Session B5
Tracks
Stream B
| Saturday, May 17, 2025 |
| 1:45 PM - 2:45 PM |
Overview
- Assessment of parenting capacity for legal purposes | Dr Don Tustin (40mins)
- Teaching and learning to write quality psychology reports in a disability service | Dr Julie Hepworth (20mins)
Presenter
Dr Don Tustin
Adelaide Psychological Services
Assessment of parenting capacity for legal purposes
1:45 PM - 2:25 PMAbstract
The presentation aims to improve confidence of clinicians both in providing targeted therapy for parents and children in families where children are vulnerable to developing a mental illness, and to improve confidence in providing assessment and treatment reports to family-oriented courts.
Content
The presentation will cover: models of parenting capacity, and a brief review of research supporting a proposed model.
Goals
The goal is for participants to have confidence in submitting assessment reports and treatment reports to courts that deal with parenting matters.
Content
The presentation will cover: models of parenting capacity, and a brief review of research supporting a proposed model.
Goals
The goal is for participants to have confidence in submitting assessment reports and treatment reports to courts that deal with parenting matters.
.....
Dr Tustin has worked for over 25 years with families where children are vulnerable to developing a mental disorder due to inadequate parenting practices. Dr Tustin received one grant to develop a format to assess parenting capacity, and a second grant to deliver collaborative therapy and in-home parenting training for families with risk factors for child maltreatment.
Dr Tustin provides treatment reports to both family law courts and child protection courts, using a Parenting Capacity Instrument to guide interventions. He has presented to World Congresses on Family Law about treatment reports.
Dr Julie Hepworth
ORS
Teaching and Learning to Write Quality Psychology Reports in a Disability Service
2:25 PM - 2:45 PMAbstract
Teaching and Learning How to Write Quality Psychology Reports in a Disability Service: A Case Study of Practice
Psychology reports involving communication of client assessment findings and service recommendations can involve diverse content and formats. These reports also vary and require adapting in accordance with their target audience, the purpose of a report i.e. cognitive assessment, and practice norms in specific professional psychology sub-fields. An effective psychology report must clearly communicate a client’s psychological status to one or more individuals and/or organisations, keeping in mind that some recipients of a report will have no prior psychological knowledge and training to assist with deciphering its content. What constitutes an effective psychology report is important for benchmarking professional standards, quality enhancement, teaching and learning in psychology report writing and measuring practitioner competencies. While the literature on writing effective psychology reports is available in several professional psychology fields, there is scarce literature about psychology report writing in the field of disability. In this paper, we aim to critically analyse; (1) features of quality psychology reports through a review of the literature, and (2) reflections on our own teaching and learning practice with provisional and early career psychologists to identify which elements address the challenges and inform the quality enhancement of psychology reports in a disability service.
Psychology reports involving communication of client assessment findings and service recommendations can involve diverse content and formats. These reports also vary and require adapting in accordance with their target audience, the purpose of a report i.e. cognitive assessment, and practice norms in specific professional psychology sub-fields. An effective psychology report must clearly communicate a client’s psychological status to one or more individuals and/or organisations, keeping in mind that some recipients of a report will have no prior psychological knowledge and training to assist with deciphering its content. What constitutes an effective psychology report is important for benchmarking professional standards, quality enhancement, teaching and learning in psychology report writing and measuring practitioner competencies. While the literature on writing effective psychology reports is available in several professional psychology fields, there is scarce literature about psychology report writing in the field of disability. In this paper, we aim to critically analyse; (1) features of quality psychology reports through a review of the literature, and (2) reflections on our own teaching and learning practice with provisional and early career psychologists to identify which elements address the challenges and inform the quality enhancement of psychology reports in a disability service.
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Julie is a Senior Psychologist with ORS with extensive experience in psychological assessments and interventions with clients from diverse groups in various settings including in the areas of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, anxiety, bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia, substance use disorders, complex trauma, interpersonal conflict and others. In her work, Julie also uses tools and strategies for quality improvement and evidence-based practice. Julie has a PhD in Psychology and over 25 years of experience as a university teacher and researcher. She is an internationally recognised researcher with over 100 publications, conference papers, book chapters and book in the field of health services research. Julie has published research in high quality journals on topics such as equity of access to health services, health governance, and research methodology and ethics. She is passionate about training and mentoring practitioners and the design and delivery of optimal services for clients.
