Psychological Assessment of Children in a Community Mental Health Clinic

Abstract

Collaborative and Therapeutic Assessment (TA) models (Finn & Tonsager, 1997 Finn, S. E. and Tonsager, M. E. 1997. Information-gathering and therapeutic models of assessment: Complementary paradigms. Psychological Assessment, 9: 374–385. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Fischer, 1985/1994) use psychological tests to answer client-constructed assessment questions in an understandable language, to be an intervention in and of themselves, and to initiate recommendations related to the referral. This article considers the application of Finn's TA model to an urban community psychology clinic in Oakland, California, where foster and kinship care, the child welfare system, trauma, neglect, and attachment disruptions are children's usual experience. These children hide their pain and complaints (Kelly, 1999 Kelly, F. 1999. The psychological assessment of abused and traumatized children, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), but show highly problematic behaviors to bewildered and frustrated caretakers, social workers, and school personnel. Their trauma, however, also often permeates the assessment data and shocks the assessor. A rationale is made for the necessity of a relational, culturally aware, systemic model in providing psychological assessment services to children and families in a community setting.

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