From: Asking the Right Questions 2: Talking about sexual orientation and gender identity in mental health, counselling, and addiction settings (© 2004 CAMH)
What is in this manual?
This manual includes:
- the ARQ2 guide to be used with a standard substance use, mental health, or other service assessment (Part A / Part B in PDF format)
- background information to help therapists, counsellors, nurses, doctors, and other clinicians use the ARQ2 guide (Part A / Part B)
- answers to common questions from counsellors
- a list of resources for counsellors
- a glossary of concepts, used throughout this manual, to help therapists/counsellors familiarize themselves with terms that may be used by LGBTTTIQ clients and communities.
Using the ARQ2 guide
There are two parts to the ARQ2 guide.
Part A is a one-page assessment form to be completed by the client, in the presence of the therapist/counsellor, during the initial assessment interview or early in the counselling process. It is used to identify clients’ sexual orientation and gender identity and to ask about related concerns.
Part B is a set of eight open-ended interview items to be asked by the therapist/counsellor during assessment or early in the counselling/treatment process. It is used to identify LGBTTTIQ clients’ concerns that will be relevant to treatment/case planning.
Using the background information
For each item on the ARQ2 guide, this manual gives the following background information:
- Relevance/intent: This information describes why the item was included in the guide. Understanding the intent can help you effectively phrase the items in Part B, and will help you respond if clients ask about the relevance of some of the questions.
- Additional probes (Part B only): This section contains suggested probes that you may want to use after each question. A probe is a question or prompt that is not in the ARQ2 guide itself, but that may give information to help you understand the client’s responses more fully. We have not included a comprehensive list of probes. Each therapist/ counsellor has a personal style and will tailor probes to the particular client.
- Client perceptions: We have included quotations in this manual to give a fuller picture of the experiences and concerns of the clients who participated in the focus groups and interviews.
- Therapist/counsellor perceptions: The expertise of the therapists/ counsellors who contributed to this project is also depicted through quotations revealing their clinical knowledge with LGBTTTIQ clients and their experiences using the template or first version of this guide.
In Asking the Right Questions 2: