ABSTRACT
In this chapter I describe and review brief caregiver-report mental health screening and/or monitoring measures that can be used by children’s agencies and post-adoption services. The measures were selected for review according to the following criteria:
The measures are designed to be completed by parents or other primary caregivers (note that some of these measures have parallel teacher-report and/or youth self-report forms).
The measures are brief (defined as 50 checklist items or fewer) and are typically completed by children’s caregivers in 10 minutes or less.
The measures are designed for mental health screening and/or brief monitoring.
The measures either screen for or monitor a range of general mental health difficulties, or a range of attachment- and trauma-related difficulties as commonly experienced among children in alternative care.
This overview excludes measures that have a narrow symptomatic focus. The reason for this is that children’s agencies need a relatively simple procedure that can screen for a broad range of symptomatology using one or two brief measures.