In such cases, the interviewer does not have the luxury of scheduling a series of assessment sessions followed by treatment. The crisis must be dealt with on the spot, requiring the combination of special interview goals that would otherwise be distributed over a number of sessions. The interviewer attempts to provide support, collect assessment data, and provide help. He or she must deal with the client in a calm and accepting fashion, asking relevant questions and working on the immediate problem directly or through referral to other services. One or two well-handled interviews during a crisis may be the beginning and the end of contact with the client whose need for assistance was temporary and situation specific.
Interviews provide an opportunity to observe client behaviors.
Clinicians sometimes conduct interviews to see how a person deals with certain circumstances. Clinical interviews are thought of as having a beginning, a middle, and an end. This is a considerable oversimplification, however, since such neat stages may not be discernible in many instances. Intake or problem identification interviews are most likely to pass through three segments. Treatment interviews follow a different three-stage format.