Diagnosing is a vital skill to master as a clinical social worker. Clients rely on us to provide accurate diagnoses in order to find the support that they need. Diagnosing is a skill that takes significant practice to master. It is also important to be culturally competent as a clinician and consider a client's hesitance to open up or accept a diagnosis. Identifying whether a client meets criteria or not is important to properly diagnose. Having a DSM class that challenged our ability to recognize and identify criteria a client meets has been formative on the road to becoming a clinical social worker.

Skills, competencies &/or capacities learned

• Apply ethical decision making skills to issues specific to social work.  
• Recognize and manage personal biases as they affect professional relationships 
• in the service of the client’s well-being. 
• Evaluate, select, and implement appropriate multidimensional assessment, diagnostic, intervention, and practice evaluation tools. 

• Communicate professional judgments to other social workers and to professionals from other disciplines, in both verbal and written formats.