ABSTRACT
In general, for mental health professionals (i.e., psychiatry, psychology, licensed and certified mental health providers, and social workers), the guidance for how to practice and what to do in conducting assessments or evaluations is established and communicated by the respective field’s or discipline’s professional associations (American Psychological Association, 1992, 2002, 2010). Practice guidelines (American Psychological Association, 2015) “are designed to guide psychologists in practice with regards to particular roles, populations, or settings and provide them with the current scholarly literature” (p. 823). There are also guidelines that relate to specific disorders and interventions put forth by the professional associations. There is an important distinction between guidelines put forth as policy and guidelines that are aspirational statements offering suggestions or recommendations about how professionals in the discipline should behave. Guidelines for practice, when established, offer a clearly stated and specific need to identify a singular practice-related topic apart from general practice (American Psychological Association, 2015).
