Forensic assessment refers to a variety of psychological assessments that are used to aid a legal fact-finding team. It is one of the most common applications of psychology to the law, and is used in a variety of legal settings. This is a fairly new discipline. Forensic assessment is one of the fastest growing fields within clinical psychology.

Reports for the Court are provided for :

• Section 32 of the NSW Criminal Code 
  
• Sentencing Reports 
• Background Reports 
  
• Section 10 Reports 
• Risk Assessments
• Treatment Recommendations
• Civil Proceedings (WorkCover, Medical Negligence etc)

Our practice currently does not accept referrals for family court. 

An all-inclusive assessment helps to explain the connection between psychological and cognitive function and behaviour. Information from assessment has a scientific basis. The individual will be compared against normative data. It allows the evaluator to determine relevent pathology, contributing factors, risk of offending and probability of rehabilitation and reintegration to society.  Using the appropriate evidence based tools combined with experienced clinical judgement allows us to help both the Court and the clients to determine the best way forward for everybody involved.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme is a new system being implemented across Australia and it has its own fairly unique approach. This assessment is designed to provide a report for the person to address criteria for eligibility under the legislation associated with the scheme as well as recommendations for what is reasonable and necessary for supports under the scheme.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme can certainly be complicated to understand and access for many people.  When you apply you will need to be able to demonstrate several factors including: Diagnosis of Disability and Identification of how much this affects a persons life.  As well as several other factors which are identified in the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act (2013).  Further to these points identifying what supports the person requires – and what is ‘reasonable and necessary’ as defined by the Act are vital.

Our trained staff will help you find the route that best applies to you, so you can get your application right the first time.  We have been working with the NDIS since it left the trial stage and pride ourselves on understanding what the system requires.

Our trained staff will also help:

•  Collect evidence that involves you and/or the people who provide support to you

•  Contact individuals and organisations that have evidence of your disability

•  Communicate with social workers, friends, family and care staff who may be able to provide additional evidence to support your application

Diagnostic assessment is a form of assessment that allows a Psychologist to determine a person's individual strengths, weaknesses, knowledge, skills, symptoms and impairments to lifestyle. It is primarily used to diagnose difficulties and to provide a diagnosis recognised using the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual or International Classification of Disease to inform treatment and interventions to assist the person.

Psychological testing — also called psychological assessment — is the foundation of diagnosis and how psychologists better understand a person and their behaviour. It is a process of problem solving — to try and determine the core components of a person’s psychological or mental health problems, personality, IQ, or some other component. It is also a process that helps identifies not just weaknesses of a person, but also their strengths.  These sessions require a substantial amount of time to complete the interpretation, formulation and report in addition to the amount of time that we spend together doing the assessment.

Working with people to ensure that they receive the assessment that they need is very important as there is a lot of jargon in this field and people will often be told to get a "Cognitive Assessment" however not a lot more.  Without the knowledge of testing it can be hard for people to understand what they need so please dont hesitate to contact us to help choose the right service or provide a quote.