Global Assessment of Functioning Scale•
(GAF)
GAF is a score you may see on your diagnostic assessments. It attempts to
rate your overall level of functioning and ability to carry out activities of daily
living. These include social, occupational, and school functioning. It rates
how well you are meeting various problems-in-living. It can be used to
determine your level of disability. It has a numeric scale (0 through 100). An
explanation of the GAF scale is located at the end of this lesson.
This will be a simple lesson.
Evaluation:
• Attempt to rate yourself with the GAF scale. Realize that it is quite
common for you to rate yourself higher than others would.
• Have your parents or someone who really knows you, but not a friend,
rate you. This person needs to be objective about how you function.
• See if you can find your GAF on an evaluation that you have already
had. (You may have several of them.)
• Go through and talk with the person who rated you about your ratings.
Make a simple plan of how to raise your GAF:
• Identify areas of weakness. Pay attention to both the ones you
thought you are weak in and the ones others thought you were weak
in.
• Talk about each one of them.
• Try hard to improve the areas that you identify.
• Make a goal to raise your GAF.
• Put on your to-do list specific things that will help you raise your GAF.
One person told me that they were forcing them self to try new
things.
• Ask someone to point out when you are having a problem in one of
these areas.
• Push yourself out of your comfort zone to function on a higher level.
As I think about it I realize your GAF is not determined by your IQ, but
rather by your ability to function. There is an old saying, “ People are more
important than things.” Therefore, if two people were emotionally healthy
and one was into serving people, they would have a higher GAF than
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someone who is a brilliant, rich, isolated businessman.
I realize this might be over simplified; however, read the teachings on,
“Hanging Out Syndrome,” “Executive Functioning Skills,” and “Brain
Health. Realize these all fit together. The higher your executive functioning
skills and GAF, the less likely you will be to do alcohol or drugs. Along this
same line of thinking, if you eat healthily you would have a higher GAF than
someone who eats poorly.
When reading through the GAF scale, realize that much of it has to do with
your emotional and mental health. I realize that you cannot just snap your
fingers and say, “Go away problems.” For some, medications help to either
control or to alleviate the problem. I once studied a program that helped
people with emotional and mental health problems. It was based on
nutrition and actions. The program’s theory was that sugar affects your
emotional and mental state. It taught that alcohol is extremely high in
sugar, therefore affecting both your emotional and mental state. It required
setting goals and moving towards them. It also had an interesting twist of
telling people who wanted to become emotionally and mentally healthier
that they needed to help others, serve people.
We should all strive to raise our GAF. So, let’s make that a goal and work
towards it. Let’s do the things which we know will help us function at a
higher level. This includes being nice, helpful, striving to serve people,
building healthy relationships, making wise food choices, and staying away
from alcohol, drugs and people who use them.
Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) Scale•
All of this information was pulled from the DSM IV-TR
Consider psychological, social, and occupational functioning on a
hypothetical continuum of mental health-illness. Do not include impairment
in functioning due to physical (or environmental) limitations.
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Code (Note: Use intermediate codes when appropriate, e.g.,
45, 68, 72.)
100-91 Superior functioning in a wide range of activities,
life’s problems never seem to get out of hand, is sought out
by others because of his/her many positive qualities. No
symptoms.
90-81 Absent of minimal symptoms (e.g., mild anxiety before an
exam), good functioning in all areas, interested and involved
in a wide range of activities, socially effective, generally
satisfied with life, no more than everyday problems or
concerns (e.g., an occasional argument with family members).
80-71 If symptoms are present, the are transient and
expectable reactions to psycho-social stressors (e.g., difficulty
concentrating after family argument); no more than slight
impairment in social, occupational, or school functioning (e.g.,
temporarily falling behind in schoolwork).
70-61 Some mild symptoms (e.g., depressed mood and mild
insomnia) OR some difficulty in social, occupational, or
school functioning (e.g., occasional truancy, or theft within the
household), but generally functioning pretty well, has some
meaningful relationships.
60-51 Moderate symptoms (e.g., flat affect and circumstantial speech,
occasional panic attacks) OR moderate difficulty in social,
occupational, or school functioning (e.g., few friends, conflicts
with peers or co-workers).
50-41 Serious symptoms (e.g., suicidal ideation, severe obsessive
rituals, frequent shoplifting) OR any serious impairment in social,
occupational, or school functioning (e.g., no friends, unable to
keep a job).
40-31 Some impairment in reality testing or communication
(e.g., speech is at times illogical, obscure, or irrelevant) OR major
impairment in several areas, such as work or school, family
relations, judgment, thinking, or mood (e.g., depressed man
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avoids friends, neglects family, and is unable to work; child frequently beats
up younger children, is defiant at home, and is failing at school).
30-21 Behavior is considerably influenced by delusions or
hallucinations OR serious impairment in communication or
judgment (e.g., sometimes incoherent, acts grossly inappropriately,
suicidal preoccupation) OR inability to function in almost all
areas (e.g., stays in bed all day; no job, home or friends).
20-11 Some danger of hurting self or others (e.g., suicidal
attempts without clear expectation of death; frequent violent; manic
excitement) OR occasionally fails to maintain minimal
personal hygiene (e.g., smears feces) OR gross impairment in
communication (e.g., largely incoherent or mute).
10-1 Persistent danger of severely hurting self or others
(e.g., recurrent violence) OR persistent inability to maintain
minimal personal hygiene OR serious suicidal act with
clear expectation of death.
Taken from: http://www.bsu.edu/csh/ssrc/media/pdf/gafpage.pdf
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