Psychological Evaluations

• Why choose Carolina Care and Counseling (CC&C) for your Psychological Evaluation:
  • When requesting a Psychological Evaluation from CC&C you can expect to receive efficient scheduling with minimal impact on your daily schedule, and a listening ear from an ethical professional that values you and your knowledge of the case.   CC&C has two licensed clinicians available to perform Psychological Evaluations that are happy to travel to your office to perform evaluations for your and your client’s convenience.  You can expect to receive a comprehensive report, with specific recommendations in 2-3 weeks.  The CC&C clinician who performed the evaluation will also remain available to answer any questions after receiving the report, for an interpretative interview with the client or for court testimony, if necessary.
•  What is a Psychological Evaluation?
  • A comprehensive evaluation of parents who are alleged to have abused and/or neglected their children. We also complete evaluations with children and adolescents in foster care and group homes in order to rule out learning/attention problems and guide treatment planning if they are experiencing difficulties as the result of abuse or neglect.  These evaluations can be court-ordered or referred by Social Services agencies.  Each evaluation includes a brief interview with the social worker, an in-depth interview with the client, personality testing, cognitive testing (if necessary) and a review of any records provided.  CC&C integrates information from the various sources to address relevant referral questions provided by you and offer specific recommendations based on those referral questions.
  • A Psychological Evaluation is NOT… a psychiatric evaluation.  A psychiatric evaluation is conducted by a psychiatrist (M.D.) to determine the need for medication to treat an individual’s psychological difficulties.  A Psychological Evaluation can help determine whether or not a psychiatric evaluation is warranted.
  • A Psychological Evaluation is NOT… a custody evaluation.  It is beyond the scope of a Psychological Evaluation to comment on one parent’s ability to appropriately parent over another.  However, if there are concerns regarding a person’s ability to parent independently, these concerns can be addressed in response to referral questions and in the recommendations section.
• To Schedule a Psychological Evaluation:
  • A Psychological Evaluation can be requested by a county Department of Social Services.  The social worker will need to obtain complete a simple referral form that asks questions pertaining to the history of the case and permits selection of questions to be answered as the result of the evaluation. Your supervisor or program director will need to approve the evaluation with use of a State approved vendor agreement form (not applicable in Johnston County).  It is preferable for consent forms to be completed in advance of the evaluation, but we can also have these done at time of the evaluation appointment. We can fax you these forms or you can retrieve them on our website.
  • After receiving approval and completing the vendor agreement, fax the completed vendor agreement, social history form, referral questions, and the signed consent forms to CC&C at (919) 676-1430.
  • CC&C office staff will then contact the DSS Social Worker identified on the paperwork to schedule a day for the evaluation.  A clinician from CC&C will be authorized to travel to your agency to conduct the evaluation.
• What to expect on the day of the evaluation:
  • A CC&C clinician will meet with the DSS Social Worker for approximately 15 minutes to review the case.
  • A CC&C clinician will then interview the client scheduled for that day.
  •  The clinical interview can take anywhere from 45 minutes to over one hour.
  •  Following the interview, the client will be administered a cognitive screening test to determine their reading level and need for cognitive testing.
  • Depending on the results of the screening, cognitive testing may be administered.  Personality tests and parenting assessment measures will also be administered.
  • After the evaluation is complete, the CC&C clinician can provide the DSS Social Worker with initial impressions and recommendations if the Social Worker would like.
•  When you receive the report in 2-3 weeks, you can expect:
  • A detailed summary of any records provided to the examiner, details of the clinical interview, results of psychological testing, DSM-IV-TR diagnoses, direct responses to the referral questions, and recommendations for the parent.

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