Many times people demonstrate poor levels of functioning after being provided a surgical intervention. This often occurs because of mental, emotional, and social challenges people face that present as barriers to improved levels of functioning post surgery. As a result of this, many insurance providers are beginning to require a psychological pre-surgical evaluation before approving a given surgical procedure. Pre-surgical evaluations help identify mental, emotional, social, and behavioral factors that help predict how well a client is cope with the effects associated with being provided a surgical procedure. They also provide patients and medical providers with strategies to overcome any identified psychosocial barrier that may inhibit an optimum outcome post surgery.

There are also time when a person and/or a medical provider may develop concerns regarding one's perceived level of cognitive functioning. Cognitive screenings can provided for both clients' medical providers a snap shot into possible memory and concentration deficits and could lead to further in-depth physiological and/or cognitive diagnostic testing to gain further clarity on one's cognitive capacities.