Family Assessment

This thoroughly revised and updated second edition of Child and Family Assessment in Social Work Practice is an essential guide for social work students and practitioners involved in the assessment of children and their families. Focusing on ′core′ assessments and guiding the reader through the complexities of conducting assessments of need and risk, the book now includes within each chapter a range of specifically-tailored exercises and focus points which encourage readers both to reflect on what they have learnt and to understand how they can apply that learning to practice. Placing a strong emphasis on good, evidence-based, assessment practice, Sally Holland has also, for this new edition, included original research evidence from a wide range of up-to-date research studies which are relevant to today′s practice and which aim to promote a critical and reflective approach to the assessment process. The book is divided into three parts: - Part 1 explores different appoaches to assessment work, outlining policy changes and their implications for working with children and their families. - Part 2 studies those involved in child and family assessments: children and their parents; and the relationship between the assessors and the assessed. - Part 3 - a more practical guide - outlines the actual process of an assessment, illustrated by case studies, focusing on planning assessment methods, analysis, reporting and critical evaluation. Accessibly relating theory and research to actual practice through the use of case studies, exercises, and suggestions for good practice and further reading, this book has a student-friendly structure It will be an invaluable resource for practitioners and academics across the field of social welfare, particularly for those embarking on, or already involved in, child and family assessment.

The field of family, child, and couple assessment continues to evolve and change since the first edition of this book appeared in 2004. Couple and Family Assessment, Third Edition, is a thoroughly revised and updated resource for anyone working with children, adolescents, couples, and families. It provides an in-depth description of an even larger number of clinically useful assessment tools and methods, including issue-specific tools, self-report inventories, standardized inventories, qualitative measures, and observational methods. Each chapter provides strategies for systematically utilizing these various assessment methods and measures with a wide range of family dynamics that influence couples and families. These include couples conflict, divorce, separation, mediation, premarital decisions, parenting conflicts, child abuse, family violence, custody evaluation, and child and adolescent conditions, i.e., depression, anxiety, conduct disorder, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, autism, Asperger’s syndrome, and learning disorders that can significantly influence family dynamics. This third edition features the latest, most common and important assessment tools and strategies for addressing problematic clinical issues related to working with families, couples, and children. Chapters 3 through 11 include matrices that summarize pertinent information on all instruments reviewed, allowing readers to instantly compare more than 130 assessment devices. Finally, the book provides extensive clinical case material that illustrates the use of these various assessment tools and strategies in a wide array of clinical situations. Couple and Family Assessment, Third Edition, will be useful to both trainees and practitioners as a ready reference on assessment measures and strategies for working with families, couples, and children.

The concepts of Murray Bowen, one of the founders of family therapy and the originator of family systems theory, are brought together here in an integrative fashion. Michael Kerr (who worked with Bowen for many years) and Bowen propose that the enormously complex task of evaluating a clinical family can be orderly when it is grounded in family systems theory. Using family diagrams and case studies, the book is devoted to an elegant explication of Bowen theory, which analyzes multigenerational family relationships and conceptualizes the family as an emotional unit or as a network of interlocking relationships, not only among the family members, but also among biological, psychological, and sociological processes. Bowen’s persistent inquiry and devotion to family observation, in spite of obstacles and frustrations, have resulted in a theory that has radically changed our ways of looking at all behavior.

The purpose of this book is to give students introductory knowledge and skills for the assessment of family functioning and guidelines for clinical assessment and intervention planning. Students, beginning practitioners, and instructors can facilitate learning through the case studies and activities.-Pref.

Harness the power of the nurse-family relationship! Use the thoroughly revised Calgary Family Assessment and Intervention Models to assess families effectively and know when and how to intervene to reduce suffering and promote health.

In an era that demands ever-increasing levels of accountability and documentation, Family Assessment is a vital tool for clinicians. It covers more than one hundred assessment methods – both the most widely used strategies as well as those that are more specialized and issue-specific. Techniques and instruments for assessments are summarized concisely in tables and discussed in depth in the chapters, often by the experts who developed the approaches they describe. Each chapter is also supplemented by recommended strategies for utilizing the assessment tools, as well as by case studies and observational method matrices. Readers will find that the second edition of Family Assessment provides the same comprehensive evaluation and thorough analysis as the first edition but with a fully updated focus that will invigorate the work of researchers, educators, and clinicians.

Child and Family Assessment is based on Ian Wilkinson's extensive experience of working with troubled children and families over the last twenty years. This completely revised and updated edition of Family Assessment (Gardner Press, 1993) combines a clear summary of current knowledge with practical, detailed and adaptable procedures for practitioner use. Part one reviews the literature on child and family assessment; part two discusses the practical issues involved and provides detailed guidelines for practitioners; a final part examines the relationship between clinical practice, assessment and science with respect to children and families. Written from an eclectic point of view in a clear and precise style, using common sense terms, this book will be an essential guide for all those in the helping professions, including therapists, psychologists, doctors, nurses, social workers and lawyers.

Showing how to weave assessment into all phases of therapy, this indispensable text and practitioner guide is reader friendly, straightforward, and practical. Specific strategies are provided for evaluating a wide range of clinical issues and concerns with adults, children and adolescents, families, and couples. The authors demonstrate ways to use interviewing and other techniques to understand both individual and relationship functioning, develop sound treatment plans, and monitor progress. Handy mnemonics help beginning family therapists remember what to include in assessments, and numerous case examples illustrate what the assessment principles look like in action with diverse clients. See also the authors' Essential Skills in Family Therapy, Third Edition: From the First Interview to Termination, which addresses all aspects of real-world clinical practice, and Clinician's Guide to Research Methods in Family Therapy.

This book on family assessment integrates psychodynamic and systemic perspectives in a unique way. U.S. and European authors draw from both perspectives and integrate their cultural backgrounds. In this book the family is evaluated on three levels: the individuals, the dyads and triads, and the family system. Interwoven with clinical examples, the first part discusses the importance of the initial interview, from the first contact with a family to goal setting and treatment planning. The second part presents the various clinical perspectives that underlie the three-level model. These perspectives include the family's contextual factors such as its stage in the family life cycle, its social world, and related areas such as parenting styles and behavior. Finally, the third part presents some clinical applications focusing on the use of family sculpting procedures as assessment tools. This family assessment book is a true integration of theoretical perspectives and international expertise, edited and written by leading family assessment researchers from the United States and Europe.

Family Assessment is the first book devoted exclusively to the application and interpretation of psychological tests in couples and family therapy. Using case examples, this book offers concrete, clinical advice on how to interpret test results to gain a better understanding of interpersonal compatibility, family dynamics, and systemic functioning.