How we do it: Comprehensive Assessment
Our Comprehensive Assessment entails an in-depth session with the client separately and then with the family.
For and with the client, we assess fine and gross motor skills, gait and stability, overall strength and mobility, cognitive functioning, communication skills and deficits, psychological and emotional status, and daily habits of self-maintenance (bathing, toileting, nutrition, dental care, eye care, physical and mental exercise).
We take the client's
medical history and current diagnoses,
medications, therapeutic regimes, and daily routines, with
concern also for abiding anxieties and enthusiasms.
We conduct a thorough home inspection focused on safety inside and out (stairs and rails, baths and showers, utility shut-off valves, electrical outlets, steps and walks). We also inventory communication devices for visibility and audibility (doorbells and intercoms, telephones, radios, television, music players, computers with e-mail programs).
We ask family members and close friends how they understand their roles, what worries them, and how they may wish to recast their roles in future. We take family medical histories as they may apply to the client’s situation.
We discuss the social, ethical, legal, and general financial issues that will need to be addressed or further clarified.
With the concurrence of clients and family, we may also consult physicians, nurses, counselors, and agencies involved, or likely to be involved, in the trajectory of care.