When to assign your Personal Data Inventory (PDI)
A PDI is an in-depth form which typically asks questions about a counselee’s contact information, family background, spiritual history, etc. If you’d like to use a PDI, we recommend assigning your PDI at the same time as all your other pre-counseling forms (including your intake form, release of liability form, etc.).
Here are some pros and cons of assigning your PDI at different points in the counseling process:
After someone requests counseling, assign the PDI as the first form (Not Recommended).
This method helps counselors who only want to counsel counselees that are serious about getting help.
- Pros: If you only want to counsel those who show themselves to be serious about getting out of their situation, this would be the most fitting option for you. Assigning a long form first will likely deter “flaky” counselees.
- Cons: If your goal is to be able to help (or at least to talk with) every person who shows interest in getting care, this option will not be helpful. Sometimes, if the first form a counselee sees is a PDI, the counselee can get intimidated and never submit anything. If that happens, you’ll have no way of being able to contact the counselee since they never gave you their contact information to begin with. With this method, there may be some people who will continue to struggle with sin, suffering, etc. because they may not get the help that they need from your ministry.
After someone requests counseling, first collect the counselee’s contact information, then assign your PDI (BibliCare’s Recommendation).
This method helps administrators, counselors, and most (if not all) counselees.
- Pros: If counselees give you their contact information and then complete your PDI, a few things will happen:
- No matter what, you’ll be able to follow up with everyone who is interested in receiving counseling because you’ll have their contact information. Even if someone gets intimidated by your PDI, you’ll still be able to contact the counselee and offer to help them.
- When the administrator has the PDI and all other pre-counseling forms in advance, they don’t have to go back and forth with the counselee about their case or availability in order to determine which counselor would be best for them (unless the administrator prefers to talk with the counselee before assigning a counselor).
- When the assigned counselor has the PDI and all other pre-counseling forms in advance, the counselor has the background knowledge they need before coming into the first session.
- Cons: If you only want to exclusively counsel counselees who show themselves to be serious about getting out of their situation, then assigning the PDI as the very first form would be a better fit for you.
After someone requests counseling, triage the counselee, then assign your PDI.
This is helpful for counselors who have want to establish a personal connection before having the counselee fill out a longer form. “Triaging” refers to an initial meeting with a counselee (either with an administrator or the counselee’s potential counselor), typically before being officially assigned to their counselor.
- Pros: The counselee receives a personal touch and the administrator may have a better idea of who should be assigned to the counselee case.
- Cons: We’ve found that most ministries don’t triage their counselees, usually because they already use a PDI and view triaging as an unnecessary time-spending extra step for both the counselee and administrator.
After someone requests counseling, assign the counselee to a counselor, then assign the PDI (Rare).
This may help counselees who have been to secular therapy a few times and “just feel like another number” (ex. some veterans and military members).
- Pros: Everyone who is interested in counseling can easily request it.
- Cons: It can be challenging to get counselees to fill out their PDI, since the counselee knows that they already have a counselor assigned to them. This is the most common problem that we hear about regarding this method. In addition, the counselor doesn’t have any background information about the counselee before their first session.
TIP: If you lean towards this method, we recommend assigning a counselor and then filling out the PDI during the first session. This helps ensure that the PDI will be completed and gives the counselor a chance to understand the counselee’s background before they begin counseling.