The GAF score stands for Global Assessment of Functioning (more information is provided on the link here.
That said, generally speaking, a person's GAF score is scaled on a range of 0-100. It is measuring the degree to which a person's current symptoms affect their psychological, social and occupational functioning. A higher score reflects higher functioning in everyday life.
There is a lot of research that has gone into properly rating a person's GAF score, if you want to dive into even more details, you can access some great information here with supporting links.
Essentially what you want to take into account is the following:
1. The first is a person’s level of functioning in daily life.
2. The second is the severity of their mental illness.
You should ultimately determine how you want to rate your patients, but many doctors determine this scare by:
- talking to the person (clinical interview)
- interviewing the person’s family members or caretakers
- reviewing the person’s medical records
- reviewing a person’s police or court records detailing their behavioral history
Once a doctor reviews this information, they review the GAF scoring ranges. While the scores may be numeric, the scoring is still subjective.
Your score for this patient would fall into one of 10 categories. This is discussed in the first link, but I have also attached a PDF that outlines these as well. Ultimately, you would determine where in this list your patient falls and give that information for their submission.