The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) - Service correctionnel du Canada

Results
This section begins with a more detailed description of the offenders participating in
the CoMHISS pilot and then focuses on the results of the CoMHISS assessment. Tables 2
and 3 provide additional comparisons of the incoming offenders who completed the
CoMHISS to those who did not. The results indicate weak significant differences between
the two groups on some variables, but no consistent pattern which would have suggested a
selection bias. It is important to note that there were no significant differences between the
two groups on indicators related to estimates of rates of mental illness, indicating that staff
were not selecting respondents for the assessment based on an observed concern about their
mental health status.
Previous research has shown that Aboriginal offenders are over represented in CSC
relative to their numbers in the general Canadian population. In order to have a better
understanding of this segment of the federal offender population and to determine if their
mental health needs differ from non Aboriginals, the results are broken down by Aboriginal
status and presented in Table 2. The results indicate that Aboriginal offenders are
significantly higher risk (χ 2 (2) = 36.88, p < .001) and higher need (χ 2 (2) = 27.87, p < .001)
than non Aboriginals. Although Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal offenders have similar rates
of current mental health issue diagnoses (χ 2 (1) = 0.36, p = .55) based on items on the OIA
completed by parole officers, Aboriginal offenders are less likely to have indicated that they
had past diagnoses of mental health issues (χ 2 (1) = 4.89, p = .03).
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