Summary: Transition-age youth with foster care involvement (TAY, ages 17–22) are at heightened risk for suicidal behavior. Despite this, mental health screenings are not standardized across child welfare (CW) systems and existing assessment tools are not designed for use with this specific population. As such, TAY are unlikely to be adequately screened for suicide risk and connected with needed services. This paper identifies screening and assessment tools that could be effective for use with TAY in CW settings.
Application: Systematic, routine assessment of mental health and suicide risk across CW settings is critical. This article identifies one brief screening tool (the ASQ) and four assessments (the SIQ-JR, the C-SSRS, the SHBQ, and the SPS) that demonstrate specific promise for use with TAY.
Source: Springer Nature
