ILSA-Basic™

Integrated Longitudinal Strength-based Assessment™ – Basic (soon to be released)

printable version

The ILSA-Basic™ is a unique documentation format that organizes the core process of welcoming, hopeful, integrated, recovery-oriented assessment for adults or older adolescents. It is not a typical “assessment tool” that simply asks a list of questions. Rather, it is designed in content and visual layout to be a format that organizes a process of assessment that is designed to understand the hopeful goals and life story of a person with complex needs.

ILSA-Basic™ can be used with adults and adolescents who have any combination of mental health, trauma, substance use, and/or cognitive issues, needs, or disabilities, as well as other health and social needs.

ILSA-Basic™ is part of the CCISC implementation toolkit, in which companion tools address system development, program co-occurring capability, and clinician competency. ILSA-Basic™ can be used independently as well as within the context of program-level CCISC implementation.

ILSA-Basic™ incorporates CCISC principles into the assessment process and documentation. Extensive experience in systemwide implementation of integrated services for individuals with complex (co-occurring) conditions has demonstrated that a hopeful, person-centered, integrated assessment is a critical foundation for effective care.

ILSA-Basic™ incorporates the following “best practice principles” into the assessment documentation:

  • Welcoming and engagement.
  • Identification of person-centered requests and hopeful (recovery-oriented goals).
  • Opportunity for the client to tell his or her story.
  • ZIP-Screen™ to quickly identify multiple issues, including trauma; and level of risk for each.
  • Identification of periods of relative success, and the strengths used to make progress.
  • Integrated longitudinal history that includes attention to multiple issues (MH, SA, DD, health, legal, etc.).
  • Identification of stages of change for each issue.
  • Identification of skills and supports for each issue.
  • Framework for eligibility and level of care determination for multiple issues.
  • Format to develop an initial integrated person-centered service/recovery plan.

ILSA-Basic™ documentation format has the following unique features:

  • ILSA-Basic™ supports the development of an empathic, hopeful working partnership between the person and the care provider.
  • ILSA-Basic™ begins with welcoming and provides a structure for emphasizing person-centered engagement as a priority over simply collecting data.
  • ILSA-Basic™ provides a process for gathering information in the context of the flow of the interview that will support completion of various screening and other information-gathering tools that might be required in the program.
  • ILSA-Basic™ is strength-based, longitudinal, and integrated, in that it encourages the detailed description of periods when the person did well, and discussion of all elements of functioning, as well as health, mental health, substance abuse, and cognitive interventions during those periods.
  • ILSA-Basic™ incorporates a multi-dimensional assessment framework consistent with multi-dimensional protocols that assist with placement and level of care determination, such as ASAM PPC-2R and LOCUS.

How to Purchase

Please contact us to obtain pricing and a licensing agreement.