%0 Journal Article
%T Mental health screening for children in care using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Brief Assessment Checklists: Guidance from three national studies
%A Anna Sophie Hahne
%A Anouk Goemans
%A Matthew Gieve
%A Michael Tarren-Sweeney
%J Developmental Child Welfare
%@ 2516-1040
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/2516103219829756
%X Although children residing in statutory out-of-home care and those adopted from care are more likely than not to have mental health difficulties requiring clinical intervention or support, their difficulties often remain undetected. Children¡¯s agencies have a duty of care to identify those child clients who require therapeutic and other support services, without regard to the availability of such services. The present article proposes a first-stage mental health screening procedure (calibrated for high sensitivity) for children and adolescents (ages 4¨C17) in alternative care, which children¡¯s agencies can implement without clinical oversight using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and Brief Assessment Checklists (BAC). The screening procedure was derived from analyses of BAC, SDQ, and ¡°proxy SDQ¡± scores obtained in three national studies of children and adolescents residing in alternative care (Australia, the Netherlands, and England). The SDQ and BAC demonstrated moderate to high screening accuracy across a range of clinical case criteria¡ªthe SDQ being slightly better at predicting general mental health problems and the BAC slightly better at predicting attachment- and trauma-related problems. Accurate first-stage screening is achieved using either the SDQ or the BAC alone, with recommended cut points of 10 (i.e., positive screen is 10 or higher) for the SDQ and 7 for the BAC. Greater accuracy is gained from using the SDQ and BAC in parallel, with positive screens defined by an SDQ score of 11 or higher or a BAC score of 8 or higher. Agencies and post-adoption support services should refer positive screens for comprehensive mental health assessment by clinical services
%K Brief Assessment Checklist
%K children in care
%K mental health screening
%K screening protocol
%K Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2516103219829756