Mental Health Assessments
Clinical Psychology
Gold standard, evidence-based assessment and report writing.
Autism, ADHD, Learning Difficulties
WHO ARE WE?
Hello and welcome to Mental Health Assessments. We are a team of clinical and generalist psychologists dedicated to providing evidence-based, gold standard, in depth assessments for neurodevelopmental, learning and mental health difficulties occurring in children and adults.
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We aim to help you understand if there is a significant clinically relevant developmental issue; and to help you navigate the way forward for yourself or child depending on the outcome of the assessment.
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Thus, regardless of diagnosis, we aim to help you identify strengths and weaknesses, to let you know whether there is a significant clinical issue (or not), and to pave a pathway forward (which will be outlined in our comprehensive report).
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All of our practitioners are approved to practice with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Authority as Psychologists, meaning they have at least 6 years of education and training in psychology, including ongoing supervision and professional development.
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We are happy to discuss whether or not an assessment pathway is indicated over the phone initially. We do this as we do not believe in testing if there is not an indication that it is initially warranted.
ASSESSMENT PROCESS
CHILD NEURODEVELOPMENTAL AND LEARNING ASSESSMENTS
1. Initial (free) phone conversation to discuss your concerns about your child
2. In person assessment session with parents (ideally both if applicable and possible) and child. This session includes collection of specific information about current presenting issues and past developmental and learning history.
Interview with child involves general developmental, mental health and learning screen (i.e. observing potential signs of neurodevelopmental, mental health or learning issues) and rapport building with child (relevant to later testing to reduce anxiety which may impact performance).
3. Setting up a phone interview with teacher, or school classroom/playground observation of your child, or both. Administration to teacher of formal, evidence-based, questionnaires screening and assessing for neurodevelopmental, learning and mental health issues.
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4. Administration of similar formal questionnaires to parents.
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5. Administration of formal neurodevelopmental behavioural and cognitive testing such as ADOS-2 (for autism spectrum), WISC or SB5 (for ADHD) and WIAT (for learning issues). Additional formal measures may be administered depedning on the outcome of steps 2, 3, 4 and 5.
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6. Collate all information and write up a formal report for feedback to parents. Report may be shared with school (and others) at parents discretion. Reports include diagnostic information, strengths and weakness profile, and specific practical advice to support child at home and school (and other relevant contexts) both today and into the future. This includes potential intervention/therapy recommendations also.
ADULT NEURODEVELOPMENTAL AND LEARNING ASSESSMENTS
1. Initial (free) phone conversation to discuss what you are seeking help with. For example, wanting to know if you experience autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, or some other learning issue.
2. In person assessment session with you, including a full mental health, developmental and learning screen examining both current functioning and past development.
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3. As neurodevelopmental issues are sometimes more difficult to formally assess than in children we may suggest spending several session working on stressors and situations that you have identified as impacting you (e.g., anxiety in social situations, completing university work) to further develop whether your issues are normative (i.e. everyone goes through this), impacted by another mental health issue that is not learning or neurodevelopmentally related (e.g., generalised anxiety, stress or depression) or whether formal testing and diagnosis may be warranted.
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In some situation we may not move ahead with additional sessions before completing testing, and in this case it would be if there are strong indicators of a learning or neurodevelopmental issue being present.
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5. Administration of formal neurodevelopmental behavioural and cognitive testing such as ADOS-2 (for autism spectrum), WISC or SB5 (for ADHD) and WIAT (for learning issues). Additional formal measures may be administered depedning on the outcome of steps 2, 3, 4 and 5.
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6. Collate all information and write up a formal report for feedback to you. Reports include diagnostic information, strengths and weakness profile, and specific practical advice to support child at home and school (and other relevant contexts) both today and into the future. This includes potential intervention/therapy recommendations also.