Fall 2025 SOWK 486w Week 09 - Social Histories in the Context of Biopsychosocial Assessment

Fall 2025 SOWK 486w Week 09 - Social Histories in the Context of Biopsychosocial Assessment

title: Fall 2025 SOWK 486w Week 09 - Social Histories in the Context of Biopsychosocial Assessment date: 2025-10-20 13:41:53 location: Heritage University tags:

• Heritage University
• BASW Program
• SOWK 486w presentation_video: > Fall 2025 SOWK 486w Week 09 description: >

We nine is an asynchronous week, with no in-person class. Last week students read and engaged in class discussion focused on social work assessment. This week we are continuing the same focus. Some forums allow students to respond to questions about the readings, take and reflect on implicit bias, and provide examples of what sources of information we might gather for our assessment based on diverse client needs. I have a lecture video, where we review how we implement social histories and biopyschosocial assessments. The agenda for the lecture video includes:

• Week Nine Content
• Social Histories In the Context of Biopsychosocial Assessment

Learning Objectives for the week include:

• Identify the core components and structure of a biopsychosocial assessment form used
• Explain how to gather and organize information across multiple domains, including psychiatric, medical, social, developmental, and cultural.
• Reflect on the influence of implicit bias in clinical decision-making and utilize the IMPLICIT model to mitigate its impact.
• Determine what sources of information we should be exploring for diverse client populations.

Plan for Week Nine

Agenda

• Week Nine Content
• Social Histories In the Context of Biopsychosocial Assessment

Learning Objectives

• Identify the core components and structure of a biopsychosocial assessment form used
• Explain how to gather and organize information across multiple domains, including psychiatric, medical, social, developmental, and cultural.

Week Nine Content

Watch this lecture video

Make 4 Replies Across any of the 3 Forums

• Sources of Information Based on Setting or Population
• Exploring and Reflection on our Implicit Bias
• Chapter Eight and Nine Content Discussion

Biopsychosocial Assessment: What Goes On The Form

The format and structure of a biopsychosocial assessment varies greatly in how it is organized, understood, and considered. Forms are sometimes open headings and other times used with checkboxes or drop down menus. The following is the content that was identified by Hepworth et al. (2023):

• Identifying information (e.g., name, age, referral source)
• Presenting Problem (i.e., the presenting problem, symptoms, history of problem)
• The past psychiatric and medical history of the client and the client’s family (e.g., injuries, operations, medical conditions, medication, ongoing medical treatment)
• The client’s social history (e.g., overview of client’s childhood, family structure, living situation, employment and employment history, educational history, hobbies, daily routine, religious or spiritual preferences, friends, past trauma, substance use)
• A mental status exam and DSM-5 diagnosis
• A formulation (e.g., a statement that summarizes and synthesizes the most important aspects of the case to create a story of the client and their past and presenting problems)

Simple Assessment Example

I’m going to go through and talk about the questions and things I would look for during an assessment and I wanted to show you a simple version. Your assessment can look just like this, just a simple document.

Show: Student Social History form I created and used at the Pasco School District

Areas of Assessment in a Biopsychosocial Evaluation (1 of 5) General Areas

We generally assess the following areas:

• Presenting Problem
• Domains with Potential Needs
• Impressions and Recommendations

Areas of Assessment in a Biopsychosocial Evaluation (2 of 5) Strengths in Managing Presenting Problem

We assess for strengths throughout the interview, and it can help us understand their presenting needs as well as each domain that we assess for.

Some questions we might ask include:

• How have you been coping with your presenting problem?
• What resources or supports have you been using?
• What qualities do you have that have enabled you to keep going in the face of such difficulty and stress?

(Hepworth et al., 2023)

Areas of Assessment in a Biopsychosocial Evaluation (3 of 5) Central Questions to Assess the Presenting Problem

In finding out what the presenting problem is, there are some central questions that guide the focus of the interview to understand the presenting problem.

• How severe is the problem?
• What meaning does the client ascribe to the problem?
• Where does the problem occur?
• When does the problem occur?
• How often does the problem occur?
• How long has the problem existed?

We don’t ask these questions, but they guide our assessment.

(Hepworth et al., 2023)

Areas of Assessment in a Biopsychosocial Evaluation (4 of 5) Domains with Potential Needs

The following are some of what I think about as common areas we might evaluate for in a a assessment. The content that we might draw from each one is different and dependent on setting.

• Psychiatric history (e.g., Px Dx, Family Dx/problems)
• Medical History (e.g., injuries, operations, medical conditions, medication, ongoing medical treatment)
• Substance abuse
• Trauma, safety, and risk
• Family (relationship, connections)
• Social supports (quantity, connection, group involvement)
• Developmental history
• Education and employment history
• Strengths and resources
• Cultural and spiritual

Areas of Assessment in a Biopsychosocial Evaluation (5 of 5) Impressions and Recommendations

Finally, assessments have a place for us to share our impressions and recommendations.

These might include:

• At a MSW level -> A mental status exam and DSM-5 diagnosis
• Summary and formulation
• Recommendations