Health and Psychology

The average psychologist does little by way of assessment in clinical practice.  There are several reasons for this.  First, psychological assessment is a complex and expensive process.  The average psychological test costs about $500 to purchase and the average test battery consists of about 3 to 5 tests.  Second, the tests are updated about every 10 to 15 years requiring repurchase of new items.  Lastly, they are time consuming to administer, score and interpret and keep up with. 

So that makes what I do for a living fairly unusual.  I perform a lot of psychological and neuropsychological testing.  I budget to purchase about $1000 to $2000 worth of testing materials each year.  Because I teach both psychological and neuropsychological assessment, I feel I need to stay on top of the new items coming out in the assessment field.

I have about 200 or more psychological and neuropsychological instruments to select from when putting together a test battery.  With that much to choose from I can select a battery that allows me to fully evaluate a person and document how they are functioning.  My colleague I share my Los Angeles office space with has additional test materials and an inticate computer scorng system that allows some integration of tests. 

In a complex assessment I'm evaluating a person across time, maybe across setting, across a variety of accommodation strategies-to see what works and what doesn't work, and across all areas of psychological and possibly all neuropsychological domains.  The assessment depends on the nature of the referral question.

There are several areas of complex assessment I'm involved in.  The first is to determine the etiology (cause) of a neurological condition.  Another is determination of disability accommodations required for a formal examination process.  Another is an undiagnosed medical condition with psychological or neuropsychological symptoms adding to the mix.

With any complex assessment it's important to get an adequate history.  The person being evaluated is not always the best source of information for that history.  If they can provide medical records, statements from family members or friends, employment or school records, or legal records that can help to clarify the background and to establish how the person functioned premorbidly (prior to the illness, accident or injury) or to establish a baseline of functional abilities to document learning problems or disability that helps greatly.

Next:  Test selection