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Forensic Assessment

Decent Essays

What assessments would you conduct to enhance your understanding of the client’s problems and how would your choice of assessment(s) inform your diagnostic formation and treatment planning? Assessments may include structured or unstructured interviews, valid and reliable assessment measures, and/or formalized assessment procedures that may be conducted by yourself or by someone else referred by you.
In order to understand the client’s problem, the evaluator must gather relevant data as it pertains to the forensic issues of concern (Bartol & Bartol, 2011). Based on the vignette, it appears the forensic issue is whether or not Danita understands the nature of her actions and the charges against her. Danita expressed her disbelief of the charges …show more content…

This background information will not only enhance the evaluator understanding, but it will provide the evaluator with knowledge on what past professional have said about her.
After gathering the appropriate background information, the clinical interview would be the next step to understand Danita Johnson mental state and behavior. Prior to the start of the clinical interview, the evaluator should explain to Danita the purpose of the evaluation and discuss the limits of confidentiality. According to the Specialty Guidelines for Forensic Psychologists (2013), forensic examiners are advised to inform the defendant of the purpose and the nature of to which the evaluation comes from. The evaluator should also inform Danita her rights and who will receive the completed …show more content…

This test will assess the personality and psychopathology of Danita Johnson and determine her current level of functioning. Substance abuse assessment would be another assessment that would be recommend due to Danita history of using drugs and drinking alcohol. The test that would be used is called the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory-3 (Pittenger, 2003). This test will be used to indicate the risk of substance dependence in the life of Danita. It is also important to assess for suicidal ideation as

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