Drug and alcohol assessments determine whether a child meets the threshold for having a diagnosable substance use disorder. At ASAP, your assessment will take approximately 2 hours — which allows for time for us to collect information from both you and your child. This also provides us the ability to discuss treatment recommendations or further issues that arise during the session.

What to Expect at a Drug and Alcohol Assessment

Initially, you and your child will be asked to complete standard facility paperwork, including treatment/fee agreements, limits to confidentiality, and any releases of information (ROI). Following the completion of this mandatory paperwork, an ASAP clinician will meet with your teen individually. During that time, parents will complete the Parent Assessment Form. This form offers parents the opportunity to help us gather details of family history, developmental history, and any recent (and possibly drug-related) changes the parents have seen in their child’s friends, behavior, and/or grades.

Following our interview of the teen, they complete the SASSI-A2, a scientifically-validated written measure, which identifies patterns common in adolescents who abuse alcohol or other drugs. While the client completes their paperwork, our clinician will meet with the parents to review completed paperwork, discuss the issues that brought you in, and provide feedback about initial findings.

We also ask families to sign a Release of Information (ROI), which allows ASAP to have contact with doctors, schools, court systems, and/or any other entity outside of the family system. With this form ASAP can communicate important information to family doctors, informing them about potential substance abuse issues. When scheduling an assessment, parents are encouraged to bring any names and contact information to include on the ROI. In order for any outside correspondence to occur, an ROI must be completed.

Recommendations

The recommendations made by ASAP staff are based on the American Society of Addictions Medicine (ASAM) level of care criteria. Parents and teens receive a recommendation for treatment before they leave our office. Recommendations include no treatment recommended, pre-treatment educational programs, individual therapy, intensive outpatient programs (IOP), and inpatient/residential programs. For clients who do need education (CHOICES), individual therapy, or intensive outpatient (TRIP) services, ASAP allows them to begin immediately. Should your child need a level of care not provided at ASAP, we can recommend facilities that provide the appropriate services.

Costs

Insurance companies offer variable coverage for drug and alcohol assessment. For those that do provide coverage, they will only provide reimbursement when a diagnosable issue is found. With your insurance information, our intake team can obtain a benefits quote for you.

The cost for our comprehensive drug and alcohol assessment is $200. Letters required for outside contacts are provided at a separate $50 charge. Most private insurance plans offer some coverage for individual therapy and intensive outpatient (IOP), however education is not covered as it is not considered to be “medically necessary” by insurance companies.