Use of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale-Children (BPRS-C) as an Outcomes Measure in the Residential and Foster Care Setting

Abstract

SUMMARY Studies that have used the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale for Children (BPRS-C) and reported findings in the literature have done so in severely ill populations. We elected to determine the usability of the tool on clients in three residential and foster care settings, where symptoms are not as severe as in the hospitalized population. Two questions were examined: Can the BPRS-C be used as a pre/post outcomes measure outside of the inpatient setting? And, can the BPRS-C detect baseline symptom differences (validity) between three residential treatment cohorts and foster care program clients. A prospective study collected BPRS-C data, which is used as our standard outcomes measure. The tool was administered in three levels of residential care (n = 522) and foster care (n = 396) clients at program admission and discharge. Client ages were from 4 to 18. Significant pre/post differences were found on residential client cohorts on all seven subscales, indicating improvement. These significant results were observed in all three residential care settings. For foster care clients, no change or significantly deteriorating conditions were observed on all BPRS-C subscales. This research indicates that the BPRS-C was effective at demonstrating significant condition improvement in the three residential settings tested. The data suggest that the tool can be used as an outcomes measure. Foster care clients demonstrated no condition improvement, possibly due to a floor effect, as admission scores on the BPRS-C were very low. The BPRS-C was found to not have use in this population.