6. Grandma's Soup: Interventions

Assessment in clinical work is the basis of all treatment. It is ideally where the clinician gets a premature understanding of the client. It is a framework for the needs and priorities of any client. With the assessment, the clinician can start to piece together an idea of where the client has been to adequately create a comprehensive treatment plan to work towards the clients goals and where they want to end up. There are a few assessments that I find to be quite beneficial in this journey of treatment.

1. The Life-stressor checklist

This assessment is a comprehensive checklist that assesses traumatic or stressful life events.The questionnaire includes 30 life events, including experiences with natural disasters, physical or sexual assault, death of a relative, and other events. The questionnaire is conducted in a yes or no answering style.

2. Beck Anxiety Inventory

This assessment is a brief self-report test used to assess the severity of anxiety symptoms. The assessment includes detailed scoring to help clinicians identify if a clients’ presenting symptoms of anxiety are within normal range or severe and debilitating. The survey deals with multiple symptoms of anxiety such as:

• Hands trembling
• Fear of dying
• Hot/cold sweats

Clients will have to indicate the frequency they have experienced each symptom for the past month on a 4 point scale with 0 being “not at all”.

3. ACES Survey

With the ACES survey, researchers determined 10 specific traumatic childhood experiences that can be linked to higher possibilities to mental health and other health deficiencies later in life. These ACES are referred to as risk factors. Clients take the 10 question survey answering yes or no and once completed, add up their score. A higher ACES score represents higher vulnerability and risk factors. A lower ACES score doesn’t mean that there is no trauma experienced, it just means that the client may not have resonated with the questions.

The 10 Aces are defined as:

– Physical, sexual or verbal abuse

– Physical or emotional neglect

– Separation or divorce

– A family member with mental illness

– A family member addicted to drugs or alcohol

– A family member who is in prison

– Witnessing a parent being abused

4. The Child PTSD Symptom Scale (CPSS)

CPSS is a 24 item survey that is used to assess the severity of PTSD symptoms in children. It measures the frequency of PTSD symptoms children may experience within a two week period. 7 of the questions can be answered in yes or no. The main purpose is to ensure that a child’s symptoms are not interfering with their daily living.