The resident assessment instrument-mental health (RAI-MH): inter-rater reliability and convergent validity

On behalf of the RAI-MH Group An important challenge facing behavioral health services is the lack of good quality, clinically relevant data at the individual evel. The article describes a multinational research effort to de-velop a comprehensive, multidisciplinary mental health assessment system for use with adults in facilities providing acute, long-stay, forensic, and geriatric services. The Resident Assessment Instrument-Mental Health (RAI-MH) comprehensively assesses psychiatric, social, environmental and medical issues at intake, emphasizing patient functioning. Dam from the RAI-MH are baended to support care planning, quality improvement, outcome measurement, and case mix-based pay-ment systems. The article provides the first set of evidence on the reliability and validity of th