Brief Mental Health Disorder Screening Questionnaires and Use with Public Safety Personnel: A Review

Robyn E. Shields, Stephanie Korol, R. Nicholas Carleton, Megan McElheran, Andrea M. Stelnicki, Dianne Groll and Gregory S. Anderson
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Robyn E. Shields: Anxiety and Illness Behaviours Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Regina, Regina, SK S4S 0A2, Canada
Stephanie Korol: Anxiety and Illness Behaviours Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Regina, Regina, SK S4S 0A2, Canada
R. Nicholas Carleton: Anxiety and Illness Behaviours Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Regina, Regina, SK S4S 0A2, Canada
Megan McElheran: Wayfound Mental Health Group, Calgary, AB T2R 1J5, Canada
Andrea M. Stelnicki: Anxiety and Illness Behaviours Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Regina, Regina, SK S4S 0A2, Canada
Dianne Groll: Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON N2L 3C5, Canada
Gregory S. Anderson: Faculty of Science, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC V2C 0C8, Canada

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 7, 1-30

Abstract: Brief mental health disorder screening questionnaires (SQs) are used by psychiatrists, physicians, researchers, psychologists, and other mental health professionals and may provide an efficient method to guide clinicians to query symptom areas requiring further assessment. For example, annual screening has been used to help identify military personnel who may need help. Nearly half (44.5%) of Canadian public safety personnel (PSP) screen positive for one or more mental health disorder(s); as such, regular mental health screenings for PSP may be a valuable way to support mental health. The following review was conducted to (1) identify existing brief mental health disorder SQs; (2) review empirical evidence of the validity of identified SQs; (3) identify SQs validated within PSP populations; and (4) recommend appropriately validated brief screening questionnaires for five common mental health disorders (i.e., generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), major depressive depression (MDD), panic disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, alcohol use disorder). After reviewing the psychometric properties of the identified brief screening questionnaires, we recommend the following four brief screening tools for use with PSP: the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (screening for MDD and GAD), the Brief Panic Disorder Symptom Screen—Self-Report, the Short-Form Posttraumatic Checklist-5, and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption.

Keywords: brief screening tools; public safety personnel; mental disorders; questionnaires; MDD; GAD; panic disorder; PTSD; alcohol use disorder (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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