Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41114782›Full record

ArticleCommunity mental health journal2026

The Homeless Outreach Behavioral Screen (HOBS): A Brief Scale for Identifying Need for Mental Health Evaluation Among Unsheltered Populations.

Ben D Lee, Lisa Davis, Antoine Bailliard, Yanina Gori, William Gertsch, W Scott Comulada, Gary Cuddeback, Jaclyn Resnick, Jody Bennett, La Tina Jackson and 6 more

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Article in Community mental health journal, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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0citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

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PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

16 authors.

Ben D LeeDepartment of Occupational Therapy, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA.
Lisa DavisPublic Mental Health Partnership, Jane & Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 760 Westwood Plaza, 88-201E Semel, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1759, USA.
Antoine BailliardOccupational Therapy Doctorate Division, School of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
Yanina GoriPublic Mental Health Partnership, Jane & Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 760 Westwood Plaza, 88-201E Semel, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1759, USA.
William GertschPublic Mental Health Partnership, Jane & Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 760 Westwood Plaza, 88-201E Semel, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1759, USA.
W Scott ComuladaPublic Mental Health Partnership, Jane & Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 760 Westwood Plaza, 88-201E Semel, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1759, USA.
Gary CuddebackSchool of Social Work, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA.
Jaclyn ResnickPublic Mental Health Partnership, Jane & Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 760 Westwood Plaza, 88-201E Semel, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1759, USA.
Jody BennettUNC Health Occupational Therapy Mental Health Fellow, UNC Health at UNC medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
La Tina JacksonLos Angeles County Department of Mental Health, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Jonathan SherinPublic Mental Health Partnership, Jane & Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 760 Westwood Plaza, 88-201E Semel, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1759, USA.
Aubree LovelaceLos Angeles County Department of Mental Health, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Daniel MansfieldLos Angeles County Department of Mental Health, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Elizabeth CopeLos Angeles County Department of Mental Health, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Benjamin F HenwoodSuzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90007, USA.
Elizabeth BromleyPublic Mental Health Partnership, Jane & Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 760 Westwood Plaza, 88-201E Semel, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1759, USA. ebromley@mednet.ucla.edu.ORCID 0000-0002-2256-7214

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Outreach to individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness is often conducted by specialists lacking mental health training despite the high prevalence of severe mental illness among individuals experiencing homelessness. We developed a novel screener, the Homeless Outreach Behavioral Screen (HOBS), a 4-item scale for use by outreach specialists to identify unsheltered persons who may benefit from referral to specialized mental health services. We describe the participatory development of the HOBS and report on preliminary data from a sample of unsheltered individuals in Los Angeles (n = 649). HOBS items show good internal consistency and reliability (alpha = 0.80). Each additional domain of difficulty scored as present is associated with an 8.7 fold (95% CI: 6.1-13.0) increased odds the individual is appropriate for specialty mental health services. Though further validations studies are needed, the HOBS shows potential to reduce barriers to accessing services for vulnerable individuals.

Indexed as

Community-Institutional RelationsIll-Housed PersonsMass ScreeningMental DisordersNeeds AssessmentAdultCommunity Mental Health ServicesFemaleHumansLos AngelesMaleMiddle AgedReproducibility of ResultsSurveys and QuestionnairesHousingMental disordersOutreachReferral and consultationTriage

Identifiers

PMID41114782

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.