Structure Assessment in Counseling Practices

Structure Assessment in Counseling Practices

Introduction

The morbidity in psychiatry is common in the people, who visit their general physicians. In studies, it has been analyzed that 28% of the general physicians are involved in the psychiatric morbidity. Therefore, people are suggested to visit counselors and psychiatric for the disturbance in their psychological states. The psychiatrics use structure assessment techniques in initial stages for counseling practices (Ludt, 2012).

Structured clinical assessment in counseling practices is an evaluative means, which is used to evaluate the healthcare professionals in clinics. This tool is useful to evaluate the physical state of the subject on the basis of objective testing with the help of direct observation. This technique is precise and objective, which can be reproduced and allows the practitioner to have uniform tests for all the patients. Several counseling agencies make use of a variety of assessment processes and tools which include pre-counseling diagnostic tests and interviews. Individual counselors approach the assessments as per the specific theoretical models. They adhere to these models and apply their quantitative measure techniques accordingly (Williams & Garland, 2002). Therefore, assessment is a generic term, which is most of the time confused with the process and the content within the counseling practices. In this paper, we will discuss the perceived advantages and disadvantages of structured assessments in counseling practices.

Discussion

Perceived benefits of structure assessment in counseling practices

Structured assessment is a time saving tools to evaluate the psychological state of a patient. In addition, the perceived quality of care is different for every patient. However, good management of practices and organizations of healthcare is positively reflected in the assessment of patient for receiving counseling through structure assessment in practices. This highlights the significance of integrating the experience of patients into the measurements of quality to provide feedback to health care physicians and other professionals (Williams & Garland, 2002).

Disadvantages of Structured assessment in counseling practices

There is a wide range of problems associated with structured assessments in clinical settings. Some of which are discussed in this section.

Patient Becomes a Subject of Study

Diagnosis is mainly concerned with the classification of an issue, identification of signs and symptom of the patients with an identified disorder or health issue. The diagnosis provides clear details of diagnostic groups so as to allow the clinicians and physicians to diagnose and communicate the issue. However, in certain situation counseling becomes difficult with structured assessment, like counseling a patient with active hallucination or schizophrenia. Therefore, it is important that counselor should know the major psychiatric disorders. On the other hand, the appropriate use of criteria needs training of clinicians. Therefore, it renders difficulty in application of assessment in maintain counseling (Ludt, 2012).

In addition, a large number of people believe that use of this tool for the classification of issue may turn a patient into subject, i.e. an object of study. Individual determination, disability, responsibilities and competencies are not considered that are relevant in such studies. However, in certain cases, advancements have been made. The constantly problematic issues ...