Biopsychosocial Assessment Essay

eek 5 The book mentions that the purpose of a biopsychosocial assessment is to help identify supports or interventions an older adult could benefit from and identify those areas which the older person may be at risk (p. 83). After the assessment is completed, then services need to be provided to help support the older person, so they can function as independently as possible. In my time working in the nursing home setting, I have spent a great deal of time completing these assessments and focusing on the areas which a person needs assistance. I worked mostly on the long-term care units, but I have also covered the subacute units where I worked. The assessment process allows a social worker to gain insight into the client, and working together, the social worker and the client can identify needed services in the home setting, figure

The other essential element of the assessment is learning about the resident who is going to be at the facility for long term care. Whenever I would start a new job at a nursing facility, the first thing I would do would be review the residents’ charts on the units I was assigned and read their assessments and social history. I found this valuable because I would get to know the resident and be able to see their background information which helped when I interacted with them. However, over the years the facilities I have worked in have gotten away from completing an in-depth, overall biopsychosocial assessment of the patients/residents as they are admitted to the facility. These assessments have gone form a long narrative about the person to a series of checked off boxes and brief one or two-word explanations. I guess the because of the rush of getting patients out of the hospital and admitted to a subacute unit has changed the way the assessment needed to be done. There have been times when the subacute unit would get 5 or 6 admissions in one day, and when that happens, the social worker is not able to spend much time with each