Psychological Assessment: From Screening to Treatment

Psychological Assessment: From Screening to Treatment 

Dra. Riza Sarasvita, M.Psi, Ph.D* 

Substance use disorder (SUD) is a multifacet problem which require comprehensive assessment in order to get clearer picture of the problems and to address treatment plan. From the bio-psycho-social model, psychological evaluations are imperative in SUD assessment, because it measures and observes SUD client’s behavior to arrive at a diagnosis and guide treatment. Psychological evaluation includes various domain, such as wide-range individual ability, cognitive and emotional functioning and personality. Individual ability covers social skills, problem solving skills, resilience, perseverance and leadership. Assessment of cognitive and emotional functioning provides information about verbal and performance intelligence capacity, cognitive deficits, as well as learning difficulties. Personality assessment measures personality traits and styles. In order to get optimum result of psychological assessment, it is necessary to make good relationship (rapport) with the person with SUD before applying various psychological tools. Also, we need to ensure that he/she is not intoxicated or not in withdrawal condition, so that they can maintain their focus in finishing the tasks. Another requirement for better result is performing assessment a serial session and put every session in moderate length of time. At the end, by having comprehensive psychological understanding, it is expected that SUD professionals can provide accurate individual treatment plan and work more on individual’s strength to support SUD client’s recovery journey.

Keywords: psychological, assessment, comprehensive, treatment 

* Indonesia National Narcotics Board (BNN);

Faculty of Psychology, Soegijapranata Catholic University;

Source:
Proceeding Book 2nd National Addiction Medicine Symposium & Workshop

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