PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATIONS
Juvenile diagnostic
Juvenile Diagnostic Evaluations
The ways in which we respond to juvenile offending (i.e., how juveniles are judged, tried, and sentenced) should be informed by developmental science. Psychological evaluations of juveniles are an essential part of the juvenile justice system because they contextualize a youth’s presentation and behavior, inform treatment recommendations, and facilitate opportunities for youth to live healthy and constructive lives.
What kind of impairments may affect youth? Youth may experience functional impairments in academic tasks, interpersonal relationships, work, home and life responsibilities, and/or use of leisure time. The impairments may relate to expressive or receptive language, memory, emotion regulation, or impulse control. As part of any evaluation, Dr. Gerchow assesses whether the youth have an undiagnosed, untreated, or undertreated mental health condition.
It is estimated that as many as 70% of youth who enter the justice system have a mental health, sensory or learning disability.
Anywhere between 28% and 43% of detained or incarcerated youth have special education needs.
Dr. Christine Gerchow – Juvenile diagnostic evaluations:
Dr. Gerchow is a licensed psychologist (PSY 29762) and credentialed school psychologist. She spent more than a decade working in two maximum security juvenile detention settings in the San Francisco Bay Area, first in Contra Costa County as clinician and team lead, and then in Alameda County as Director of Juvenile Justice Health Services. She has facilitated thousands of individual psychotherapy sessions in juvenile justice settings and conducted more than 300 screenings and assessments of youth in custody.
Dr. Gerchow is an expert in behavioral health interventions offered in juvenile justice settings, authoring an evaluation of two of the most utilized evidence-based practice curriculums in the field, Aggression Replacement Training (ART) and Thinking for Change (T4C). As a juvenile justice clinician-turned-administrator, Dr. Gerchow is keenly aware of the administrative interworking of juvenile justice system service delivery, thus ensuring her evaluations and recommendations are valid, reliable, and actionable.
Juvenile Diagnostic Evaluation Services:
A psychological evaluation can provide the court, deputy probation officer, short term residential therapeutic treatment program (STRTPs), the youth and their loved ones with diagnostic clarity and treatment recommendations.
Dr. Gerchow can provide:
- Diagnostic evaluations to determine the presence of psychological disorders and conditions (e.g., ADHD)
- Individualized clinical audits of behavioral health records to assess treatment relevance and fidelity
- Treatment recommendations, including options for prompt engagement in the recommended treatments
- Psychoeducational report review to formulate questions for cross-examination
TESTIMONIALS
Christine’s support and expertise as a supervisor, consultant, and innovator in this system has proven of inestimable value to her trainees and colleagues, in addition to her invaluable therapeutic work directly with many of our youth.
Former Child/Adolescent Psychiatrist, Contra Costa County Juvenile Hall
Christine is a fountain of knowledge around trauma and how it affects those of us who work in fields related to trauma. She’s a great leader! She’s efficient and delivers information in a dynamic and personable way. After I speak with Christine, I always come away with more information and a better understanding of myself and those I help.
Probation Liaison/Mental Health Clinical Specialist, Contra Costa County
