Evaluations · New Jersey and New York
Evaluations
Most clients call within days of an incident, a notice, or a deadline. The practice confirms the requirement in writing first, then completes the evaluation promptly and reports to whoever needs the answer.
01
Legal and professional consequences
Arrests, DWI, criminal matters, licensing boards, professional discipline
- For attorneys and their clients: substance use evaluations for DWI, criminal, and pre-sentencing matters, with a report built for adversarial review. Coordination with counsel before anything is released.
- For licensed professionals: physicians, nurses, pharmacists, attorneys, and other licensed professionals facing a board, an employer, or a return to practice. Requirements are confirmed first.
- What you receive: clear findings, a recommendation matched to the person’s actual needs, and documentation of follow-through when required.
02
Workplace and career
Fitness-for-duty and return-to-work evaluations, DOT SAP
- Fitness for duty and return to work: for employers, HR, employment attorneys, and EAPs. The report answers the functional question (fit, fit with conditions, or not yet fit) with no more personal health detail than the employer needs.
- DOT Substance Abuse Professional: the full return-to-duty process after a DOT drug or alcohol violation: initial evaluation, referral to independent providers as federal rules require, follow-up evaluation, and a follow-up testing plan sent to the employer. Trucking, transit, rail, aviation, pipeline, and maritime employees.
- Speed: priority scheduling and published report timelines, because every week off work costs the employer and the employee.
03
Substance use and level of care
Deciding what help is actually needed
- Independent level-of-care evaluation: for families and individuals choosing among treatment options. Recommendations based on ASAM criteria, with no financial tie to any program.
- The same standard: when a higher level of care is needed, the recommendation says so, and the practice helps arrange it.
04
Adolescents and families
School incidents, college conduct charges, underage possession or DWI
- What the practice does: an assessment and report addressed to what the school, college, or court has asked, drawing on nearly 30 years of school-based assessment.
- Navigating the requirement: coordination with the school, college, or family’s attorney, with written permission.
- Confidentiality: parents receive findings and recommendations. What a teenager says in treatment is generally kept private, as the law allows, with clear exceptions for safety.
- Common situations: a positive result under a public high school’s random testing policy, including for athletes and students with parking permits; a disciplinary incident at an independent day or boarding school; a student home on break after an incident at school; a college conduct charge; an underage possession or DWI charge; and a parent’s growing worry before anything formal happens.
05
Monitoring and follow-through
A defined period of accountability after an evaluation
- What it includes: scheduled check-ins, review of testing and treatment records, coordination with providers, and short written status reports at set intervals.
- Who receives reports: only the people named in a signed release.
- How long: a fixed term agreed at the start, commonly six to twelve months.
A note on independence
When a DOT SAP evaluation, an employer evaluation, or any evaluation requiring independence recommends treatment, the practice refers to independent providers.
