Assessment of Cases
Students will review two cases and respond to the following questions applying course readings and additional references from reliable resources to have well-rounded content.
Case 1: Tony
Tony is a 36-year-old female. She has had a partner for the past 3 years and has three children (ages 18, 10, and 2), two of whom are from a previous relationship. During her intake interview, she presented herself as clean, meticulously dressed and was overweight. She fidgeted constantly with her clothes and picked at her fingernails. She avoided eye contact during the session. She recently graduated from college. Tony reported general dissatisfaction with her life. She stated that her life is uneventful and predictable and she feels some panic over reaching her late 30s. For the past 2 years she has had a range of psychosomatic complaints, including sleep disturbance, anxiety, dizziness, heart palpitations, and headaches. Tony complained that she cries easily over trivial matters, often feels depressed, and has gained weight recently due to her worries.
Case 2: Mia
Mia is a 12-year-old female who was referred by her teacher for evaluation of her social avoidant behavior and emotional outbursts. Mia lives with her mother and younger brother. She has been refusing to participate in class activities and fails to follow directions. Her teachers reported that Mia has a tendency to isolate herself from others in the class and refuses to participate in any class activity. Her mother indicated that other children make fun of Mia. Her mother is very reluctant to have Mia assessed, and stated that she does not want any “test telling her that her daughter is crazy.”
Assignment Questions
Address the following questions in your paper.
- Define assessment and discuss how you believe it is related to the general counseling process with each of the above clients.
- What questions would you include as part of an intake interview for each client? Moreover, what responses do you anticipate? (Responses to this question may influence how you respond to some questions below.)
- Describe each client’s mental status using a mental status examination.
- Based on your intake interview and mental status examination, what factors and issues do you feel need to be addressed for each client?
- You have described that the client would benefit from some testing. What are some reasons for testing each client?
- Which evaluation tools will you utilize and why? (Consider both formal and informal, structured and unstructured tools.) How will you determine whether the tools are appropriate for each client?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of the tools you selected for each client?
- How would you go about preparing for and executing the assessment process? Specifically, what will you tell the clients?
- What are the legal, ethical, and/or moral issues in each case?
- What are some potential multicultural and social justice considerations in each case?
