<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation:  The 3-step system: Triage, assessment and matched intervention > Screening to identify those at elevated risk > Triaging based on the results of screening

Triage is the decision-making step between screening and full assessment. If a worker scores in the ‘elevated risk’ range during screening, triage determines that they require a full psychosocial assessment.

Screening tools are not designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of biopsychosocial barriers. They are designed to identify those who need a more thorough assessment. Research that has used screening tools to only provide extra generic (general) support to those identified as high-risk has shown this approach to be unsuccessful.

Screening tools may provide a numerical result (for example, 7/10) or a category result (for example, low/medium/high risk). High-scoring individual items should also be made available to whoever is responsible for managing the screening process.