"Competency-Based Assessments in Mental Health Practice should be required reading for all clinical practitioners and students. Author Susan W. Gray provides a competency-based assessment model that moves away from looking at mental illness as a 'disease' to capturing people's strengths and the uniqueness of their experience with mental illness." --Alex Gitterma Zachs Professor and Director of PhD Program "Competency-Based Assessment in Mental Health Practice not only describes the rather cumbersome DSM-IV-TR(R) in a manner that graduate students and clinicians can easily understand and apply, but it also presents a competency-based type of clinical assessment that most effectively integrates the social work practice orientation that acknowledges, appreciates, and nurtures client strengths, resilience, and client ability for empowerment." --Agathi Glezakos, PhD, LCSW School of Social Work California State University, Long Beach A competency-based assessment model integrating DSM classifications for a complete, strengths-based diagnosis Competency-Based Assessments in Mental Health Practice introduces a unique, competency-based assessment that presents a brief overview of the major mental disorders that practitioners will likely encounter in their work with clients, followed by a series of case studies and practical applications. This book provides valuable guidance for clinicians to make assessments grounded in client strengths and possibilities for a more therapeutically complete picture of every client's "story." Organized around selected diagnostic categories from the DSM-IV-TR, this hands-on guide offers a multidimensional look at the many factors that play a role in a client's life. Its holistic approach to the assessment process considers each client's unique experience with mental illness, through a concurrent evaluation of strengths and pathology, in order to set the stage for realistic optimism about the potential for change.