FOCUSED MENTAL HEALTH REFERRAL OPTIONS

PARENTING CONSULTATIONS
Parenting consultations typically involve 2-4 hours of professional services to identify
areas of parenting agreement, and/or provide parenting education, therapeutic dispute
resolution and court-based reality training. Parents and/or children are interviewed. The
report may summarize parenting plan agreements and recommend additional services, but
does not include recommendations for a parenting time schedule.
_____ Educate parents re: parenting plan options
_____ Identify parenting plan agreements
_____ Identify issues for further evaluation
_____ Assess need for Parenting Coordinator

LIMITED FAMILY ASSESSMENTS (Brief, Focused Assessments)

Limited family assessments (LFA’s) typically involve 6-12 hours of professional
services. Fewer and more narrowly defined issues are investigated in LFA’s. The
evaluator limits the amount of time available to family members to present their concerns
and what documents are accepted for review. Psychological tests are not administered
typically. The number of collateral witnesses is restricted. The LFA report is issue
specific. If appoint3ed to conduct an LFA, and the evaluator concludes the issues are
beyond the scope of an LFA, the evaluator advises the Court and seeks clarification of the
appointment.

_____ Child maltreatment allegations (e.g., inadvertent/isolated incidents of

maltreatment)
_____ Child interview (e.g., custodial preference and whether preference based on
developmentally appropriate reasoning)
_____ Domestic violence (e.g. occasional instances of push/shove/slap)
_____ Educational needs of child
_____ Grandparents’ request for access time
_____ Home study (e.g. safety concerns)
_____ Mental health and parenting capacity evaluation of one parent E.G., substance
abuse, mood disorder, personality disorder, criminal history)
_____ Legal custody recommendations (e.g. ability to co-parent)
_____ Parenting time-share recommendations
_____ Safe Exchanges
_____ Relationship of child with parents and/or significant others (e.g. siblings,
Step-parents, Grandparents)
_____ Other referral issues (e.g., stalking; need for parenting supervision; impact of
relocation on child; sources of co-parenting conflict; safety concerns;
 exchange precautions; allegations of coaching)
____________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________

Specific Information re: above selected issues ____________________________

________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________

COMPREHENSIVE CUSTODY EVALUATIONS

Comprehensive custody evaluations (CCEs) typically involve 20+ hour of professional
services. CCEs potentially investigate long-standing and broadly-based issues of family
functioning and parenting capacity. Parents and children are interviewed more than
once. Psychological testing is often administered. Parent/child relationships are examined
in greater detail than in an LFA. Documents submitted by attorneys are accepted for
review usually without screening by the Evaluator. More collaterals witnesses are
typically contacted than in an LFA and may be interviewed in the office. The report will
likely be lengthier than in an LFA and provide a narrative of the family’s historical
context, parent-child dynamics, assessment of parenting capacity, assessment of the
child’s developmental needs, and a full range of recommendations addressing custody, a
detailed parenting time schedule, and recommended therapeutic interventions sometimes
including treatment goals.

_____ Child maltreatment allegations (e.g., molest, abuse, neglect, abandonment)

_____ Child rejecting a parent (e.g. alienation)
_____ Coercive control/domestic violence
_____ Fitness of both parents
_____ Legal custody recommendations
_____ Relocation request
_____ Other _________________________________________________
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Specific Information re: above selected issues ______________________
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