Psychological Services for Children/Families Involved with the Child Welfare System
If you are an ODHS Caseworker making a referral, please read carefully!
MindSights provides a wide variety of psychological assessment and evaluation services to and on behalf of children and youth directly referred by the State of Oregon’s Department of Human Services (ODHS). These services include:
RAPID Program
The RAPID Program provides initial norm-referenced, psychometrically-informed screening assessments of mental health, behavioral adjustment, developmental status and academic skills for all children (ages 1 through 18) entering ODHS custody in Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties. Individual caseworkers do not need to initiate referrals or complete paperwork to authorize these services. Instead, referrals are completed automatically by local branches, and are funded by the child’s health plan. For more information on our RAPID program, click here.
Comprehensive Psychological Assessments
Comprehensive Psychological Assessments authorized and funded through the OHA/ODHS Administrative Examination system. These evaluations represent a way of obtaining information about a young person’s adjustment, needs, neurodevelopment, strengths, functioning, diagnoses, etc. Typically, such evaluations focus on identifying personal strengths and/or clarifying diagnoses for informing treatment/service planning.
Best Interest Evaluations
Best Interest Evaluations, authorized and funded either through an OHA/ODHS Administrative Examination or as arranged by a child’s/adolescent’s attorney. These evaluations are a sub-type of the Comprehensive Psychological Evaluation described above, and they include professional opinions/findings regarding permanency-related considerations and identifying the supports and services that will help a “forever home” placement be successful.
Relational Assessments
Sibling Relational Assessments, typically authorized and funded by the local ODHS branch office (ODHS policy may require these to be ordered by a court before the child welfare agency will authorize them). These evaluations are typically needed to gain a deeper understanding of a child’s relationship with sibling(s). Among other applications, results can be used inform decisions regarding placement of siblings together vs. separately.
For Attorneys
Attorneys seeking Best Interests Evaluations and/or Sibling Relationship Assessments services for their child client(s) under the Oregon Public Defender System (OPDS) should contact our admin team at 503-222-0707 or office@
Authorization
For information about how to authorize MindSights to provide one or more of these psychological services (other than a RAPID assessment), please refer to the Instructions for ODHS Caseworkers: Authorizing Psychological Services with MindSights.
Other Psychological Assessment Services
For the time being, MindSights is only conducting Administrative Exams, Best Interest Evaluations through the ODHS Administrative Examination system in Region 10 (Central Oregon). For an Administrative Exams and/or Best Interest Evaluations in the Bend/Central Oregon region, please fill out the form on our Getting Started page.
If you’re in the Portland Metro area and psychological evaluation services are needed for diagnostic clarification, clinical case conceptualization and/or treatment planning, it may be possible to obtain those services under the Oregon Health Plan (assuming the CCO’s medically necessity requirements are met and we are contracted with the CCO in question). If you believe this might be the case, please ask the child’s behavioral health provider(s) to submit a referral to us directly. We’ll take it from there when it comes to completing/submitting any necessary pre-authorization paperwork the CCO requires!
If a child in ODHS custody in the Portland Metro area is in need of Administrative Exams, Best Interest Evaluations or Relational Assessments through the ODHS Administrative Examination system, it is our understanding that the Children’s Program is continuing to do these evaluations.
