Clinical Assessment

Mary J House

University of Phoenix

Psy 270

Rhettman Mullis, Jr.

November 25, 2012

What other information would you like to learn during the interview with the family? What questions would you ask? I would ask Mr. and Mrs. Lawson if they knew what kind of home life Clara had before she was adopted. I would ask them how old Clara was at the time of the adoption.
I would want to know if they knew Clara’s biological family’s medical history. Was there any known of mental illness in the biological family? Did the Lawson’s know if
Clara had been abused before she came to live with them? What was the environment in the Lawson home and Clara’s preschool like? Had Clara recently had an accident or been traumatized in any way that they were aware of? Had they heard of any incidents at
Clara’s school that may have made her start misbehaving? Was there anything in specific they noticed that triggered Clara’s tantrums? When did the change occur in her eating and sleeping habits? Was Clara their only child? Did they have other biological or adopted children living at home. Was Clara of a different race than Mr. and Mrs.
Lawson? Does Clara know that she adopted, and if she does have they just recently told her this? Has Clara mentioned being picked on, teased or bullied at school? Have they had a conference with her teacher to see how her behavior is at school?
In addition to the clinical interview, what other clinical assessment tools should you consider? Why? I think first I would like to set up a time with Mr. and Mrs. Lawson and Clara’s school so that I could conduct a naturalistic clinical observation. I think that this observation may let me see where Clara’s problems are stemming from. It would be beneficial for me to see how Clara interacted with others at home and at school. I would also ask Clara to draw me some pictures. Young children have a hard time verbalizing their feelings and this can frustrate them and leads to disruptive behavior. Clara’s drawings may give may give me some insight into what is bothering her. Even though 4 is a relatively young age I may consider doing a sentence completion test on Clara. This may give me an idea on what has recently began bothering her. The sentence completion test would probably give me some background information from Clara’s perspective.
Although you need more information to begin treatment, what factors might you take into consideration in designing an effective intervention for this family? Clara’s age would be the most important factor to consider when thinking of an intervention. Children Clara’s age are fragile and need to be handled delicately in order for them to heal without leaving psychological scars. I would definitely have to take her adoption into consideration. Were her biological parents mentally stable or were they abusive to her? Did Clara’s biological parents have addictions to drugs or alcohol that we should know about? I would be left to wonder what the reasons were that Clara was placed for adoption in the first place. It would be important to make sure that Clara understands that it is okay to feel how she feels. She just needs to find a positive way to get her frustrations out.
If you were preparing to diagnose Clara, would you refer to the DSM-IV classification system to evaluate her condition on five separate axes. What type of information would go into each axis? You are not asked to enter a diagnosis, only describe the kind of information that would be entered in each axis. I would use the DSM-IV classification system. On Axis I the information would include any kind of clinical syndrome Clara may have that may cause significant impairment. On Axis II the information would be any long standing problems Clara or her biological family may have such as personality disorders or any forms of mental retardation. On Axis III would go any of Clara’s present or past known medical conditions. On Axis IV the information would be any special psychosocial or environmental problems a person is feeling. In Clara’s case this would include her interactions with the other children at the preschool. On Axis V would be the global assessment of functioning-where Clara’s psychological and social functioning would be rated.
Do you think that diagnosing Clara would be beneficial or harmful? Explain why? I think that with the limited information that was presented it would be harmful to try and diagnosis Clara. There seems to be a lot of background information missing that would be crucial to know before making a diagnosis. Her age and her being adopted is another reason I would be hesitant in diagnosing her. I do not know how old she was when she was adopted or if she remembers her biological parents. Being 4 years old she could be going through a stage that will soon pass. If, however, she was just recently adopted she may be acting out because she misses her parents. There is just too much information missing to safely make a diagnosis in this case. I do not feel that children should be labeled, especially at the tender age of 4. To diagnose Clara at this point could cause her more problems and it would be easy to misdiagnosis her on a biased opinion. The bias in this case could stem from the fact that she was adopted.

References Comer, R.J. (2011). Fundamentals of abnormal psychology (6th ed.). New York, NY:
Worth