SOCW 6111 Week 5 Discussion 1

SOCW 6111 Week 5 Discussion 1: Screening And Assessment Tools

What is important to know and when is it important to know it? To intervene in a problem, a social worker must first identify the problem. Screening and initial assessment can be useful to identity individuals who may be experiencing mental health concerns and could benefit from seeing a clinical social worker. This then would lead to a more comprehensive assessment from which a treatment plan is built. However, deciding who to assess, when, and using which tools can feel like a confusing process. For example, should you provide depression screenings in the community to people who are not clients? Should you screen all new clients for substance abuse regardless of presenting problem? Should you ask about suicide in every session or only when it feels like it could be a concern?

For this Discussion, review the following resources and consider the different screening and assessment tools currently available. Identify the tools you think you would be most likely to use in your practice.

American Psychiatric Association. (2018). Online assessment measures. Retrieved from https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/dsm/educational-resources/assessment-measures#Disorder

Beidas, R. S., Stewart, R. E., Walsh, L., Lucas, S., Downey, M. M., Jackson, K., ... & Mandell, D. S. (2015). Free, brief, and validated: Standardized instruments for low-resource mental health settings. Cognitive and behavioral practice, 22(1), 5-19. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4310476/ 

SAMSHA. (n.d.) Screening tools. Retrieved from https://www.integration.samhsa.gov/clinical-practice/screening-tools

Congress, E. (2013). Assessment of adults. In M. Holosko, C. Dulmus, & K. Sowers (Eds.), Social work practice with individuals and families: Evidence-informed assessments and interventions (pp. 125–145). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Post which screening and/or assessment tool(s) you would use in your Substance Use Disorder practice. 

Explain why you identified the specific instrument(s) given the type of practice and client population with whom you would like to work. 

Explain how and when you would use the tool(s). 

Explain how you would use the information gathered from the tool in a session.

Support your posts with specific references to the Learning Resources. Be sure to provide full APA citations for your references.

Must contain at least 2 references and citations