PART F – Reporting 41 PART F REPORTING Following the compilation of all the necessary evaluations the clinican should prepare an accurate written report promptly. When writing a comprehensive report on the psychological evaluation, all the basic principles in reporting should be followed. The report format should be in accordance with the Istanbul Protocol (See Annex IV “Guidelines for the medical evaluation of torture and ill-treatment” in the Istanbul Protocol). These guidelines are not intended to be a fixed prescription, but should be applied following an assessment of the available resources, taking the purpose of the evaluation into account. In most cases, the reports are not prepared by a cooperating team, or the physical evaluation and the psychological evaluation are made by different clinicians at different times and under different conditions. In these cases, the clinician who makes the psychological evaluation has to prepare an independent report reflecting all information gathered during the assessment and his/her own opinion of the situation. Indeed, since evaluations of torture allegations are not necessarily considered only by specialized health professionals, the language used in the report should be understandable for a larger public. The medical report should be factual and carefully worded. Making the report easy to read and understand is important. Medical or technical jargon should be avoided. If the use of technical terms is unavoidable, their meanings should be explained in parenthesis. (Allnutt & Chaplow, 2000; Istanbul Protocol, § 162). “[...]The physician should not assume that the official requesting a medical-legal evaluation has related all the material facts. It is the physician’s responsibility to discover and report upon any material findings that he or she considers relevant, even if they may be considered irrelevant or adverse to the case of the party requesting the medical examination. Findings that are consistent with torture or other forms of ill treatment must not be excluded from a medical-legal report under any circumstance” (Istanbul Protocol, § 162).