*Note that none of the screening and assessment tools listed below are necessarily endorsed, nor is the absence of a particular tool a lack of an endorsement. Rather, these are merely a list of tools to assist in the search for tools that work best for your court and your participants.
About Screening and Assessment
- American University’s Frequently Asked Questions Series: Instruments for Screening and Assessment of Drug Court Participants to Determine Risk, Need, and Level of Care (January 12, 2015).
- Selecting and Using Risk and Need Assessments, Ralph C. Serin, Ph.D., and Christopher T. Lowenkamp, Ph.D., National Drug Court Institute, Drug Court Practitioner Fact Sheet, Vol. X, No.1 (Dec. 2015).
This document provides a concise and current overview of important issues relating to offender risk assessment and a list of recommended contemporary risk instruments. - A Desktop Guide for Tribal Probation Personnel: The Screening and Assessment Process, Kimberly Cobb, American Parole and Probation Association (May 2011).
This guide is intended to provide tribal probation personnel with information on how the screening and assessment process can facilitate and promote offender accountability and long-term behavior change. - Screening and Assessing Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders Among Youth in the Juvenile Justice System: A Resource Guide for Practitioners, Thomas Girsso and Lee A. Underwood, National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice Policy Research Associates, Inc. (NCJ 204956, Dec. 2004).
This Resource Guide offers a comprehensive, user-friendly synthesis of current information on instruments that can be used to screen and assess youth for mental health- and substance use related disorders at various stages of the juvenile justice process. The Guide includes profiles of more than 50 instruments, guidelines for selecting instruments, and best practice recommendations for diverse settings and situations.
This guide is intended to provide tribal probation personnel with information on how the screening and assessment process can facilitate and promote offender accountability and long-term behavior change. iNTROdUCTiON - Treatment Improvement Protocol 59: Improving Cultural Competence, SAMHSA, CDM Group, Inc., HHS Pub. No. 14-489 (2014).
Appendix D: Screening and Assessment Instruments
The development of culturally responsive clinical skills is vital to the effectiveness of behavioral health services. This Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) uses Sue’s (2001) multidimensional model for developing cultural competence. Adapted to address cultural competence across behavioral health settings, this model serves as a framework for targeting three organizational levels of treatment: individual counselor and staff, clinical and programmatic, and organizational and administrative. The chapters target specific racial, ethnic, and cultural considerations along with the core elements of cultural competence highlighted in the model.
Screening Tools
- SAMHSA Drug and Alcohol Use Screening Tools
- “Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention for Youth: A Practitioner’s Guide” is designed to help health care professionals quickly identify youth at risk for alcohol-related problems. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) developed the guide in collaboration with the American Academy of Pediatrics, a team of underage drinking researchers and clinical specialists, and practicing health care professionals.
- Diagnosis and treatment of alcohol-related problems are time-intensive procedures that often are difficult to implement in busy clinical settings. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s computer-based tools are one approach that may enhance the availability and cost-effectiveness of assessment and intervention and also may offer other advantages over face-to-face interventions.
- Substance Use Screening and Assessment Database
This resource created by the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute Library at the University of Washington is intended to help clinicians and researchers find instruments used for screening and assessment of substance use and substance use disorders. Instruments whose validity and reliability have been well-studied are marked with a star. - SBIRT is a comprehensive, integrated, public health approach to the delivery of early intervention and treatment services for persons with substance use disorders, as well as those who are at risk of developing these disorders for use in community settings. The SAMHSA SBIRT page also includes curricula, online resources, and publications designed to help implement SBIRT initiatives.
- AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) is a 10-item questionnaire that screens for hazardous or harmful alcohol consumption. Developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), the test correctly classifies 95% of people into either alcoholics or non-alcoholics. The AUDIT is particularly suitable for use in primary care settings and has been used with a variety of populations and cultural groups. It should be administered by a health professional or paraprofessional.
- NIDAMED is a comprehensive Physicians’ Outreach Initiative that gives medical professionals tools and resources to screen their patients for tobacco, alcohol, illicit drug, and nonmedical prescription drug use. Developed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIDAMED resources include an online screening tool, a companion quick reference guide, and a comprehensive resource guide for clinicians.
- CAGE AID is a commonly used, 5- question tool used to screen for drug and alcohol use. The CAGE Assessment is a quick questionnaire to help determine if an alcohol assessment is needed. If a person answers yes to two or more questions, a complete assessment is advised.
- AUDIT-C is a simple 3-question screen for hazardous or harmful drinking that can stand alone or be incorporated into general health history questionnaires.
- DAST-10 (Drug Abuse Screen Test) is a 10-item, yes/no self-report instrument that has been condensed from the 28-item DAST and should take less than 8 minutes to complete. The DAST-10 was designed to provide a brief instrument for clinical screening and treatment evaluation and can be used with adults and older youth.
Assessment Tools
- Addiction Severity Index (ASI)
The Addiction Severity Index (ASI) is one of the most widely used tools for the assessment of substance use related problems in adults. Professionals all over the world use the ASI to get a better understanding of their client’s treatment needs and outcomes. It is the most widely used substance abuse severity, treatment planning, and outcome measurement instrument in the United States. ASI Manuals include one designed specifically for Native Americans. - Level of Service Inventory – Revised (LSI-R)
The LSI-R™ assessment is a quantitative survey of offender attributes and offender situations relevant for making decisions about levels of supervision and treatment. The instrument’s applications include assisting in the allocation of resources, helping to make probation and placement decisions, making appropriate security level classifications, and assessing treatment progress. The 54 LSI–R items are based on legal requirements and include relevant factors for making decisions about risk level and treatment. Probation officers, parole officers, and correctional workers at jails, detention facilities, and correctional facilities complete the semi-structured interview with offenders. They then use the interview together with collateral information to complete a QuikScore™ form. The results are converted to cumulative frequencies on a ColorPlot™ Profile. Users have the option of profiling the Total LSI–R score against the Canadian norms or the U.S. norms. - Risk Assessment Needs Triage (RANT)
Diversion of drug possession offenders from incarceration to community-based programs is increasingly common. Rigorously grounded in scientific evidence, the Rism and Needs Triage is a decision support tool for judges and other criminal justice decision makers. Both the streamlined, ready to use (RANT) and original version with advanced reporting features (RANT-Plus) help court officials by matching drug-involved offenders to the optimal level of supervision and treatment.
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