ABSTRACT
The Psychosocial Assessment was developed to provide treatment staff with a comprehensive profile of adolescents placed at the Oshawa/Whitby Crisis Intervention Centre, a reentry program of the Four Phase System (Pazaratz, 1998a). This assessment model is typically performed by direct care staff in order to augment the psychological or psychiatric assessment that is typically included in the referral package. It specifies a youngster’s developmental attainment relative to established age-expected norms, or the behaviors of similarly aged peers. Even though most youth placed in residential treatment have been classified based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TM; American Psychiatric Association, 2000), subsequently the Psychosocial Assessment provides a structured format for the collection of additional data. It identifies the young person’s difficulties, and establishes a direction for treatment. It assists the treatment team to develop multiple perspectives of a youngster, in relation to social skills, self-regulating behaviors, and peer and adult relations. It also describes ego functioning, cognitive and communicative abilities, group home adjustment, interaction with family, and the range of behaviors at school and in the community. Because this assessment is concerned with all aspects of a youngster’s life-past, present, and future-and circular causality, it addresses the resident’s pathology, or deviation from the norm, and identifies any blocks in the change process.
