Interrater reliability of the brief psychiatric rating scale used at a community-based inpatient crisis stabilization unit

In 1993, the State of Georgia passed a law reforming the mental health syst em to include more consumers of services and their families on local boards , to provide services in the community, and to measure and report the outco mes of these services. As mental health services expanded in the community, it became necessary to extend the use of reliable and valid instruments ap propriate to a brief treatment setting. This field study investigates the u sefulness of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) using paired ratings to measure the level of psychiatric symptoms of clients treated in an urba n community inpatient crisis stabilization unit. Interrater agreement for a ll paired assessments exceeded .85 comparing favorably with previous studie s reported in the literature. The BPRS was found to be a useful and efficie nt instrument in this community setting. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons. Inc.