Transition-age youth with foster care involvement (TAY, ages 17–22) are at heightened risk for suicidal behavior. Despite this, mental health screenings are not standardized across child welfare (CW) systems and existing assessment tools are not designed for use with this specific population. As such, TAY are unlikely to be adequately screened for suicide risk and connected with needed services. In this paper, we sought to identify screening and assessment tools that could be effective for use with TAY in CW settings. Using PubMed and PsycINFO, we conducted a search of the current literature to identify some of the most commonly used screening and assessment tools for youth. We then narrowed our focus to those tools that met predefined inclusion criteria indicating appropriateness of use for TAY in CW settings. As a result of this process, we identified one brief screening tool (the ASQ) and four assessments (the SIQ-JR, the C-SSRS, the SHBQ, and the SPS) that demonstrated specific promise for use with TAY. The strengths and limitations of the tools are discussed in detail, as well as the ways that each could be used most effectively in CW settings. We highlight three key points intended to guide social work practice and policy: (1) systematic, routine assessment of mental health and suicide risk across CW settings is critical; (2) the protocol for assessing suicidal behavior in TAY must account for the wide variations in context and service provision; and (3) CW workers administering assessments must be thoughtfully trained on risk identification and the protocol implementation.

参与寄养的过渡年龄青少年（TAY，17-22 岁）自杀行为的风险较高。尽管如此，儿童福利 (CW) 系统中的心理健康筛查尚未标准化，现有的评估工具也并非针对这一特定人群而设计。因此，TAY 不太可能得到充分的自杀风险筛查并与所需的服务联系起来。在本文中，我们试图确定可有效用于 CW 环境中 TAY 的筛查和评估工具。使用 PubMed 和 PsycINFO，我们对当前文献进行了检索，以确定一些最常用的青少年筛查和评估工具。然后，我们将重点缩小到那些满足预定义纳入标准的工具，这些工具表明在 CW 设置中使用 TAY 的适当性。这一过程的结果是，我们确定了一个简短的筛选工具（ASQ）和四项评估（SIQ-JR、C-SSRS、SHBQ 和 SPS），它们展示了与 TAY 一起使用的具体前景。详细讨论了这些工具的优点和局限性，以及在 CW 设置中最有效地使用每种工具的方法。我们强调旨在指导社会工作实践和政策的三个关键点：（1）对整个 CW 环境中的心理健康和自杀风险进行系统、常规的评估至关重要； (2) 评估 TAY 自杀行为的方案必须考虑到背景和服务提供的巨大差异； (3) 执行评估的化学武器工作人员必须接受有关风险识别和协议实施的周密培训。