Better Understanding Your Mental Health Leads to Wellness
A psychological assessment may be an essential component of creating your optimal treatment plan. If you don’t have a formal mental health diagnosis, a psychological assessment given by one of our expertly-trained psychologists can help.
You’re not alone in navigating your mental health. We are here to find your path to wellness. For some mental health concerns, a psychological assessment can greatly reduce the risk of misdiagnosis, which can lead to an inappropriate treatment approach.
What is a Psychological Assessment?
The psychological assessment administered at HPA/LiveWell is a diagnostic tool to better understand the underlying characteristics of your mental health and cognitive functioning. An array of tasks are used to gather information about how you think, behave, feel, and respond in a variety of situations. Often, they are also used to identify underlying attention problems in children and adults.
Psychological assessments measure your:
- Cognitive functioning: memory, processing speed, decision-making, perception, and language abilities
- Academic skills: fluency and application
- Behavior: observations during your psychological assessment and reports of self and others
What You Can Expect From Our Comprehensive Psychological Assessment
The thought of a psychological assessment may sound intimidating to you, but it’s nothing you have to worry about. These measures are designed to pinpoint your areas of both strength and struggle, and to determine the best treatment plan for you. Our goal is always to help you improve how you feel and function. Sometimes, before we can do that, we need to understand more thoroughly what you’re going through.
- After your initial evaluation, if we determine you need a psychological assessment, we’ll refer you to one of our trained, licensed psychologists.
- You’ll participate in two to three assessment sessions. Each session lasts approximately two to three hours, depending on your age and stamina.
- Once you complete your psychological assessment, the same psychologist who administered it reviews and integrates the information, including observations, subjective reports, and objective data.
- Your psychologist prepares a comprehensive report including a diagnosis, if indicated, and treatment recommendations.
- The length of time between finishing your last assessment session and meeting to discuss the findings varies. Typically, the feedback session is scheduled two to four weeks later.
- Your psychologist discusses your results, diagnosis (if applicable), and treatment plan in your one-hour feedback session. Please note that if the feedback session is about a child or adolescent, it’s typically conducted with the parents or guardians only. However, if you’d like to schedule another developmentally-sensitive feedback session with the child or adolescent, we can do that, too.
Your psychological assessment consists of several different methods of gathering data. Depending on your individual needs, your assessment could include:
- Clinical interview
- Cognitive tests
- Achievement tests
- Behavioral observations
- Self-reporting measures like symptom checklists
- Other reporting measures like parent and teacher questionnaires
Some Things You Should Know About Our Psychological Assessments
- Psychological Assessments Prevent Misdiagnosis
Not everyone needs to undergo psychological testing to get the mental health treatment they need. If you have a previous diagnosis, you may not need an assessment. But if you are unsure of the root of your struggles, a psychological assessment could help.Since some mental health issues share many similar symptoms, it can be challenging to pinpoint what's really going on. With a psychological assessment, we can provide a diagnosis and start you on the right path toward wellness. - Psychological Assessments Address Your Specific Needs
These assessments don’t focus on a single test score, grade, or number. Every patient is unique, which is why these assessments are so comprehensive. We not only identify your limitations, but we also focus on your skills and strengths.At HPA/LiveWell, we take into account the context in which you are tested. That means we interpret your results while keeping in mind factors like your living environment and physical health. Not everyone's situation is the same, nor is every assessment report.
You May Be Referred for Additional Services. We do not have any psychiatrists on staff.
Your psychological assessment will be administered by one of our expert psychologists. Often, that same psychologist will guide you through your treatment plan. But if your results indicate additional support is appropriate, we may refer you to another provider (ie: specialty clinician, occupational therapist, psychiatrist, etc.).
We will work to connect you with all of the resources you need. - We Aren’t Scheduling Psychological Assessments During the COVID-19 Pandemic
We take your health and the health of our staff seriously. Since our in-person assessment sessions require you to spend up to three hours together, sitting face-to-face less than six feet apart, we have temporarily suspended our assessment services.However, we are happy to provide you with the names of psychologists in the area that are still conducting limited assessments.
You Deserve to Feel Better, and We Can Help
We know starting a mental health treatment plan can be intimidating. At HPA/LiveWell, you’ll find a team of compassionate, collaborative, expert clinicians ready to patiently walk you through any concerns you may have.
You’ve been suffering long enough. Contact us. At your initial evaluation, we’ll determine if a psychological assessment may be the next step toward wellness.