COUN 6360 Week 11 Discussion; Using Assessments for Positive Social Change

I have enjoyed this class and have found it to be very interesting! This class has taught me a lot more about how an assessment can be a great tool to get a chance to understand my client and help me come up with a treatment plan for them. I really liked that we got the chance to actually look at assessments we think would be useful for our clients. Being able to apply it to something I may be using in the future really helps me grasp information more. I hope to be a great advocate for my clients in the future. I would like to work with people in our prisons and also with people leaving prison and going back into society. There is a high recidivism rate and I hope to find ways to create change to lower it. I want to find ways to best treat my clients and make sure they are receiving the proper help they need. Many people in our prison system possess a mental illness but not many get the proper treatment they need. It has been found that up to 60% of people in our prison suffer from mental illness and 20% suffer from a serious mental illness (Aufderheide, 2014 ). Ring and Gill found that 66% of those with mental illness in our prison system reported have no access to mental health treatment (2017). Hopefully through testing and assessment I can find treatment plans for individuals that work for them and track their progress. I hope that I can show the masses that with proper treatment these people will be able to manage their mental illness and be great helpers in the community. I would like to work with many groups that are already in place to help advocate for my clients as well as hold conferences where I can teach officers, lawyers, and judges about mental illness.