Assessment Workshops

We provide training in the administration and scoring of several validated assessment tools. Ongoing reliability checks to prevent rater drift are also available. Contact us to discuss the needs of your project or organization.

Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS)

The BPRS is a 24-item, semi-structured interview designed to assess symptom severity in patients with major psychiatric disorders, particularly schizophrenia. The BPRS is among the most researched instruments in psychiatry, has well-established psychometric properties and underlying factor structure, and is sensitive to change. We provide training in administration and scoring of the measure.

Five Minute Speech Sample (FMSS)

Relative’s expressed emotion (EE) has been found to be a potent predictor of relapse in a number of psychiatric disorders. The FMSS is a brief measure of expressed emotion in which relatives are coded as high or low EE. We provide training in administration and scoring of this measure. Actual coding of FMSS audio can also be arranged.

LOCUS/CALOCUS

The Level of Care Utilization System (LOCUS) for adults and the Child and Adolescent Level of Care Utilization System (CALOCUS) for children and adolescents are tools designed to create a level of care recommendation based on a multi-dimensional functional assessment of individual consumers.
This training session prepares participants to develop proficiency in scoring the instrument, including the development of knowledge of the principles guiding scoring and the criteria within each dimension. Participants will participate in small-group activities and facilitated discussion to build skills in scoring the instrument. The training will also enhance knowledge of the usefulness of LOCUS/CALOCUS as a decision-support tool for treatment planning, outcome monitoring, utilization management, and program development.

MIRECC GAF

The Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scale was introduced as a measure of global severity of illness in the DSM-III-R. Despite its widespread use, the GAF has serious limitations. One major limitation of the GAF is that it combines three domains of functioning (i.e., occupational, social, and psychological) which often do not vary together. Research has found that GAF scores are typically representative of symptom status rather than social or occupational status. To address this limitation, we developed the “MIRECC GAF”, in which occupational, social and psychological functioning are rated separately. We provide training in administration and scoring of this measure.