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Who says?. Presentation for the Women and Psychology Conference Dec 2 nd , 2006 Carmel O’Brien. Types of Reports. Family Court Assessment Children’s Court Assessment Forensic Assessment report Clinical Psychological Assessment Victims of Crime T.A.C Workcover Etc.
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Who says? Presentation for the Women and Psychology Conference Dec 2nd, 2006 Carmel O’Brien
Types of Reports • Family Court Assessment • Children’s Court Assessment • Forensic Assessment report • Clinical Psychological Assessment • Victims of Crime • T.A.C • Workcover • Etc
General Report Guidelines • Have a clear structure, use headings • Use simple, comprehensible language • Always write as if your client will read the report. • Be complete, not selective. • Differentiate information from opinion • Give behavioural examples that support your conclusions, and make sure they follow from the material presented. • Do not leave anything for the reader to work out • Concentrate on quality, not length.
General Principles (1) • A woman can define her own problems • A woman is not more responsible for the success of a relationship than a man • Power imbalances exist in relationships • Be aware of social role-typing • Support choices about awareness and change • Psychology is as important as Biology
General Principles (2) • Violence is a choice, caused by the violator • Respect is paramount, in note-writing, reports and conversations. • Recognise that systems disempower women • Be informed about culture and its effects • Study women’s issues and lives, and your own attitudes.
Pitfalls (1) • Failure to acknowledge context. • Pathologising distress which may better be normalised. • Overlooking the obvious. Failing to take sufficient account of the context in which distress is occurring. • Over-Pathologising. • Labels tend to stick 1: Pathologising only, or seeing the behaviour only through the eyes of the diagnosis you have given. There are numerous examples which illustrate that once you have been diagnosed as mad/disturbed, most of your behaviour will be interpreted as originating from the pathology. The diagnosis becomes the context in which behaviours are judged. BPD case. • Labels tend to stick 2: Relying on past diagnosis, and/or taking reports of past diagnosis as fact without investigation, • Failing to investigate/acknowledge progress.
Pitfalls (2) • Patriarchal attitudes • In both assessment and recommendation phases. • Insufficient collecting of evidence. • The stigma of ‘being mad’. • Relying on past diagnosis, and/or taking reports of past diagnosis as fact without investigation. • Persisting in a view of the person based on original presentation. Review progress. and re-assess. Failing to investigate/acknowledge progress • The stigma of ‘not really being mad’. • Not being seen as having a legitimate mental illness. • Not have the ‘right’ to be feeling the distress, eg Work-place stress, grief reactions • Recognising the impact of the system. • Danger of the label/labeling itself doing harm.