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Readiness Assessment

Module 6: Functional Assessment and Readiness · Lesson 2 of 3

12 min Back to module

Story opener

Thursday, 4:40 p.m. A participant is sitting across from you, your supervisor wants three notes before you leave, and the answer you need is not in any binder on the shelf. This lesson is the part of the job nobody handed you in orientation.

Learning objectives

  • Be able to low readiness means readiness development, not skills drilling
  • Be able to assess readiness per goal area, not globally

Lesson

Skills training delivered to someone who is not ready produces attendance, not change.

Readiness has components: need for change, commitment to change, awareness of self and environment, and personal closeness with the practitioner. When readiness is low, readiness development is the intervention, not skills training.

Readiness is domain specific. Someone can be highly ready for employment and not at all ready to address substance use.

Maryland guidance & authority labels

Every statement below is labeled so you know what is binding regulation, what is only proposed, what is professional guidance, and what is our house standard.

  • PRA guidance

    Functional assessment covers current skills, readiness, environment demands, and existing supports — not symptoms alone.

  • Internal best practice

    Assess in the environment where the skill must actually be used whenever it is safe and practical.

Common mistakes

  • Describing what you did without describing what the participant did.

    Do this instead — Record the intervention and the participant's observable response to it.

  • Treating regulation as a filing chore separate from practice.

    Do this instead — Let the required elements shape the session itself, so documentation writes itself.

Practical examples

Practical example

Instead of 'met with participant to discuss goals,' write: 'Reviewed the transportation objective; participant identified the #22 route unassisted and named one back-up plan. Verbal prompt needed once. Next session: practice the transfer at Mondawmin.'

Key takeaways

  • Low readiness means readiness development, not skills drilling
  • Assess readiness per goal area, not globally

Reflection prompts

  1. 1Which part of this lesson describes something you are already doing differently in practice?
  2. 2What would an auditor see in your last five notes that contradicts this standard?

Bring your answers to supervision — the case-study workspace in this module saves written notes to your account.

Knowledge check

4 questions drawn from a bank of 7 · 75% to pass · instant feedback on every answer

1. How should you treat this statement? "Functional assessment covers current skills, readiness, environment demands, and existing supports — not symptoms alone."

2. A colleague does this: Describing what you did without describing what the participant did. What should they do instead?

3. Which additional point does "Readiness Assessment" emphasize?

4. A colleague does this: Treating regulation as a filing chore separate from practice. What should they do instead?

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