Assessment and Diagnosis

Assessment and Diagnosis

Name

Institution

Assessment and Diagnosis

Screening refers to a brief process that happens soon after a person seeks services and shows whether the person is probably to have and substance use disorder or mental health disorder. People who screen positive for any co-occurring disorders ought to receive a comprehensive or in-depth assessment.

• Definitions
  • Screening

  Assessment happens after the screening, and it refers or comprises of gathering major information to collaboratively form a concept of the issue and then develop a treatment plan. It establishes the absence or presence of any co-occurring disorder and establishes a person’s readiness for change.

  • Assessment

  A treatments plan is a documented plan which describes the condition and procedure (s) that a patient will require detailing or specify the treatment to be offered, the expected outcome, as well as the expected treatment duration prescribed by a physician.

  • Treatment plan

  Crisis management is required to deal with any threats before, during, as well as after they have occurred. It is needed to provide clients with support and reassurance, assessing the problem’s nature and determining the client’s psychiatric, mental, homicidal or suicidal and medical statuses. It also assists in ensuring the patient’s safety as well as helping a client in developing a good action plan which reduces stress. Crisis management is needed to identify, evaluate, comprehend, and cope with a critical condition, particularly from the time it first happens to the point in which recovery procedures start. Crisis management prepares a client to face any unexpected developments and unfavorable conditions with determination and courage. Besides, it helps clients to adjust very well to the rapid changes in the body (Kavan, 2018). When working with a client, crisis management is needed to help clients analyze and understand the causes of any disorder or crisis and deal with it in the most excellent possible way. Additionally, crisis management assists clients to feel the early symptoms or sign of crisis, know the steps to take for treatment, and take appropriate precautions.

  • Crisis Management

  The assessment process for identifying addictive disorders

  • Assessment Process

  The process of identifying addictive disorders is fairly simple. Assessment is among the five crucial elements of successful substance abuse treatment. The process of assessment comprises of gathering information from different sources concerning the person’s past treatment, substance use patterns, medical history, family history, legal history, and other crucial factors. Besides, a drug use screening inventory-revised or DUSI-R comprises of an individual drug use screening instrument, a history form, medical, and prevention/treatment summary plan. It has 149 items that offer a lot of helpful information concerning the person, although it is an unpopular assessment currently.

  Another tool that assists structure the setting of the interview for the assessor and the individual is the Addiction Severity Index. The interview comprises of 161 questions which are queried by the assessor while still recording the responses. Here, the person can rate/measure his/her distress level in each given area, and the assessor also can establish other areas of concern all through the process. ASI has been discovered to be less successful on people with concurrent psychological health problems and substance use. Finally, the assessor can make a proper diagnosis and also make treatment recommendations.

  Considerations to be made for choosing an appropriate assessment tool

  • Considerations

  There are various factors which should be looked at when selecting the right assessment and screening tools. First screening ought not to be time-consuming, though sufficiently long for the physician/assessor to acquire pertinent information. Besides, assessments and screening must only get administered to people known to be under threat/risk, in different settings, by several professionals. Besides, all processes and instruments ought to be sensitive to cultural, racial, gender-related, and socioeconomic concerns. Finally, all involved professionals and agencies should work collaboratively on all screening techniques, instruments, and process.

  A general overview of the substance use disorder criteria according to the DSM

  • General Overview of Criteria

  Substance use disorders cover/span a wide mixture of issues occurring from substance use, and it covers 11 different criteria which are:

  Potential problems that can arise when a counselor relies solely on the diagnostic criteria listed in the DSM for treatment planning

  • Taking the substance for longer or in larger amounts than one is meant to
    • Wanting/wishing to stop or cut down the substance but not being able to manage it
    • Spending more time using, getting, or recovering from utilization of the substance
    • Urges and cravings to use the substance
  • Being not able to do what you are supposed to do at home, school, or work because of the substance use
  • Going on to use, even when this puts you at risk
  • Reducing or stopping important occupational, social, or recreational activities because of opioid use
  • Recurrent use in physically harmful situations
    • Going on to use, even when one knows that they have a psychological or physical issue that could have been made worse or caused by the substance (Horvath et al., 2016).
    • Wanting more of this substance to find or get the effect that you want
    • The development of withdrawal symptoms/sign, which can get relieved by only taking more of this substance.
    • Potential Problems

  One of the major problems of solely relying on DSM-5 is that DSM-5 diagnoses are inaccurate representations of psychological or mental disorders and also are not necessarily successful in establishing what approaches of treatment are necessary for certain disorders. Besides, DSM-5 lacks scientific reliability and validity, and it does not sufficiently inform treatment. Rather than offering professionals with a client’s “whole picture,” DSM focuses on the negative features of a client’s functioning. Thus, the emphasis on the symptoms overlooks strengths the person may have and resources and support systems that could be available.

  Additionally, although DSM list criteria for the disorders, it tends not to link all the disorders to treatment since it depends on the presentation of the symptoms to classify presenting concerns, regularly disregarding developmental problems and cultural context.

  Examples of commonly used substance use disorder assessment tools

  • Examples

  The two examples of commonly used substance use disorder assessment tools are Addiction Severity Index (ASI) and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). AUDIT is used to classify people whose consumption of alcohol has become harmful or dangerous to their health. ASI effectively assesses the status of a client in various areas, plus the composite score assesses how the needs of a client for treatment tend to change over time (Treatment, 2018).

  References

  Horvath, T., Misra, K., Epner, A. and Morgan Cooper, G. (2016). The Diagnostic Criteria for Substance Use Disorders (Addiction). [online] Mentalhelp.net. Available at: https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/the-diagnostic-criteria-for-substance-use-disorders-addiction/ [Accessed 5 Feb. 2018].

  Kavan, M., Guck, T. and Barone, E. (2018). A Practical Guide to Crisis Management. [online] Aafp.org. Available at: https://www.aafp.org/afp/2006/1001/p1159.html [Accessed 5 Feb. 2018].

  Treatment, C. (2018). Appendix C: Screening and Assessment Instruments. [online] Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64117/ [Accessed 5 Feb. 2018].