Using the blank form in the Appendix C titled “New Referral or Inquiry,” develop a client intake for a child, a person under 16 years of age. In this case, a parent or guardian would be calling on behalf of the child. A doctor, a school counselor, or a teacher may have referred the parents to you, or the parents may have felt they needed help and sought your services without a referral. Typical issues confronting children are problems with school, behavioral problems, and adjustment problems to events such as divorce or the death of a parent. 

In developing your client and your client’s problem, read the DSM 5 and look at books and articles on specific problems common to children. Look at chapters (particularly those on children’s mental health and on developmental disabilities) in the companion textbook, Fundamentals for Practice with High Risk Populations (Summers, 2002), for information on how your client and your client’s parents might be feeling and what issues or problems the client’s parents might be facing when they make the first call to your agency. Practice sending a verification letter to your hypothetical client