Psychological Assessment

Psychological Assessment

Psychological assessments can be equated to medical tests that evaluate the observable symptoms of an individual to understand the underlying conditions. In psychology, specialists rely upon various tools and techniques while assessing an individual’s behaviors. The information obtained during such assessments identifies a diagnosis and creates a treatment plan. Different reasons can necessitate a psychological evaluation. These include problematic personal relationships, difficult schooling among children, reading problems, attention-related issues, and other abnormal tendencies that may pose a risk to an individual and those around them. Psychological assessments are conducted in various ways. The techniques include norm-referenced psychological tests, informal surveys, medical records/evaluations, data obtained through observation, interview data, and school records (Noronha, de Castro, & Ottati, 2013). The information obtained using any technique is evaluated to determine the best course of action.

Positive aspects of assessment (psychology)

Psychological assessments are beneficial to both patients and psychiatrists. For patients, psychological assessments promote mental health. Primary healthcare is a critical aspect of the population’s health. However, most individuals with mental issues have been unable to access mental healthcare due to lack of coverage. According to the National Institutes of Mental Health, at least one in five adults suffers from mental issues in the USA. This rounds up to approximately 43.8 million people. At least 21 percent of these people lack access to mental healthcare. The Affordable Care Act began addressing this deficit by enrolling 39 million individuals, thus enabling their access to mental healthcare (Rozental, Kottorp, & Boettcher, 2016). Despite the increasing workload in the healthcare setting, access to care facilitates the provision of primary services and the mental health of the citizens.

Psychiatrists also benefit from these assessments, which offer a platform to test their chosen interventions, treatment plans, and assessment skills. Assessing a patient creates an opportunity to challenge the various diagnoses, which increases the psychiatrist’s expertise and knowledge. Besides facilitating the engagement with different people about stressors, psychiatrists gain insights that enable the creation of collaborative treatment plans involving the patients and other experts in the field.

Negative aspects of assessment (psychology)

While psychological assessments are critical in improving the mental health of individuals, they have several shortcomings. Patients in the past have been unable to access this care due to the high cost. Still, the current access does not guarantee that a patients’ mental health will improve. For instance, patients with behavioral and physical issues have a negative relationship with their care providers. Such complexities earn other patients the ‘difficult’ title. Physicians tend to demonstrate a lack of cooperation when dealing with such patients. In addition, they need more consultation sessions, which rapidly increases the cost and outdoes their insurance coverage. Patients who lack sufficient resources may abandon the entire process altogether. Eventually, such patients tend to develop more complex issues that stem from their mental illnesses (Porcerelli & Jones, 2016). Thus, this scenario confirms that increased access does not guarantee better mental health.

Most importantly, assessments usually lead to treating patients for various diagnoses. Patients may have trouble during this period. First, a lack of understanding about the need for a specific treatment may result in low self-esteem. Secondly, if such treatment fails, the patients may experience low competency. This is associated with the fear of others finding out that one is being treated for mental illness. In extreme cases, the patient may feel like a failure and abandon the treatment process (Rozental, Kottorp, & Boettcher, 2016). Thus, the assessment should be approached carefully and the patient well informed to avoid negative issues.

References

Noronha, A. P., de Castro, N. R., & Ottati, F. (2013). Contents and Methods of Psychological Assessment Teaching: A Study Involving Professors. Paidéia, 23(54), 129-139.

Porcerelli, J. H., & Jones, J. (2016). Uses of Psychological Assessment in Primary Care Settings. In Handbook Of Psychological Assessment In Primary Care Settings. New York: Routledge.

Rozental, A., Kottorp, A., & Boettcher, J. (2016). Adverse Effects of Psychological Treatments: An Exploratory Factor Analysis of the Negative Effects Questionnaire for Monitoring and Reporting Adverse and Unwanted Events. PLoS One, 11(6).

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Psychological Assessment

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