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

These tables apply the non patient norms. The Global Severity Index (GSI) result is
highlighted in the tables because the test author suggests that it is the most sensitive overall
measure of psychological distress. Results for the regional reception centres along with
individualised results from the institutions that conduct the intake in the Prairie region are
presented separately in Appendices A to I. The Prairie region is the only region that currently
has multiple sites returning data because they do not have a centralised reception unit.
Table 5 shows that over 25% of respondents score at or above T65 on all the scale
dimensions of the BSI except for the Hostility and Phobic Anxiety scales. Using the GSI as
the key barometer of psychological distress, about 38% of offenders nationally score at or
above a T score of 65. A more liberal cut-off of T60 will increase this estimate to over 50%.
Table 6 presents the results analysed by Aboriginal status. About 38% of non- Aboriginal
and 44.1% of Aboriginal respondents meet the T65 cut-off. The difference in rates of distress
between the two groups is not statistically significant (χ 2 (1) = 2.64, p = .10) nor is the
difference between the raw scores on the GSI. Based on the results from the pilot there does
not appear to be a compelling reason for applying different norms or cut off scores for
Aboriginal offenders. Overall, federal male offenders are reporting considerable rates of
distress. They are reporting significantly more symptoms than the non-patient population of
adult males reported in the BSI manual (χ 2 (1) = 1,941.02, p < .001).
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