much. It mainly has information about her current situation, which is the fact that she is a student at the city university. She is eighteen years old and has a fair relationship with her parents. She is also in counseling because she does not have any other choice. The counseling is mandatory for her after being caught with alcohol in the dorm. From the consideration of each one of these facts about Eliza, the most appropriate assessment test that would help to provide the most helpful information is the Level 01 Cross-Cutting Measure (CCM-1). This is a test recommended in the DSM-5 psychology guide, and it helps in guiding counselors on the information that they should obtain from a patient.

The DSM-5 Level 01 Cross-Cutting Measure (CCM-1). This set of psychological assessment questions provides a list of significantly important ways through which information that is useful and important can be obtained by the counselor. This model of questions provides a list of questions and requires the patient to provide honest answers about how they have been bothered by the problems that the questions describe for the past two weeks. The answers are on a scale of one to four. An example of a question included in this assessment test is whether the patient has obtained the feeling of hopelessness, depression or simply feeling down (Clarke, & Kuhl, 2014).

As a counselor addressing the case of Eliza, I would utilize this test and assessment to ensure that I completely understand her situation, which might have led to her situation of having alcohol in her dorm. This is despite the fact that she was that the university is an alcohol-free institution. Bearing in mind that Eliza did not volunteer for counseling, there is a high chance that she is likely to give answers to the questionnaire to demonstrate her innocence so that she can be released from counseling. To, however, counter this outcome and ensure that she provides the genuine answers about her case, I will ensure that I provide a clear explanation of each one of the questions in the test and the reason why she should be honest with the answers that she provide. After obtaining genuine answers from her, I am likely to attain effective information about her situation which I can utilize to derive a solution.

Part 2 Biopsychosocial Assessment

From the evaluation of the answers that Eliza provided to the DSM assessment tests, it is clear that she has issues that could be solved through counseling. The main indicators of these issues are the fact that she answered in the test that she ensures that she avoids situations that make her feel anxious. On a few occasions, she also sleeps issues which affect her overall sleep performance. She also expressed challenges in understanding who she is and what she wants from life. Her social life is also not completely good sense on a small scale; she does not enjoy a good relationship with friends. These issues are simply symptoms of a psychological issue which requires counseling and guidance to overcome.

From the answers to this test, it is clear that the first main issues that Eliza has are being social with other people. Sometimes, people feel alone and unable to communicate or rejoice in the world of other people. When such an occurrence takes place, people feel alone and unable to connect well with the current world where they live in. In addition to these, Eliza is also facing a challenge with sleep. This challenge is related to her current situation since she is more likely to have a lot of discomfort with her social problem issue. With the high level of clarity and understanding of the issue, treatment is thus essentially important. Consideration of each one of these aspects about Eliza will help in deriving an effective treatment strategy that will help her improve her condition (Meier, & Davis, 2011).

The treatment goals and plan is intended to guide in determining the most effective strategies for treatment. The first main goal is to help Eliza establish an understanding of society and start allowing people to create an effective relationship with her. By meeting this goal, Eliza will manage to create an effective friendship with other people and avoid instances where she feels alone and not social enough. This solution will also help her eliminate the problems that she had in making friends. The other main goal of the treatment is to help Eliza stop being anxious and avoiding situations that make her anxious. The solution is thus intended to help her manage to face her fears, and thus she will be able to face any situation would avoiding it because it makes her anxious.

Part 3: Treatment Planning

To obtain more information in future about Eliza with the information that I already have, I intend to utilize the LEVEL 2, Anxiety, Adult(PROMIS Emotional Distress, Anxiety, Short Form) cross-cutting symptom measure test. This evaluation will help me attain more understanding of the situation that she is currently in and the most appropriate treatment procedure that I will recommend for her condition. The choice of using this evaluation measure with the many symptoms of issues in other areas like sleep disturbances and a bit of relationship establishing difficulties is the fact that each one of these conditions could have been caused by anxiety. Her inability to form new friends is a possible issue caused by anxiety. All these issues in her life can then be the cause of sleep disturbances. By using this evaluation method, I will attain a better understanding of her condition.

Based on the assessment goals and plans, there are some other treatment procedures that I would recommend for use with Eliza, to attain a better understanding of her situation and be able to address her case in a better way. A good example of another evaluation that is however not provided by APA is the “Who I Am” quiz. In her explanation, Eliza also provides the information that sometimes she does not understand who she is and what she can accomplish in her life. This assessment will help her understand herself better and then even make the consideration of improving her situation in a better way. After attaining the information necessary, and understanding her condition fully, it is then important to communicate this information with Eliza and others who can help her implement the recommended solution. To her, I would explain clearly on a face to face session on her condition and measures that she should take to improve her condition. To her parents, I would use a written formal explanation about her condition and the role that they should play to ensure that she recovers effectively from this condition appropriately. To ensure that the solution I provide will be effective for her, I would prioritize on issues of her life and the means through which she will manage to improve and recover from her issue fast and more effectively (Shea, 2017).

Part 4. Referral

Although I am a counselor, I am not the individual that will help Eliza improve her condition. Since it involves anxiety, however, she needs a skilled and highly capable individual to guide her in implementing the effective treatment strategy which intended to help her attain a clear understanding of her life and how she should improve more effectively. The possible referral that I might make for this case is for Eliza to see a regular counselor, who will guide her towards facing her fears and help her improve her situation to become a better individual. In the field of counseling, there are some counselors that have a significantly positive reputation for their ability to help patients through difficult times and enable them to completely recover from those situations. From this information, therefore, I will have a good list of individuals that I can refer her to so that they can assist her with her situation. I would ensure that I include all the necessary information on her file so that her new counselor can attain a clear understanding of the situation in which she is in and the recommended strategies that will enable her to recover. I will also contact this counselor so that I can follow up and listen to her progress (Reid, & Westergaard, 2011). 

References

Clarke, D. E., & Kuhl, E. A. (2014). DSM-5 cross-cutting symptom measures: a step towards the future of psychiatric care? World Psychiatry, 13(3), 314–316. http://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20154

Meier, S. & Davis, S. (2011). The elements of counseling. Belmont, Calif: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.

Reid, H. & Westergaard, J. (2011). Effective counselling with young people. Exeter England: Learning Matters.

Shea, T. (2017). Personality Tests You Can Take: Reader’s digest. Retrieved from https://www.rd.com/health/wellness/personality-test-free/