Module 2: Assessment and Discovery

The discovery/assessment process is much more comprehensive requiring a greater time commitment. It is important to complete all of the activities during assessment and invest the time now to really get to know the person you are providing employment services for. While it may be tempting to cut corners, it will only hurt in the long run as the quality and success of the placement and amount of time you spend on the job site are likely to be affected.

Assessment is the time to learn about the individual’s strengths, talents, and passions. Look beyond the obvious or stereotypical recommendations and discover what makes the individual’s eyes light up and truly excites them. Don’t worry about connecting them to specific positions within an identified company; instead listen for job areas and characteristics that you can work with during job development and matching.

The activities to be completed during assessment are similar for all individuals. However, the specifics of what you do during those activities are likely to vary with each person. For example, for one individual observations may include the day program or group work setting while another may be at their school or a volunteer work site. By now, you should have a general idea of events and people important in the individual’s life and a plan for including them in your assessment. This list should grow as you spend more time and gain more information about additional significant opportunities.

Meeting with family members in their home, if possible, is invaluable to the process. This gives a chance to find out what their hopes and dreams are and to engage them in going forward. They have a history with the individual and will continue to be the constant in their life. They can inform you about chores the individual does at home, activities they engage in, behaviors that occur, factors that impact behaviors, supports that are helpful, and likes and dislikes. It also gives you a chance to observe the individual in a familiar, comfortable, and natural setting that may reveal a very different picture from other environments. Often, intake is perceived as the assessment meeting with the family. While you do begin to obtain assessment information during intake, it is important to remember that intake does not replace a more informal and personal meeting preferably in the individual’s home or other preferred location at a later time.

You will want to identify and interview those people important in the individual’s life. This may include their immediate and extended family members, guardians. school personnel, day services and residential staff, friends, and other community connections. In addition, observing the individual perform and participate in a variety of settings and activities is very useful in order to paint the big picture as well as begin distinguishing variations across people, places, and events. The Individual Supports Assessment and Interview Forms can be useful tools to help guide this process. Keeping notes can help insure you don’t lose any relevant information that is shared.

One of the most informative activities to be completed during assessment and discovery are the situational and community assessments. Often confused with the community-based work assessment or work adjustment, the situational assessment is similar in that information is gathered through a real work situation. Beyond that, the differences are huge. A situational assessment involves three – four hour work assessments in three different community businesses. These assessments should be reflective of the types of jobs that exist in a community and present varied environments, tasks, and social situations for the individual to try. The job coach is present the entire time during all of the situational assessments to provide instruction and support, and record their observations.

While the jobs performed as part of assessment are not necessarily what the individual is going to want to do, you will often identify certain positive aspects of the job that you can later use to determine a good job match. A good job match combines the individual’s passions with those positive aspects of real workday activities. You will primarily use generic sites to select from when scheduling assessments for someone, there are times that will be exceptions when you will   need to contact a specific business that is essential for more specific information about an individual’s skills or interests in a particular field, such as a lumber yard, funeral home, or day care. Situational assessments can also be a useful strategy to get your foot in the door with a desired business if a job is not possible at the time.

A community assessment is a different type of assessment that involves spending time with the individual in community settings such as riding around their neighborhood, visiting locations they frequent, or walking around the mall. Let the individual lead the way showing you things of interest and demonstrating capabilities; imperative for both the assessment and identifying natural supports in the person’s life.  

Information from the situational and community assessments can be written down and summarized on the Situational Assessment Observation Form. 

Remember the assessment/discovery process, while time consuming, benefits you as well as the individual. You will be able to understand the context of certain preferences and behaviors such as when they occur, with whom, and in what places. You will also be able to get a general impression of who this individual is and the exceptions that may occur infrequently so that you can proactively be prepared for them. Compile all of the information, identify themes and important factors, and take into consideration when conducting job development to find the best job match.