	Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services: Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services; Assertive Community Outreach Services

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

PA-PSR 2: Assessment

Service recipients participate in a comprehensive, individualized, strengths-based, family-focused, culturally responsive assessment.

Note: Refer to the Assessment Matrix for additional assessment criteria. The elements of the matrix can be tailored according to the needs of specific individuals or service design.

PA-PSR 2.01

Personnel who conduct assessments are qualified by training, skill, and experience and able to recognize individuals and families with special needs.

Research Note: Literature suggests that involving the individual in the assessment process increases ownership of the assessment. To facilitate such involvement personnel should be familiar with skills such as orienting, giving instructions, requesting information, demonstrating understanding, and the ability to develop a trusting relationship.

PA-PSR 2.02

The information gathered for assessments is strengths-based, comprehensive, directed at concerns identified in the initial screening, and limited to material for meeting service requests and objectives.

PA-PSR 2.03

Individuals are assessed:

for a history and presence of serious and persistent mental illness and substance use or other health conditions;
for life skills and available resources; and
to determine if they can benefit from services that promote the ability to live and function in the environment of their choice.

Interpretation: The assessment includes use of standardized diagnostic tools such as the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association, the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD), or another comparable standardized diagnostic tool. Assessments are completed within timeframes established by the agency and updated periodically.

Research Note: Researchers suggest the assessment should address a person’s skills and supportive resources, as well as history and symptoms, because rehabilitation outcomes are often related to the presence or absence of such skills and supports rather than one’s psychiatric diagnosis and symptoms.

PA-PSR 2.04

Assessments are conducted in a culturally responsive manner to identify resources that can increase service participation and support the achievement of agreed upon goals.

Interpretation: Culturally responsive assessments can include attention to geographic location, language of choice, and the person’s religious, racial, ethnic, and cultural background. Other important factors that contribute to a responsive assessment include attention to age, sexual orientation, and developmental level.

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	PURPOSE: Adults with serious and persistent mental illness who participate in Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services achieve their highest level of self-sufficiency and recovery through gains in personal empowerment, hopefulness, and competency.

RELATED FILES


	SERVICE One or more organization-operated programs or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organization's material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organization that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licensed to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	EMPOWERMENT The process of helping individuals, families, groups, or communities to increase their personal, interpersonal, political, social, and/or economic strength or position and to develop influence that may impact their circumstances.


	SERVICE RECIPIENT The individuals, groups, organizations, or communities that use, receive, or benefit from programs and services. Service recipients can include consumers, patients, family members, legal guardians, advocates, public/private organizations, employers, and purchasers. All are regarded as significant stakeholders served in a variety of agencies and practice settings.


	FAMILY Two or more people who consider themselves family and who assume obligations, functions, and responsibilities generally essential to healthy family life. Child care and child socialization, income support, long-term care, and other caregiving are among the functions of family life. The definition of "family" will rest with an individual's indication of who plays a family member role, including current or former foster family, adoptive family, extended family members, fictive kin, or significant others. Organizations that believe family is the central constellation in a child's life, and that family attachments are of primary importance for human development, will strive to work with professional staff to develop a common understanding of "family."


	ASSESSMENT An evaluation, which utilizes professional expertise and skills in the collection and analysis of data to understand and describe the nature of service needs of an individual, family, or group. Assessment, as in needs assessment, is also used to determine priorities of program planning and service development for the organization as a whole. See also DIAGNOSIS.


	CRITERIA Systematically developed, objective, and quantifiable statements used to assess the appropriateness of specific decisions, services, and outcomes.


	PERSONNEL The body of employees and/or volunteers that carries out the organization's tasks under the organization's administration and/or supervision. This definition does not include foster parents who are specifically referenced in relevant standards


	TRAINING Instruction so as to make fit, qualified, or proficient in a skill or body of knowledge.


	SPECIAL NEEDS A designation used in reference to conditions or characteristics of a person that reflect a need for special care, services, or treatment. When the term is used in the context of adoption services, special needs refers to conditions that make a child harder to place for adoption. This includes children who are members of sibling groups, older children, children with disabilities, children of certain racial /ethnic backgrounds, etc. When the term is used in the context of foster care it refers to the need for a higher degree of specialized case services and attention due to mental and physical disabilities. When the term is used in the context of out-of-school time services, a child or youth may have special physical, behavioral, medical, emotional, or cognitive needs that should be addressed or accommodated. The term is also used in other contexts. See also DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES.


	OBJECTIVE A sub-goal stated in operational terms, i.e., a statement that makes clear what expected results are to be measured or assessed.


	DIAGNOSIS The process by which a social, physical, or mental health problem and its underlying cause are identified and a plan of action formulated toward resolution of the problem. The diagnostic process involves collection and analysis of relevant information. See also ASSESSMENT.