CAFAS and Clinical Practice

CAFAS can be readily incorporated into your clinical work with children and families regardless of your treatment orientation (family systems, behavioural, psychodynamic, brief systems). We recommend that you discuss the CAFAS with those clients you will be treating. Take the time to describe the purpose (i.e., to get a sense of the areas in the child's life that are being affected by mental health issues or problems) and utility of the CAFAS (i.e., to document improvement in the child as a result of treatment).  A parent brochure is avaialbe in English and French to help you with this. As well, you should share the CAFAS profile and related treatment goals with the client and his/her family. Note that the CAFAS Software can assist you with treatment planning.

Conduct the initial treatment interview(s) as you normally would while keeping in mind the specific information you will need to rate the CAFAS. Note that you may need to be more comprehensive in the topics you cover with the client/family.

The benefits of the CAFAS in terms of its clinical utility are as follows:

Provides a comprehensive approach to care

CAFAS ratings capture both client strengths and deficits

Provides information on client functioning that compliments symptom information

CAFAS scores are interpretable compared to a set of general guidelines (eventually here will be the capacity to compare scores to an Ontatio-wide data-set)

Risk-behaviours are identified

CAFAS profile sheet provides a visual 'tool" that can be used for case-planning and formulation with the family

CAFAS client reports provide a list of problem behaviours, strengths, and goals that can form the basis of a treatment plan

Subsequent CAFAS ratings can inform treatment planning, including discharge

CAFAS scores can serve as a common reference among all children's mental health service providers

An agency's advocacy for additional resources is strengthened by having aggregate data on the level of functioning and morbidity of its clients