Fall 2025 SOWk 486w Week 08 - Assessments

Fall 2025 SOWk 486w Week 08 - Assessments

title: Fall 2025 SOWk 486w Week 08 - Assessments date: 2025-10-13 23:06:11 location: Heritage University tags:

• Heritage University
• BASW Program
• SOWK 486w presentation_video: > “” description: >

Weeks eight and nine are both about how social workers conduct assessments. After we have started building relationships with our clients, and before we can find ways to support them, we must understand the real problem. We will be looking at how we do assessments. We will review examples of screening tools, talk about the DSM-5 and its uses. Students will also engage in their student teach back activity. Class time will be cut in about half, as I have to travel to Vancouver for a conference after the session. The agenda for class includes:

• Diagnostic Assessments
• Assessing for client needs
• Screening Tools
• Teach Back Activities

Learning objectives this week include:

• Identify ethical and professional considerations when using diagnostic tools and clinical terminology as BSW-level practitioners.
• Apply strengths-based and person-in-environment frameworks to assessment practices.
• Evaluate common screening tools for their relevance and utility in social work practice.

Plan for Week Eight

Agenda

• Diagnostic Assessments
• Assessing for client needs
• Screening Tools
• Teach Back Activities

Learning Objectives

• Identify ethical and professional considerations when using diagnostic tools and clinical terminology as BSW-level practitioners.
• Apply strengths-based and person-in-environment frameworks to assessment practices.
• Evaluate common screening tools for their relevance and utility in social work practice.

Mid-Term Feedback

You still have some time, but I’d really like the feedback.

2 have completed it 16 haven’t completed it so far…

The Multidimensionality of Assessment

Assessments give a social worker the ability to “gathering information and formulating it into a coherent picture of the client and his or her circumstances” (p. 187)

When we are thinking about assessments, we generally think about them as being multidimensional.

• Complex Interplay: Human problems, even those that appear to be simple at first glance–often involve a complex interplay of many factors.
  • Rarely do sources of problems reside solely within an individual or within that individual’s environment.
• Complex Social Institutions: The multidimensionality of human problems is a consequence of the fact that human beings are social creatures who depend both on other human beings and on complex social institutions to meet their needs.
• __ Person’s functioning__: Assessing the functioning of an individual entails evaluating various aspects of that person’s functioning.

(Hepworth et al., 2017)

Priorities in Assessment

Although a social worker’s assessment will be guided by the setting in which the assessment is conducted, certain priorities in assessment influence all social work settings.

Initially, three questions should be assessed in all situations:

• What does the client see as his or her primary concerns or goals?
• What (if any) current or impending legal mandates must the client and social worker consider?
• What (if any) potentially serious health or safety concerns might require the social worker’s and client’s attention?

(Hepworth et al., 2023)

Ethical Considerations Regarding Clinical Work

As students, and especially BA social work students, we want to discuss a little bit of the limitations of this. It should be self evident, but…

• Who gives diagnoses?

[Whole Class Activity: Discussion] Who general gives diagnoses? (think about autism and who general ascribe those diagnoses)

Students role in understanding clinical practice

• It’s about have a common language
• In reading reports
• Introduction to clinical terminology

Using the DSM

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is a collection of diagnoses of mental disordered accompanied by the typical behaviors and symptoms you might see in a particular diagnosis.

[Discussion] How much do you know about the DSM?

[Discussion] What is the purpose of the DSM

–> Click

• Common language
• Billing
• Research

Problems Related to the DSM

While the DSM is prolific and used everywhere, there are some problems that are related to the DSM?

[Discussion] What are some of the problems people have with use of a medical model for diagnoses

• Not strengths based (Graybeal, 2001)
• Possible loss of personal freedom (recommendations of specific treatments)
• Lifelong labeling
• Variance of diagnoses among professionals (other citation)

DSM Sections

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) is an important tool for understanding and formulating mental and emotional disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2013b).

For each disorder, the manual uses a standardized format to present relevant information. The sections contain:

• Diagnostic Criteria: The specific list of symptoms and conditions required for diagnosis, including duration and exclusion criteria.
• Diagnostic Features: A narrative description of core features that define the disorder and help differentiate it from others.
• Associated Features: Common but non-essential symptoms, behaviors, or conditions that often accompany the disorder.
• Prevalence: : Information on how common the disorder is in the general population and/or specific subgroups.
• Development and Course: Typical age of onset, how the disorder progresses over time, and lifespan considerations.
• Risk and Prognostic Factors: Factors that increase the likelihood of developing a disorder or influence its course and outcome. Divided into:
  • Temperamental: Individual personality traits or emotional tendencies that predispose someone to a disorder
  • Environmental: External life events or conditions—like trauma, stress, or upbringing—that affect risk or progression.
  • Genetic and Physiological: Inherited or biological traits that influence vulnerability to the disorder.
  • Course Modifiers: Factors that change the severity, persistence, or expression of the disorder once it has developed.
• Culture-Related Diagnostic Issues: How cultural context may influence the presentation, interpretation, or stigma of symptoms.
• Sex and Gender-Related Diagnostic Issues: Differences in prevalence, presentation, or course across genders.
• Association with Suicidal thoughts or Behaviors: Information about elevated risk and considerations for safety assessment.
• Functional Consequences of the Disorder: The impact of the disorder on a person’s daily life, work, relationships, etc.
• Differential Diagnosis: Other disorders or conditions that should be ruled out before making the diagnosis.
• Comorbidity: Other disorders that commonly co-occur with the diagnosis.

Some Entries include other information such as specifiers (e.g., severity, subtype, course), recording procedures, changes from DSM-IV, and ICD-10-CM Codes

Emphasizing Strengths in Assessments

To emphasize strengths and empowerment in the assessment process, Cowger (1994) as cited in the textbook made three suggestions to social workers:

• Give pre-eminence to the client’s understanding of the facts
• Discover what the client wants
• Assess personal and environmental strengths on multiple levels

Framework for Strengths in Assessment

When we are engaging in assessment, there are four quadrants we might be looking towards.

• Strengths or Resources Vs.
• Deficit, Obstacle, or Challenges

And

• Environmental factors (family, community) Vs.
• Individual or personal factors

How Observant Are You?

The following is a short video. So, you all have at least gotten your AA. I want to do a short little test to see how well you can count. We are going to watch a short movie clip of two teams (a black one and a white one) passing the ball. Make sure that you keep an accurate count!

[Activity] Watch the video clip

[Discussion] How many did you count? How many of you noticed the gorilla moon walking through the background?

Context is important when we think about our clients situations.

Conditions Surrounding Troubling Behaviors

Assessment focuses on the conditions surrounding troubling behaviors, the conditions that reinforce the behavior, and the consequences and secondary gains that might result. Questions to address this sequence include:

• When: When do you experience the behavior?
• Where: Where do you experience the behavior?
• Duration: How long does the behavior usually last?
• Consequences: What happens immediately after the behavior occurs?
• Physiological: What bodily reactions do you experience with the behavior?
• Social: What do the people around you usually do when the behavior is happening?
• Reinforcement: What happened after the behavior that was pleasant?

School Context: ABC Data to Build an FBA, so there can be a BIP?

Sources of Information for Assessments (1 of 2)

Numerous sources of information can be used individually or in combination. The following are the most common:

• Information provided by the client
  • Background sheets or other intake forms the clients complete
  • Interviews with clients (e.g., explanation, history, and views about the problem, significant contributing events)
  • Client self-monitoring (e.g., keeping a journal of anxious thoughts)
• Collateral information (e.g., relatives, friends, physicians, teachers, employers, and other professionals)
• Tests or assessment instruments
• Social workers personal experiences with the client
  • Direct observation of clients’ nonverbal behavior
  • Direct observation of interactions between partners, family members, and group members
  • Personal experiences of the social worker based on direct client interactions

[Small Group Activity] Talk with a partner about: What are the advantages and limitations of each of the sources of information for assessment? What sources are typically used in their field settings? What other information sources would be useful? Why are useful sources not used? Share back answers with whole group

Sources of Information for Assessments (2 of 2)

Where Would You Get Information: Assessing Various Populations

what sources of data would be useful in helping them to understand the problem. Would the focus or data need to be changed depending on the role of the social worker involved or the auspices where the assessment was being done (school vs. child guidance clinic; vocational rehabilitation vs. mental health center, etc.)?

• a child acting out in the classroom
• a middle-aged man with a history of job losses
• a 17-year-old who is seeking custody of younger siblings
• an elderly woman whose competence is in question

Introduction - Managing Stress - BBC

College and life is stressful. The following is a short video clip about managing stress by the BBC.

[Whole Class Activity] Watch video clip

Perceived Stress Screener (1 of 2)

We are going to talk some about screening tools. The Global Measure of Perceived Stress, original published by Cohen et al. in 1983, is a tool. I didn’t want to choose a tool that would be too intrusive and that might still be useful. In class, I’ve generally printed and had students complete about five different screeners to see how each of them work. Today we will just do this one.

[Whole Class Activity] Write on a sheet of paper your rating for each of the numbers (make sure to number your answer)

1. In the last month, how often have you been upset because of something that happened unexpectedly?
2. In the last month, how often have you felt that you were unable to control the important things in your life?
3. In the last month, how often have you felt nervous and stressed?
4. In the last month, how often have you felt confident about your ability to handle your personal problems?
5. In the last month, how often have you felt that things were going your way?
6. In the last month, how often have you found that you could not cope with all the things that you had to do?
7. In the last month, how often have you been able to control irritations in your life?
8. In the last month, how often have you felt that you were on top of things?
9. In the last month, how often have you been angered because of things that happened that were outside of your control?
10. In the last month, how often have you felt difficulties were piling up so high that you could not overcome them?

For each question choose from the following alternatives: 0 - never 1 - almost never 2 - sometimes 3 - fairly often 4 - very often

Example taken from the New Hampshire Department of Employee Assistance Programs: https://das.nh.gov/wellness/Docs/Percieved%20Stress%20Scale.pdf

Perceived Stress Screener (2 of 2)

Score yourself

1. Reverse your scores for questions 4, 5, 7, and 8. On these 4 questions, change the scores like this: 0 = 4, 1 = 3, 2 = 2, 3 = 1, 4 = 0.
2. Add up your scores for each item to get a total.

Individual scores on the PSS can range from 0 to 40 with higher scores indicating higher perceived stress.

• Scores ranging from 0-13 would be considered low stress.
• Scores ranging from 14-26 would be considered moderate stress.
• Scores ranging from 27-40 would be considered high perceived stress.

The Perceived Stress Scale is interesting and important because your perception of what is happening in your life is most important. Consider the idea that two individuals could have the exact same events and experiences in their lives for the past month. Depending on their perception, total score could put one of those individuals in the low stress category and the total score could put the second person in the high stress category

[Small Group Activity] Students will be broken up into small groups to consider their scores for the Perceived Stress Screener

• How accurate was your do you feel this was
• How is completing a screener useful for the worker
• How is completing a screener useful for the client

[Whole Class Activity] Have discussion about how we can use screeners and why we might use them.

Examples of the Screeners - PHQ-9 - Patient Depression Questionnaire

PHQ-9 - Patient Depression Questionnaire

Examples of the Screeners - GAD-7 - Generalized Anxiety

GAD-7 - Generalized Anxiety

Examples of the Screeners - GAIN-SS

GAIN-SS - Internalizing, externalizing, and substance abuse.

Examples of Screener Forms Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner

Show the various tools at PMH-NP

In-Class Teach Back Activity

Students are to prepare to share information and have a discussion with classmates about their selected area. Students may choose to create a presentation that can be completed during class. The goal is to help classmates know how to assess for the given topic and have a group discussion about the topic.

• Assessing Cognitive/Perceptual Functioning (pp. 168-172)
• Assessing Cognitive/Perceptual Functioning (pp. 172-176)
• Assessing Affective Functioning (pp. 176-180)
• Assessing Biophysical Functioning (pp. 180-182)
• Assessing Environmental System (pp. 182-186)

-> Click you can email me slides