Quality of the Forensic Case Formulation in Mental Health

Abstract

Objectives: The “Guide to understand and assess the quality of the case formulation in forensic mental health –TECF” is tested in order to contribute to the development of the forensic reports. Method: Twelve mental health professionals of different Latin American traditions assessed with the TECF the quality of ten international forensic reports, both psychological and psychiatric. The guide includes the manual that describes the dimensions, criteria and guidelines to assess the quality of the forensic case formulation. Results: Internal consistency indicators were in a rank of 0.34- 0.81 for the dimensions and 0.85 for the total TECF. The absolute agreement intraclass correlation coefficient among  evaluators with similar tradition reached values of 0.72; 0.52; 0.76 and 0.77 for the dimensions and 0.84 for the total.  The agreement among evaluators with different traditions was less. Conclusions: The TECF is a promising instrument to guide the assessment of quality and to stimulate improvement of the forensic reports. Caution is recommended in light of the traditional rating scale method due to the effect that can be produced by the different practices.