3
ASSESSMENT
Seeking help is the first important step to recovery. The next step
in the process is to meet with a qualified clinician. A clinician is a
health professional, such as a physician, psychiatrist, psychologist,
or nurse. The clinician will review or assess how someone is
doing - this first meeting is called an assessment. The goal of the
assessment is to gain a thorough understanding of the patient. This
will help the clinician and patient develop a treatment plan that best
matches the patient's needs.
Getting Started
• The clinician will ask questions to understand nearly every
part of a patient's life. The more that is known, the better
treatment can be planned with the patient.
• Common assessment questions include:
• How long has someone been using drugs?
• What other medications are being taken?
• Are there special social or financial circumstances,
or needs?
• Is there a family history of addiction?
• Are there other mental or chronic health problems?
• The next step is a complete physical examination to check
the patient's overall health. This includes finding other
common conditions (physical or mental) related to addiction
which may change how a patient is treated.
• The physical examination will include tests to find both health
problems and drugs in someone's body. The most common
drug test uses a patient's urine and is called urine analysis.
