Psychology assessment

[Anji]

Hi,

I have my son taken away from me in October. I have my asessments that I will need to do. One of them is Physological assessment test tomorrow, I am very nervous about this as they are going to test me on Autism, personality disorder and everything else. I don't think I have these traits. What questions will be asked and how do I answer them. Sorry haven't attended these assessments before so don't know how to approach them. Any help, guidance, tips would be highly appreciated. Many thanks for your help in advance.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Anji,

Welcome to the parent’s board and thank you for posting. I am Susie, FRG’s online adviser.

I am sorry to hear that your son was taken away from you in October. That must have been extremely difficult for you.

You said that you are having a psychological assessment. I expect that has already taken place. If it has not happened yet, then you could look at this information about psychological assessments.

You could also ask to see the letter of instruction to the psychologist which might prepare you for the questions being asked. Normally the psychologist would see statements and reports filed in the proceedings and often part of your medical record.
The psychological report will set out whether they think you have a diagnosis and what treatment is needed to treat your any diagnosis. You could find out about mental health conditions and personality disorders from Mind

The National Autistic Society has information about autism and sets out what support you can get if you got this diagnosis.
Here is our advice sheet about care proceedings that sets out what each court hearing means and the type of orders that can be made.

If you need further advice, please post again or you could call our advice line for in depth advice and support.
Best wishes,
Suzie

[Anji]

Hi Suzie,

Thank you for your reponse and introduction.

Yes the first stage of the pshychological assessment has taken place. I did the best that I could as the questions were quite difficult. I am waiting for the date in regards to the second stage of cognitive. Can you please share more information in regards what a cognitive assessment can contain. Do we have any sample questions

I have tried calling the helpline and got through finally, but most of the answers I received from the advisor was I don't know the answers.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Anjii

Thank you for your further post. I am sorry that I have not been able to respond to you sooner. You have already completed one part of your psychological assessment. You are now waiting for your cognitive assessment to be done and wondering what to expect. I can understand that it must be very stressful waiting for this and not knowing exactly what will happen

You have spoken to a colleague on our Freephone advice line. Unfortunately, sometimes we are not able to provide all the answers callers would like as we do not have all the information needed to do so, everybody’s situation is different and some queries require very specialist knowledge .

It is always a good idea to go back to your solicitor to ask them what you should expect when you are having an assessment and how you should prepare. As I mentioned before, perhaps seeing the letter of instruction might help.

Here is some brief information that might be useful:

The psychologist will ask you a series of questions as part of your cognitive assessment – these might include number, visual and literacy questions. This will help the psychologist find out how you function, such as how you use and remember information. Hopefully, this will help the professionals find out the best way to work with you. It might influence how they communicate with you or plan further assessments such as parenting. It could lead to adaptations or adjustments being made to help you take part fully.

When you receive a copy of your psychological assessment make sure to go through it carefully with your solicitor.

I hope this helps a little.

Best wishes

Suzie

[Anji]

Hi Suzie,

Thank you for your response.

Yes waiting another month or more for the second part of the assessment is daunting. Still a long wait to go in terms of wait times.

Is there any person with this specialist knowledge who can be contacted, if they don't charge horrendous amounts I am happy to pay.

I have spoken to the solicitor and he is not able to give me any more details in regards to the format of the assessment. The letter of instruction is below:

Please undertake a Psychiatric assessment in respect of ***, and consider the following questions in particular

1) Do you consider *** to be suffering from any psychological or psychiatric condition?
2) Does *** have - whether in her history or presentation - a mental illness /disorder (including substance abuse) or other psychological or emotional difficulty and, if so, what is the diagnosis?
3) If the answer to the above is yes, are there any features of either the mental illness or psychological/emotional difficulty or personality disorder which could be associated with risk to others, based on the available evidence base (whether published studies or evidence from clinical experience)?
4) What are the factors which would explain *** difficulties, if any (taking into account any available evidence base or other clinical experience)?
5) If you consider *** to be suffering from any psychological or psychiatric condition can you comment on the impact of this on their parenting abilities either currently or in the past?
6) How do any/all of the above (and their current treatment if applicable) affect her functioning, including interpersonal relationships?
7) If you consider *** to be suffering from any psychological or psychiatric condition can you indicate what treatment, therapy or support might be indicated? What is the likely duration of such treatment?
8) What is the capacity of *** to participate in therapy?
9) Can you provide any information about local resources from which treatment could be sought?
10) If possible please advise as to the prognosis for recovery or relapse and what effect relapse would have on Anji 's ability to parent.
11) Are you able to indicate the prognosis for, timescales for achieving and likely durability of,change?
12) What other factors might indicate positive change?
13) Does*** history or presentation indicate any features of personality disorder?
14) Please comment on any other matter relevant to the court’s determination of these proceedings.

Can you please give me examples of what these cognitive assesssment will look like please or any websites or information to look up on this.

I have already completed the parenting assessment, I will not be able to know the results of these unless the pshycological and psycastrist reports are out.

Also will the psycastrists report be positive and the pshycoclogical report be negative or the other way around. Someone told me that if one report is positive the other one should also be positive how true is this.

Sure I will get the solicitor to read through this and we will discuss the report in detail.

Thank you for your help in this tough period.

[***edited by Suzie to ensure confidentiality]

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear anji

Thank you for your further post. You have asked specific questions about a cognitive assessment.

It is not possible for me to give you any detailed information about a cognitive assessment since I do not have the expertise to do so. The things that may be involved in the assessment are likely to relate to how you deal with specific matters which could include tests on numbers, reading, discussing a topic, creating/building something or your spatial awareness. This is probably the way they assess how a person functions and their behaviour patterns. There will be other things that a psychologist will cover but, as stated above, you will have to rely on an expert's explanation about your assessment

The person carrying out the cognitive assessment will explain what is involved in the tests for the assessment and what you will be asked to do.
You may find it helpful to go to this website British Psychologists Society for more information

A psychiatrist and a psychologist are assessing different things so may have differing outcomes. I am not sure that both have to reach the same conclusion.

Hope this is helpful.

Best wishes

Suzie