K-SADS Reflection

Stephanie Janzen

November 4 2013

EDPS 660



























Overall I thought that I did a good job creating rapport and getting accurate
information from the client. The person being interviewed was my cousin who is
currently in grade 11, and the parent was her father (my uncle). Although we do not
see each other often, we are on good terms and so rapport building was easy.
Although I read many of the questions word-by-word from the form, I did try to
maintain good eye contact and ask the appropriate follow-up questions. I attempted
to make it more conversational rather than just a simple question and answer
format. With that being said, I did find it difficult to know what to write down and
what could be passed over.

One thing I did find difficult were those questions that were of a sensitive
nature to the family. While asking about family history it became apparent that the
clients sister had some mental health issues a few years ago. Although I had already
known about some of the particulars, I could tell that they werent necessarily
comfortable talking about it. Im not sure if this was made worse due to the fact that
I was family and now knew of this more confidential and sensitive information. I
was also unsure of how much information was needed pertaining to the sister, so I
took only a few details and moved on. If I had felt that they were more comfortable
talking about it, I might have asked more questions. With that being said, I
recognize that I do need to ask the appropriate follow up questions despite any
comfortableness the student or the parent might feel.
In looking at the completed screener I found that I did not record much
information, or really detailed information. For instance, I did note that she had
recently been upset and had cried because she did not get a part in the school play
that she had hoped for, but then added that she did not feel sad all the time. I also
did not record the duration of her current depressed mood or of her most severe
past depressed mood. But if we can tell that she does not meet the criteria for
clinical depression, is this information necessary?
For all the screener categories I did not record past information such as
severity and duration. For those categories where she obviously did not have any
symptoms I think this is justified, but I probably should have been more detailed in
my notes about categories where she had at least mild or infrequent symptoms, just
in case. For instance I should recorded more information about her depressed
states, though I also did not want to spend all of my time focusing on recording
information rather than asking pertinent questions and generating conversation
about that topic.
When I reached the Hypersexuality category for Hypomania I decided to
bypass this section completely. This is because she did not meet any of the other
criteria for Hypomania and because I would it would be an extremely awkward
question to ask a family member in the presence of her father. With that being said,
I recognize that I may have to ask this question to another person on the future even
though it may still be awkward.
Again during the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder section I took notes
pertaining to her own examples of compulsive behaviour, but I also explained the
extend to which someone with OCD might present such behaviours, thereby
minimizing her own concerns. Such explanations may not have been appropriate
and yet I feel that some people need to know the extent to which these behaviours
would be symptomatic of an actual disorder. The issue with this is that it might
have the affect of minimizing her own behaviours which although may be minute
comparatively, are still of concern and are worth addressing.
On the whole I feel that I did well in asking the appropriate questions and
creating conversation about a topic rather than just asking a list of pre-determined
questions without any follow-up. I think I made them feel at ease and created a
good rapport with both the student and the parent. But I do think that I can
improve on my note taking skills as having more recorded information as always
better than having fewer notes. I also need to become more comfortable asking
those questions that might be uncomfortable of awkward for both the student and
parent. Lastly, I need to be sure to record that information related to the length and
severity of symptoms even if they do not reach the threshold.