NCJ Number
239353
Date Published
December 2011
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This study examined whether detention staff's use of a validated mental health screening procedure for youth held in pretrial detention (MAYSI-2) led to the staff's getting youth the mental health services they needed as identified by the screening instrument.
Abstract
The Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-2nd version (MAYSI-2) was the screening tool used in this study. It provides staff with a tool that can be used to identify a youth who is in a mental health crisis that requires immediate attention. The researchers expected that the screening result would give staff information that would assist them in anticipating and deflecting youth's disruptive behavior while in detention; however, the study showed no evidence that detention incidents declined after the use of mental health screening. Subsequently, researchers identified differences in scores at admission for youth who eventually did or did not commit serious infractions while in detention. Differences were found on several of the MAYSI-2's seven scales. Researchers are now working on a method for combining scores on those scales in order to provide detention staff with a signal that a youth is at higher risk for engaging in disruptive behavior while in detention. The development of such a method for staff action to reduce disruptive behavior will then require that staff be trained in formulating a response that will anticipate and monitor youth at high-risk for disruptive behavior while in detention, as determined by relevant scores on the MAYSI-2. 1 figure