Wayfound Assessment Clinic

Wayfound has become known as a centre of excellence for timely, person-centered mental health care since its inception in 1999. While we primarily offer psychological services to public safety personnel (e.g. firefighters, police officers, etc.) who have suffered a range of operational stress injuries (such as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, depressive conditions, and anxiety), we have continued to identify additional areas of psychological services needed by our clients.

We recognize that our clientele have required a range of psychological assessment services over the years, and decided to expand Wayfound’s clinical services to include more formalized clinical assessments. We will particularly focus on offering the following assessment services: psycho-educational assessments, psychosocial assessments, a range of forensic assessments, and a range of employment assessments.

Types of assessments

Safeguard Assessments:

Intended specifically for public safety personnel (e.g. firefighters, EMS workers, etc.), these assessments are geared to appraise public safety personnel’s mental health status, such as the presence of symptoms of anxiety, depression, or Posttraumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD). The importance of this type of evaluation can’t be understated given our understanding about the mental health risks associated with this line of work.

Pre-employment Assessments:

These evaluations help employers identify potential candidates by looking at the psychological variables (e.g., personality, psychopathology, substance abuse) that are correlated with satisfactory or problematic work performance.

Pre-deployment Assessments:

A pre-deployment assessment is a psychological assessment aimed at evaluating an individual’s mental fitness prior to deployment. This type of assessment looks for personality and behavioural features that may make an individual more vulnerable for the development of mental health concerns. Conversely, it may also aid in identifying psychological variables that could impede or interfere with an individual’s effectiveness on a given mission.

Post-deployment Assessments:

A post-deployment assessment is a psychological assessment aimed at evaluating an individual’s mental fitness post-deployment and prior to re-entering in the workforce. This type of assessment looks for personality and behavioural features that may make an individual more vulnerable to the development of mental health concerns following a deployment.

A medical and legal psychological assessment is a specialized type of assessment in which a third party is retained to provide an independent opinion regarding psychological injuries sustained for which there is active litigation. This type of examination incorporates multiple sources of data into a synthesized reporting of medical evidence that validates the nature and severity of any potential injuries suffered by a claimant in litigation.

This assessment involves an in-depth clinical interview, review of all medical and file documentation, and extensive psychological testing. A comprehensive report is then prepared that addresses issues regarding diagnosis, degree of psychological disability, issues related to causality, prognosis, and issues related to treatment planning.

Following the assessment and provision of the medical and legal report, psychologists may be retained to provide expert witness testimony in arbitration, mediation, or in court proceedings.

Medical and legal assessment services are billed on an hourly basis, and the number of hours required depends on the complexity of the case and the amount of collateral information to review.

Children and teens have a variety of educational needs. Some may demonstrate high level functioning while others may be struggling to keep up. In either case, some modifications to their educational curriculum may be required. One of the most effective ways to ascertain a young person’s learning needs is to have a psycho-educational assessment completed.
 
A psycho-educational assessment is an examination of the psychological function of your child as it pertains to learning. These assessments work by appraising processes such as cognition, achievement, language skills, visual-motor integration, executive functioning, and social-emotional factors that influence learning. Psycho-educational assessments can be useful in identifying giftedness, learning disabilities, and general learning strengths and weaknesses. Through the identification of strengths and weaknesses, educators can construct more comprehensive learning plans that take into account the individual’s learning style. It is important to remember that in many cases, in order for your son or daughter to get the educational resources, supports, and accommodation they need (i.e., gifted, learning disability, or social-emotional coding), a formal evaluation of their needs is required. These assessments can be completed on children, adolescents, and adults (e.g. adult cognitive assessments for students in university or those seeking funding such as AISH).
 
Fees for a psycho-educational assessment range based on the complexity of the evaluation. In general, psycho-educational assessments range from $1,800 to $2,400. A standard evaluation consists of approximately four to six hours of testing. Parents and teachers may be asked to complete some short surveys or questionnaires. Wayfound will produce a written report and review it with the parents or individual.

When matters related to psychological functioning come into question related to a legal matter, a forensic assessment may be requested. Forensic assessments utilize structured procedures and empirically-supported psychological measures to determine how an individual’s behaviour, cognitive functions, personality, and other psychological variables may influence their actions in relation to a specific legal question. These evaluations are used in both criminal and civil cases.

At Wayfound, we specialize in:

  • Violence and sexual risk
  • Risk assessment  (youth and adult)
  • Independent medical evaluations (IME)
  • Parent capacity
  • Practice note 7
 
All forensic assessments completed at Wayfound are done so by, or in consultation with, our Ph.D-level psychologists. Our team can subsequently provide treatment that is consistent with the recommendations provided in the forensic evaluations.
 
Fees for these evaluations will vary based on the complexity of the evaluation and the number of hours required to produce a comprehensive report.

Wayfound psychologists adhere to the highest code of Canadian and provincial ethics and practice guidelines and bring cutting edge, evidence-informed procedures to the Wayfound assessment clinic. All assessments are either completed by or overseen by one of our registered Ph.D psychologists to ensure the highest standard will be delivered.

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Change begins here.