Respond to one colleague by reflecting on the similarities and differences between your agency’s primary assessment tool and theirs.

1-JES Operation PAR is an outpatient clinic that provides harm reduction and MAT treatment to clients along with counseling. Upon admission, the counselor starts a pre-intake screening assessment of the new client which is then following with an assessment by the medical staff and doctor. The scope of practice and mission is to assess the behavioral and mental needs of the client to provide evidence-based based including trauma-informed care, telehealth, and person-centered counseling to provide the utmost services to the clients. The goals are designed based on the information that is provided through the assessment process that involves the client’s background information, behaviors and symptoms checklist, medical history, Psychiatric health history, risk and safety, adolescent development, parents’ information, and background/environmental setting, strengths, and weakness for the client and what recommended services that the therapist recommends for the client care needs. This assessment focuses on every aspect that the individual is enduring in their life, even the changes happening in the household settings. The assessment process is very thorough and even covers the development stages of their life and so forth. The tool does not address cultural or diversity differences with it. If the clients want to share that information, they are more than welcome to do so. The tool is used to help understand the client’s current status on behavioral health/mental health issues and the changes and causes of the issue, history/trauma events that may have occurred, and what goals the clients want to accomplish while in therapy. The tool has been implemented for at least five years now. The assessment tool is accessible for the clinicians to access it during the evaluation process with the clients.