Psychological Assessments
Jay can provide psychological assessments for children, teens and adults, and provide tailored reports and for a range of mental health conditions and purposes including:
· Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessments
· Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) assessments
· Cognitive assessments
· Assessments for specific learning problems
· Other diagnostic and functional assessments
Jay is a clinical leader in mental health assessments and has trained, led, and supervised several psychologists in conducting and interpreting diagnostic and clinical mental health assessments.
Jay has a wealth of experience in conducting psychological assessments. He has refined methods of conducting thorough and streamlined assessments and reports for a variety of purposes including:
- Diagnostic reports
- Treatment reports
- Reports for NDIS applications
- Reports for disability support pension (DSP)
Jay’s assessments utilise high quality assessment measures and interviews. He goes beyond exploring only a single issue and assesses related problems or diagnoses to identify if these are part of the clinical picture. This helps to ensure that assessments are comprehensive and complete – leaving no stone unturned.
If you are interested in an assessment for yourself or a loved one please complete the
brief assessments screener
Understanding the Assessment Process
Step 1: Identifying your assessment needs
If you are interested in a psychological assessment for yourself or a loved one please complete the brief assessments screener. This will help Jay to identify if an assessment is appropriate for you, recommend what type of assessment, and to plan which assessment measures should be completed.
Step 2: Assessment Quote
You will be emailed with a quoted price for your nominated assessment. The email will describe what is involved with your assessment (e.g., number of sessions, how long, what will be tested etc.).
If your assessment needs appear to be complex or the issue you want assessed is able to be assessed informally Jay will let you know and attempt to book a session with Jay to discuss, plan, and conduct the assessment.
Step 3: Complete Online Psychometric Measures
You will be emailed links for a tailored assessment battery meeting your needs via email. Some of the links should be completed by you, others may need to be directed to another rater (e.g., child’s teacher, person who knows you well).
It is your responsibility to ensure that the links go to where they are intended and are completed by the correct person.
Step 4: Book in the assessment
You can book in the assessment using the client booking portal. If you do so, please ensure you book in the right amount of time for the assessment (i.e., 1, 2, or 3 hours) – this will be clearly described in the emails sent to you. You can also contact us via email, text message, or phone to organise booking in your assessment session(s).
Step 5: Assessment Day
On the day of the assessment you will need to attend Jay’s consulting rooms at 5/70 Dilkera Ave, Valentine NSW 2280. Depending on the assessment you are completing you may be asked some questions about you (or your loved one’s) difficulties and behaviours, complete some testing, or both. The assessment session is also an opportunity for Jay to make some clinical observations.
See Assessment FAQs below for information about what to bring to assessment sessions.
Step 6: Report generation
Once all the assessment measures (including online measures) are completed, Jay will prepare a tailored report for your needs including results of testing, diagnostic impressions, and relevant recommendations for supports and treatment.
Step 7: Feedback session
Following the completion of the report Jay will provide a feedback session where he can explain the assessment findings and discuss your (or your loved one’s) options and directions for future support. A feedback session is necessary for most assessments so that the assessment findings can be explained to you.
For ADHD assessments there is generally no need for a feedback session as Jay is able to provide immediate feedback on the assessment findings (provided that everything has been completed by assessment day).
Psychological Assessment FAQ
You can book your assessment sessions using the Client Portal as soon as you like. Please make sure you leave enough time for you (and any other people completing measures) to complete the online measures. If you have more than one assessment session to attend it is usually best to space these out by at least a few days to a week.
This information should be contained in the email sent through to you about the assessment. If it is not stated explicitly within the email, you should book a 1-hour session. If you are in doubt, please email info@jayrichardspsychology.com.au asking for clarification.
Yes. You can email info@jayrichardspsychology.com.au and we can organise a time for your assessment that way or we can give you a phone call back. You can also contact us by text message. Please Note: email or text message communication is preferred as Jay may be unavailable for calls during client hours.
Most often assessments will need to be booked in-person, but Jay may be able to accommodate conducting some parts of an assessment via Telehealth if necessary.
No, under most circumstances. If you require a psychological assessment or part of an assessment to be completed over the phone this will need to be specifically discussed with Jay. It is not feasible for most assessments to be conducted over the phone.
If you are having trouble completing the online assessment measures, firstly try using another device or web browser (Google Chrome seems to work best for most online assessments). If you are still having trouble, contact the practice via email and we can offer some assistance or an alternative.
You should also bring in any old school reports, medical or allied health reports, or anything else you feel may help Jay understand your situation. For child and teen assessments, it is necessary for a parent and the child to attend the assessment session. It is also encouraged for you to bring a support person or someone who may be able to provide some extra information during the assessment (e.g., partner, parent, family member etc.).
Feel free to bring some snacks and a drink – particularly if the assessment session is a long one.
This information is necessary as it helps Jay to assess whether symptoms have been present over time. Many mental health diagnoses require that symptoms have been present for an extended period or throughout the lifetime. These reports can also provide information about whether symptoms are present across multiple contexts.
Gathering information from multiple sources is essential for a thorough and comprehensive mental health assessment. Mental disorders are not like medical disorders, they cannot be detected directly using a blood test or something similar. Assessors need to rely upon multiple sources of information to judge whether the symptoms are present across multiple contexts and have been observed by multiple people. The evidence for a diagnosis is much stronger if symptoms are noticable by the person themselves, their loved ones, their teacher, and the assessor. If there is no agreement between all sources of information the evidence for the diagnosis is weaker and a diagnosis may not be appropriate.
When communicating with your child’s teacher about the assessments it is best to indicate the importance of the assessment for your child and a timeframe for when the psychological assessments will need to be completed and thank them for the time they take to complete the measures. It can be worth stressing that the teacher should respond honestly even if this does not paint your child in a favourable light. Response styles that tend to downplay the seriousness of difficulties in the school environment can often yield results that may give a false impression that problems are more minor than they actually are (or no problems exist at all). You can provide the teacher with contact information for Jay Richards Psychology if they have any questions or concerns themselves.
A common reason why assessments are held up is that measures are not completed by the teacher. Teacher’s are very busy and psychometric assessments may take some time to complete or completing the assessments for your child may have slipped their mind. When you first contact your child’s teacher about completing the assessments asking for them to respond with whether they think that they can complete the measures in the timeframe you have suggested and to let you know when they might have some time to do it (even if this is outside the timeframe) can be helpful. If you are still having trouble sending a friendly reminder or two may help, if you have an opportunity to remind the teacher in person this an help also. If all else fails, you could try contacting the school principal – but only as a last resort!
If you are in a situation where the child’s teacher will not complete the measures (or your child does not have a teacher, is homeschooled etc.) please let us know ASAP and suggest an alternative person who may be able to complete the measures instead. This other person should be someone who spends time with the child outside of the classroom (e.g., sporting coach, grandparent etc.).
No. Mental health assessments are like any other scientific and evidence-based assessment – the evidence gathered within the assessment may point to a diagnosis or it might point away from a diagnosis (or might point towards another diagnosis/conclusion that was not anticipated at the outset). Mental disorders have certain criteria that must be met before the diagnosis can be forwarded. The assessment is designed to test each of those criteria such that they could be found to be met, or not. If the criteria are met, the diagnosis will be forwarded, if the criteria is not met the diagnosis will not be forwarded.
No. A mental health assessment may be part of a NDIS application for funding but the results of the assessment may indicate that the criteria for NDIS funding is not met. In this case a recommendation for NDIS-funded services will not be given. The NDIS also has its own criteria for judging whether a person is eligible for NDIS-funded services. The NDIS will make the final determination regarding whether you (or your loved one) is eligible for NDIS funded services, whether Jay’s report supports the funded services or not.
In many cases you can increase your chances of accessing NDIS-funded services by getting some assistance with your application and/or having multiple professional reports (e.g., medical reports, occupational therapist reports, speech pathologist reports etc.) accompanying the application.
Yes. If you require Jay to complete an NDIS application form please let him know and he can generally complete this free of charge with the preparation of the report.
Assessment Screener
5/70 Dilkera Ave
Valentine NSW 2280
info@jayrichardspsychology.com.au
Monday: 8am – 4:30pm
Tuesday: 8am – 4:30pm
Wednesday: 9am – 5:30pm
Thursday: 9am – 5.30pm
Friday: 9am – 5.30pm
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We extend that respect to all Elders past, present, and future.
