Assessing symptomatology, pathology, and determining a diagnosis are often what come to mind when we think of assessment. While this information may be important in some settings, it may not be useful for educational and vocational planning.
- In educational and vocational planning, the emphasis is instead on understanding the person’s overall functioning, including day to day routine, activities, circumstances of the person’s living situation, family dynamics, socio-cultural environment, and the context in which all of these occur. A good assessment process will also help the person articulate these factors also.
- Additionally, we are focusing on strengths, interests, resilience, satisfactions, and accomplishments of the person.
- Helping the person identify their supports/supporters is also essential
- Supporting the person to identify their needs and challenges is also a key aspect of a strengths-based assessment
- These are the crucial factors needed to help an individual plan for accomplishing life’s goals.
- Recall person centred planning from Module 1. This approach is integral to all supported employment services and has much relevance as we begin the assessment process.