Service user involvement in risk assessment and management: The Transition Inventory

• Published in: Criminal behaviour and mental health 2012-04, Vol.22 (2), p.136-147
• Main Author: Kroner, Daryl G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Alienation; Antisocial Personality Disorder - psychology; Antisocial Personality Disorder - rehabilitation; Attitudes; Canada; Client participation; Comorbidity; Crime - psychology; Criminals; Discriminant validity; Drug abuse; Health Care Services; Hospitals; Humans; Leisure; Life Style; Male; Males; Middle Aged; Offenders; Patient Care Planning; Personality Inventory - statistics & numerical data; Prediction; Prisoners - legislation & jurisprudence; Prisoners - psychology; Psychometrics - statistics & numerical data; Reliability; Reproducibility of Results; Residence Characteristics; Risk Assessment; Risk Assessment - legislation & jurisprudence; Risk Assessment - statistics & numerical data; risk management; Self Concept; service user assessments; Social Facilitation; Social Pressure; Stress; Substance abuse; Transfer Agreement - legislation & jurisprudence; Transition Inventory
• ISSN: 0957-9664; 1471-2857
• DOI: 10.1002/cbm.1825

ABSTRACT Background Drawing on self‐prediction theory and the positive benefits of increasing health service user participation in risk assessments, the Transition Inventory (TI) was developed. It is an aid to the assessment of areas that people anticipate will be of difficulty in the next stage of transition, for example from open hospital to the community. Aims The aim of this paper is to determine reliability and convergent/discriminant validity data for the TI and its subscales, including behavioral impulsivity, social pressure, substance misuse, financial/employment, leisure, negative affect, interpersonal and family concerns and social alienation. Methods Eighty‐eight male offenders coming towards the end of a period of imprisonment were asked to complete the TI. Their results were compared with the staff‐rated Measures of Criminal Attitudes and Associates (MCAA) scale, alcohol blame and causation of crime items. Comparisons with the MCAA's antisocial intent scale, which is a future‐orientated scale, and the associates scale allowed for convergent/discriminant validity to be examined with TI scales. With a community offender sample, TI results were used to predict researcher ratings. Results The TI scales demonstrated adequate internal consistency. Overall, the MCAA's antisocial intent scale had higher correlations with the TI than with a nonfuture‐orientated scale. TI scales also demonstrated convergent validity with other measures and preliminary predictive validity with researcher ratings. Conclusions/implications for practice The TI provides a way to increase service user involvement in the assessments that determine when and how they transfer to settings where they will have more independence. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.