Free, Brief, and Validated: Standardized Instruments for Low-Resource Mental Health Settings

• Evidence-based assessment is critical to evidence-based practice
• Instruments that are free, accessible, brief, reliable, and valid are needed
• We review child and adult instruments that meet this criteria
• We recommend how to move forward the evidence-based assessment agenda

Evidence-based assessment has received little attention despite its critical importance to the evidence-based practice movement. Given the limited resources in the public sector, it is necessary for evidence-based assessment to utilize tools with established reliability and validity metrics that are free, easily accessible, and brief. We review tools that meet these criteria for youth and adult mental health for the most prevalent mental health disorders to provide a clinical guide and reference for the selection of assessment tools for public sector settings. We also discuss recommendations for how to move forward the evidence-based assessment agenda.