Table 1.

Harms and benefits of triage/assessment or treatment for true and false positives

Ill	Benefit of triage/assessment	Harm of triage/assessment	Benefit of treatment	Harm of treatment
Yes (true positive)	•Identify needs and plan treatment	•None (costs are warranted and part of providing care)	• Reduce symptoms	• N/A (risk of adverse effects should be considered and balanced in choosing appropriate treatment)
			• Prevent incidents, violence, premature mortality
No (false positive)	• Potential to propose strategies to address other needs outside of scope of work by mental health staff	• Inconvenience	• Prevent later illness among sub‐threshold cases	• Adverse effects of treatment
		• Potential stigma
				• Abuse of prescriptions in prisoner population
		• Divert resources to assessment that could be used to treat known illness
				• Divert treatment resources towards lower need cases who may benefit less
			• Provide support for distressing symptoms
	• Document baseline mental health status
				• Mission creep (e.g., treating non‐illness for security reasons)
				• Stigma, including potential prolonged incarceration