Practicum Assessing Clients 2

Learning Objectives Students will: •Assess clients presenting for psychotherapy • Develop genograms for clients presenting for psychotherapy

To prepare: • Select a client whom you have observed or counseled at your practicum site. • Review pages 137–142 of the Wheeler text and the Hernandez Family Genogram video in this week’s Learning Resources. Reflect on elements of writing a Comprehensive Client Assessment and creating a genogram for the client you selected.

The Assignment

Part 1: Comprehensive Client Family Assessment With this client in mind, address the following in a Comprehensive Client Assessment (without violating HIPAA regulations): •Demographic information •Presenting problem •History or present illness •Past psychiatric history •Medical history • Substance use history •Developmental history •Family psychiatric history •Psychosocial history •History of abuse/trauma •Review of systems •Physical assessment •Mental status exam •Differential diagnosis •Case formulation •Treatment plan

Part 2: Family Genogram Prepare a genogram for the client you selected. The genogram should extend back by at least three generations (great grandparents, grandparents, and parents).

Required Readings:

(1) Wheeler, K. (Ed.). (2014). Psychotherapy for the advanced practice psychiatric nurse: A how-to guide for evidence-based practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.

ATTACHED WITH THIS HOMEWORK IS A SAMPLE OF THIS ASSIGNMENT AND REMEMBER IT HAS TWO PARTS.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.