Parents and school counsellors often rely on psychological assessments performed by licensed psychologists handle and treat children with learning disabilities. This type of psych assessment offer valuable information that can help psychologists devise more effective treatment and educational measures to help with the development of the child.
These psychological assessments are so commonly done for children that people sometimes forget that adults can benefit from their use as well. Here are 10 reasons why these assessments can be very useful for adults too:
1.The test (including the interview) can help adults understand themselves better. They get better insights on their behaviour and their emotions, and they can find ways to improve themselves and how they deal with the world around them. Such improvements can help them enhance their social and professional lives.
2. Psychological assessments are often much more objective than mere interviews. Many patients feel that psychologists who only rely on interviews can be too subjective and may be too harsh on patients they don’t like. With an assessment like this, you get more concrete and objective results.
3. The assessment can build greater rapport between the adult patient and the psychologist. That’s because the patient has a greater understanding of his psychological makeup, and they can be involved in the decision-making process regarding approaches to treatment.
4. When a patient’s treatment has stalled, a psychological assessment can often identify the various factors that contribute to the limited progress. Identifying these factors can then help both the psychologist and the patient to deal with the issues first so that the progress can resume.
5. Psychological assessments can be used to help superiors and authorities to decide if an employee is mentally and emotionally fit to go back to work. Some types of work require certain levels of psychological functioning, especially in fields that involve a lot of stress. Military services, police departments, fire departments, and certain healthcare services may require certain employees to undergo the process first before they’re let in back to work.
6. Psychiatrists can use these assessments to double-check and confirm their diagnoses. These tests can provide a different but useful perspective that can especially be useful for complex patients.
7. The assessments can help psychologists fine-tune the type of intervention needed and to what intensity and degree is required for certain psychological issues. Many patients can seem calm and well off and they can present a great picture that they’re keeping it together. But the psychological assessment can reveal issues that require deeper clinical intervention.
8. Psychologists and psychiatrists like to use these assessments to build a more collaborative partnership with patients. An assessment can increase the likelihood that the patient will comply and cooperate with your therapy methods when they’ve gone through an assessment with you. An assessment involves the active participation of the patient, and their awareness of the results makes them more cooperative.
9. Some court cases may ask for psych assessments to help decide various cases. Custody battles, adoptions, and cases involving mildly retarded adults can benefit from the additional information that an assessment can provide.
10. Hospitals also sometimes perform psychological assessments for patients when there’s a question regarding the competency of the adult patient. Minor patients obviously have parents and guardians deciding about treatments for the patients. With adults, the issues are more complicated and there can be legal issues when senior citizens or severely traumatized patients are involved.
Just remember that psychological assessments are not only about weaknesses that the tests may identify. The assessments may also detect various strengths that the patient can then develop afterwards.
A professional writer with over a decade of incessant writing skills. Her topics of interest and expertise range from health, nutrition and psychology.