CAARE Diagnostic and Treatment Center
Psychological evaluation services
At the UC Davis CAARE Center, we provide psychological evaluations for children and families that have a history of abuse. The CAARE Center has a number of psychologists who are trained to complete a broad spectrum of psychological evaluations. We have extensive experience in assessing children, adults, and families who have experienced some form of abuse. There are numerous reasons and purposes for an evaluation.
Types of evaluations
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Child welfare evaluation
The main purpose of a child welfare evaluation is to provide relevant and professionally sound opinions about the health and welfare of children. The goal of child welfare evaluations is often to help determine if a child’s health and welfare are at risk for being harmed, and if so, what measures can be taken to minimize the child's risk for being maltreated. Recommendations are frequently made to assist the court in determining if, or what type of services, may benefit the family in reunification efforts. These evaluations encompass a wide variety of issues, including but not limited to, an assessment of the child and/or parent's current mental health and an evaluation of the quality of parent-child interactions. Some questions that can be answered through this type of evaluation include:
- What therapeutic interventions would be recommended to assist the child?
- Can the parent(s) be successfully treated to help reduce the risks of the child being maltreated in the future? If so, how? If not, why not?
- Would the child’s emotional and physical well-being be negatively and irrevocably impacted if he or she was permanently separated from his or her parents (traditionally known as a "bonding assessment")?
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Psychological evaluation
The focus of this evaluation is strictly to assess the current cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and/or developmental functioning of a client. It can be helpful for both children and adults to make specific recommendations for mental health treatment, school services, developmental/occupational therapy, and other services as determined.
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Emergency response evaluations for Child Protective Services
This program is designed to educate and provide feedback to “first responders” (often emergency response social workers) regarding mental health issues and questions their clients may present with.
