The application and utility of a family assessment procedure in a child psychiatry clinic

The application of a method of assessing families from a total family systems viewpoint is explored. It was found that the method (the McMaster Model) was well-suited to routine practice in a British child psychiatry setting with routine clinic referrals. It constituted a good procedure both for assessing and for preparing families for family therapy. In this paper the practical procedure is described. Some of the issues arising from the approach and from the assessment of thirty-four clinic families are discussed. It was also found that the method provided a very good framework for teaching.