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Background: There is no screening tool for major depressive disorder (MDD) or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in asylum-seekers or refugees (ASR) that can be readily administered by non-mental health workers. Hence, we aimed to develop a brief, sensitive and rapidly administrable tool for non-mental health workers to screen for MDD and PTSD in ASR., Methods: The screening tool was developed from an extant dataset (n = 121) of multiply screened ASR and tested prospectively (N = 192) against the M.I.N.I. (Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview) structured psychiatric interview. Rasch, Differential Item Functioning and ROC analyses evaluated the psychometric properties and tool utility., Results: A 9-item tool with a median administration time of six minutes was generated, comprising two 'immediate screen-in' items, and a 7-item scale. The prevalence of PTSD &/or MDD using the M.I.N.I. was 32%, whilst 99% of other diagnosed mental disorders were comorbid with one or both of these. Using a cut-score of ≥2, the tool provided a sensitivity of 0.93, specificity of 0.75 and predictive accuracy of 80.7%., Conclusions: A brief sensitive screening tool with robust psychometric properties that was easy to administer at the agency of first presentation was developed to facilitate mental health referrals for asylum-seekers and new refugees.

Aim: To develop and psychometrically evaluate the Family and Staff Relationship Attitude Tool (FASRAT) for use in Australian residential aged care facilities to assess the attitudinal beliefs of residential aged care staff towards staff-family relationships., Methods: Development and testing of the psychometric properties of the 26-item FASRAT occurred in three phases which included item development based on a systematic review of the research literature, interviews with aged care staff and families, expert panel review and testing with aged care staff., Results: Content validity and internal consistency of the FASRAT support its use as an instrument to measure staff attitudinal beliefs about staff-family relationships in the residential aged care setting., Conclusion: The FASRAT will enable residential aged care facilities to measure the attitudinal beliefs of its staff about staff-family relationships and provide a basis for the development and implementation of interventions to address identified gaps which impact on relationship quality., (© 2012 The Authors. Australasian Journal on Ageing © 2012 ACOTA.)