Revalidating the Brief Jail Mental Health Screen to Increase Accuracy for Women

• Published in: Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.) Vol. 58; no. 12; pp. 1598 - 1601
• Main Authors: Steadman, Henry J, Robbins, Pamela Clark, Islam, Tariqul, Osher, Fred C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychiatric Association 01.12.2007; American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc
• Subjects: Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Criminal investigations; False Positive Reactions; Female; Females; Humans; Interview, Psychological; Interviews; Male; Maryland; Mass Screening - instrumentation; Mass Screening - standards; Medical sciences; Mens health; Mental depression; Mental disorders; Mental Disorders - diagnosis; Mental health; New York; Prisoners - psychology; Prisons; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics. Diagnostic aid systems; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Techniques and methods; Validation studies; Validity; United States; North America; America; New York; Maryland; Social environment; Human; Prisoner; Carceral environment; Evaluation scale; Mental health; Sex; Psychometrics; Cross validation; Test validation; Mental disorder; Diagnosis; Public health
• ISSN: 1075-2730; 1557-9700
• DOI: 10.1176/ps.2007.58.12.1598

Jails need a reliable tool to identify inmates who require further mental health assessment and treatment. This research attempted to revalidate the Brief Jail Mental Health Screen (BJMHS) as such a tool. This research added four items to the original eight-item screen (BJMHS-R), targeting depression and trauma to improve performance of the screen with women. BJMHS-R data were collected in four jails from 10,258 detainees. A subset of 464 were administered the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) for cross-validation. The original BJMHS outperformed the revised screen. The original correctly classified 80% of males and 72% of females on the basis of SCID diagnoses, compared with classification rates of 72% and 66%, respectively, with the BJMHS-R. Overall, the BJMHS identified 16% of screened detainees as needing referral for further assessment, whereas the BJMHS-R identified 22%. The original eight-item BJMHS is a practical, efficient tool for intake screening by jail correction officers of male and female detainees.