It can be hard to figure out where to start in getting help when someone is having a hard time staying focused, learning in school, holding down a job, making and keeping friends, having stable and satisfying relationships, controlling their emotions and behavior, or developing the life skills needed to take care of themselves. A comprehensive psychological evaluation can be an important step in developing an action plan that is grounded in a person’s unique strengths, limitations, needs, and preferences.
Psychological assessment can provide information to help answer questions about the reasons that a person is having a hard time, whether treatment is needed, and if so, what kinds of strategies are most likely to work. It can also provide documentation needed to get services and support in school, at work, and in the community (for example, medical treatment; disability benefits; special educational services; school or workplace accommodations such as extra time on assignments and tests, flexible scheduling, or modified job duties).
Psychological assessment is a specialized type of mental health evaluation. In outpatient treatment settings, a general diagnostic evaluation usually involves unstructured clinical interviews and observations during a single session with the person being assessed. In contrast, psychological evaluation takes a more comprehensive, in-depth approach to gathering and integrating information about a person’s thoughts, emotions, behaviors, relationships, abilities, and skills.
The basic goal of psychological assessment in treatment settings is to provide information to help improve the way a person functions in his or her day-to-day life. In order to get a more complete and accurate impression of the person being evaluated, it makes use of different methods, tools, and sources of information, such as:
- reviews of school and health care records
- interviews with the person being evaluated and one or more family members
- interviews with one or more people with first-hand knowledge of the person’s performance and behavior in settings outside of the home, such as such as teachers or work supervisors
- structured and unstructured direct observations of the person’s behavior and family interactions
- standardized objective and projective psychological tests administered in a one-on-one setting
The results of psychological evaluation can often be helpful in describing a person’s symptoms as well as his or her functional strengths and limitations, deciding what (if any) diagnoses are appropriate, and developing an individualized treatment plan. They can also be helpful in setting goals and assessing progress in treatment, and in guiding changes to the treatment plan in cases where it doesn’t seem to be working well.
Psychological evaluations are sometimes done for reasons that are not treatment-related. These include compensation and pension examinations, which are a highly specialized type of evaluation done to help determine whether military veterans are eligible for VA disability benefits.