Evidence of Absence

Book excerpt: This book offers Australian mental health clinicians for the first time a locally written guide to the clinical interpretation of cognitive assessments using the Wechsler scales, including the WAIS-IV, the WMS-IV and the Advanced Clinical Solutions for WAIS-IV and WMS-IV. Using Australian case material, the reader is provided with empirical and interpretative analysis based upon the varying State legal requirements, the range of sociocultural uses to which intellectual assessment is put, and consideration of appropriate norms. The reader will encounter clinical presentations highly relevant to everyday practice, even for those clinicians not regularly undertaking such assessments. Featured cases include assessment in the area of intellectual disability, traumatic brain injury, and in situations in which the issue of less than genuine effort could be noted. Guidelines for report writing applied to specific referral questions are also presented, and a focus on clinical dilemmas, including: - differentiation of the full neuropsychological examination from the screening examination - what to do if your client has problems communicating or responding - suggestions with regard to the selection of norms - determining whether the neuropsychological assessment can be - useful in diagnostic categorisations - ascertaining whether reliable change has occurred in repeated assessment - the implications of neuropsychological assessment for prediction of behaviour in the real world.