The brevity and accuracy of the K6 and K10 scales make them attractive screens for SMI. Routine inclusion of either scale in clinical studies would create an important, and heretofore missing, crosswalk between community and clinical epidemiology.

Substantial progress has been made toward national goals for increasing condom use. The rates of condom use by individuals at high risk of HIV need to be increased, however, particularly condom use with a steady partner.

The Mental Health Surveillance Study (MHSS) is an ongoing initiative by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to develop and implement methods for measuring the prevalence of serious mental illness (SMI) among adults in the USA. The 2008 MHSS used data from clinical interviews administered to a sub-sample of respondents to calibrate mental health screening scale data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) for estimating the prevalence of SMI in the full NSDUH sample. The mental health scales included the K6 screening scale of psychological distress (administered to all respondents) along with two measures of functional impairment (each administered to a random half-sample of respondents): the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS) and the Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS). The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) was administered to a sub-sample of 1506 adult NSDUH respondents within 4 weeks of completing the NSDUH interview. Results indicate that while SMI prediction accuracy of the K6 is improved by adding either the WHODAS or the SDS to the prediction equation, the models with the WHODAS are more robust. The results of the calibration study and methods used to derive prevalence estimates of SMI are presented.

The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) Is the nation's primary data source for information on the scope and dimensions of drug abuse in the United States. To improve data collection, the NHSDA was converted to a computer-assisted interview (CAl) format in 1999. This paper reports on the research that was done to guide the conversion. The main focus of the paper is on a large (n=1,982) field experiment that examined different audio computerassisted self-interviewing (ACASI) procedures in the fourth quarter of 1997. This field experiment showed that ACASlls likely to increase reporting of drug use among youth: that respondents can, on their own, correct inconsistencies in responses that are detected by the computer: and that ACASI eases the response task for poor readers and less well educated respondents.

These results suggest the need to screen for mental health problems among older adults and to improve the use and the quality of their mental health services. Since 2008 significant changes have revolutionized payment for mental health care and may promote access to mental health care in this population. Further studies are needed to assess trends in mental health service utilization among older adults and in the quality of their mental health care over time.