| Semester 2, 2023 External | |
| Units : | 1 |
| School or Department : | School of Psychology and Wellbeing |
| Grading basis : | Graded |
| Course fee schedule : | /current-students/administration/fees/fee-schedules |
Staffing
Course Coordinator:
Requisites
Pre-requisite: Students must have successfully completed 8 units prior to enrolling
Overview
Assessment, record keeping and report writing are key requirements of counselling practice. Assessment of client issues and treatment progress assists treatment planning to enhance likelihood of positive client treatment outcomes. Counsellors must have ethical, professional, and legal awareness about how to record and manage client information to ensure it meets the highest ethical, legal, and professional standards.
Different theories and therapeutic approaches to the assessment of clients will be covered in this course. The course will teach students how to apply different theories and therapeutic approaches to the assessment of clients. Students will review common assessment tools and learn how to incorporate and interpret formal client feedback as a means to guide treatment and improve client outcomes. Students will learn how to write information appropriate for case notes and reports to meet professional and legal standards. This course will deal with confidentiality and the issues involved in the writing and storage of personal and statistical information about clients.
This course contains a recommended residential school and online synchronous tutorials.
Course learning outcomes
On completion of this course students will be able to:
- demonstrate an understanding of the principles underlying client assessment and the major related problems and issues;
- make an appropriate assessment using basic assessment tools;
- demonstrate advanced academic and professional literacy skills through an understanding of report writing and record keeping systems that meets the requirements of counselling professional associations;
- write a report that meets the requirements of counselling professional associations including reporting for courts;
- demonstrate an understanding of key assessments;
- demonstrate advanced oral and written communication skills in the analysis and discussion of assessment, including record keeping and report writing;
- demonstrate problem-solving skills by assessing and addressing client issues.
Topics
| Description | Weighting(%) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Assessment of client issues | 30.00 |
| 2. | Evaluating Counselling Effectiveness | 10.00 |
| 3. | Case notes and record keeping | 10.00 |
| 4. | Report writing including court reports | 20.00 |
| 5. | Key assessments | 10.00 |
| 6. | Considerations for working with special populations | 10.00 |
| 7. | Ethics and Professional Practice | 10.00 |
Text and materials required to be purchased or accessed
Student workload expectations
To do well in this subject, students are expected to commit approximately 10 hours per week including class contact hours, independent study, and all assessment tasks. If you are undertaking additional activities, which may include placements and residential schools, the weekly workload hours may vary.
Assessment details
| Description | Group Assessment |
Weighting (%) | Course learning outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quiz | No | 25 | |
| Report 1 | No | 25 | 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 |
| Report 2 | No | 50 | 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 |