Monday, August 01, 2005

Mental health courts require access to effective community mental health services  Item in CMHA/Ontario Mental Health Notes - "People who were diverted through a mental health court did not experience reductions in psychiatric symptoms, suggesting the need for more effective and adequate community mental health services, according to a recent study in Psychiatric Services. According to the authors, a variety of studies have demonstrated that diverting defendants with mental illness from the criminal justice system into mental health treatment result in increased access to treatment and better quality of life. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the increased access to mental health services achieved through diversion resulted in improved clinical outcomes for defendants with mental illness."  
  

Homelessness, mental illness and substance abuse increase incarceration time  Item in CMHA/Ontario's Mental Health Notes based on an article in the July Psychiatric Services - " A study published in Psychiatric Services suggests that individuals who are homeless and have severe mental disorders with co-occurring substance-related disorders stay longer in jail than others charged with similar crimes. This study was designed to assess the relationships between homelessness, mental disorder and amount of time spent incarcerated..."  
  

 Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Program in Maine works to cut jail time for mentally ill Story at Foster's Online - "A program aimed at keeping mentally ill criminals in treatment instead of jail has been deemed a success in Maine's Cumberland County. Now it's being studied by other states considering similar approaches. The Divert Offenders to Treatment program launched three years ago is a collaborative among corrections officials, police departments and mental health professionals. As part of the effort, researchers tracked 10 people with a history of mental illness who'd been in and out of jail. A combination of police sensitivity, early intervention in jail and treatment after release caused the number of repeat arrests to drop sharply..."  
  

Mental health needs viewed from two angles (Kansas) Excellent Lawrence Journal-World story on efforts to address the number of people admitted to Kansas jails "because they hadn’t gotten enough help for their mental illness" and prison "the recent debate regarding whether Lawrence Memorial Hospital should reopen its inpatient mental health unit. But mental health advocates in the community say leaders shouldn’t lose sight of trying to improve the system that still exists in Lawrence."  
  

Cities set to battle proposed mental health facility (California) Daily Bulletin story - "With the state prison system's health operations facing a federal takeover, the cities of Chino and Chino Hills will be taking a different approach in their efforts to block a mental health facility proposed near the California Institution for Men. Officials from both cities traveled to Sacramento two weeks ago to meet with state lawmakers and ask them to oppose plans by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to build a facility in Chino that would house mentally ill prisoners. A federal judge has ordered a takeover of the prison system's health operations, citing poor care and preventable deaths..."  
  

 Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Insanity Defense Seminar Reflects Tragedy, Pain and Inadequacies of Criminal and Mental Health Systems Page at the NAMI web site - "Contrary to popular perceptions shaped by the media, 'the overall contribution of mental disorders to the total level of violence in society is exceptionally small,' according to the U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health (1999). Similarly, the insanity defense in criminal cases is seldom used and seldom successful. On June 20, NAMI’s national convention in Austin, Texas, convened a special seminar, 'The Insanity Defense: Time for a New Model?' The discussion was especially poignant as a result of presentations from George Parnham, attorney for Andrea Yates, and David Kaczynski, brother of 'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski..."  
  

 Monday, June 20, 2005

How long will we continue to punish the mentally ill? Op ed piece in the Houston Chronicle by David Buck, associate professor of Family and Community Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and Tuon Nguyen of the Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority of Harris County - "...These vulnerable people are often overlooked, stigmatized and punished for conditions they cannot control without help. They can be difficult, demanding and helpless, and society turns a blind eye to their plight. This is especially true in Harris County, where there are 60 percent fewer mental health treatment beds than recommended in national standards. The help that is available is uncoordinated and difficult to access, leaving many of these vulnerable people on the streets or in prison — and without treatment. County agencies, such as the Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority of Harris County and the Harris County Hospital District, are looking at ways to merge services into a more rational system. Without funneling the funds for behavioral health for the county into a common pool with governance over all services, it is unlikely services can be significantly improved. In that spirit, Healthcare for the Homeless-Houston (HHH), an independent nonprofit corporation, is developing several programs to help mentally ill patients who have committed crimes."  
  

Prisons in South Carolina may face legal problems Charlotte Observer story - "Low state funding and concerns about the treatment of mentally ill prisoners could create legal problems for South Carolina's Corrections Department, its director says. Agency director Jon Ozmint says he sat down earlier this year with lawyers from a Columbia law firm that has been looking into how the prisons take care of mentally ill inmates. The firm -- Nelson, Mullins, Riley and Scarborough -- confirmed this week that it has prepared a lawsuit involving mental health issues that could be filed soon. Officials of the firm would not elaborate on their plans."  
  

 Monday, June 13, 2005

Options to reduce mentally ill population in prisons (Masssachusetts) Chelmsford Independent story - "By sending mentally ill criminal offenders to prison instead of treating their sickness, the state is wasting money and potentially endangering those in the communities offenders return to, supporters of decriminalization bills told lawmakers Monday. ... More than a quarter of nearly 10,000 state prisoners are receiving mental health services, including more than 60 percent of the female inmate population, according to the state Department of Corrections. Nationally, there are more mental illness sufferers in the criminal justice system than there are in psychiatric hospitals, decriminalization proponents said, citing Human Rights Campaign data. The Committee on Mental Health and Substance abuse is weighing several proposals to address the problem."  
  

Kudos for City Court's Mental Health Division (Arizona) Opinion column in the Tucson Citizen - "... Since 2000, 3,100 defendants have successfully completed the diversion program. The program's effect on the community was shown in a recent study by the University of Arizona's Eller College of Management. Defendants entering the program in 2002 had an average of seven criminal charges in the prior two years. More than half of those completing diversion had no additional charges in the two years afterward, the study found. Crimes of violence declined by more than 75 percent. Defendants with 10 or more charges experienced a 61 percent reduction in offenses after completing diversion. The participating agencies constituting the Mental Health Division deserve recognition."  
  

Report: Jails' mental health care poor (New York) Newsday story - "New York's prisons have too much use of harsh disciplinary measures and not enough mental health care or education programs, according to a report released today by the Correctional Association of New York, a watchdog agency. But a spokesman for the state Department of Correctional Services said the 163-page report isn't worthy of a response. The state houses 64,000 inmates in 70 prisons around the state. On the plus side, the report said there are good programs and well-run facilities, though the system has a way to go in key areas." The full report is not yet available at the Correction Association web site, but likely will be posted soon. Readers may also be interested in a June 2004 report, Mental Health in the House of Corrections: A Study of Mental Health Care in New York State Prisons.  
  

 Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Mental Health and Police Project: Fact Sheet Series (Canada) This series from CMHA-British Columbia (called to our attention in CMHA-Ontario's newsletter Mental Health Notes) were developed as part of the Building Capacity: Mental Health and Police Project. The goal of the project is "to improve interactions between police, emergency services, and people with mental illness" and the fact sheets include Police and Mental Illness: Increased Interactions; Criminalization of Mental Illness; Violence and Mental Illness: Unpacking the Myths;  Police and Mental Illness: Models that Work;  Hallucinations and Delusions: How to Respond; Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders: Key Issues; and Suicidal Behaviour: How to Respond. The link above leads to a page indexing the individual fact sheets, and the full set is also available as an Adobe Acrobat document.   
  

 Friday, May 13, 2005

Report on the Medical and Mental Health Programs of the Dallas County Jail February 2005 report (in Adobe Acrobat format) called to our attention by the Open Minds web site - "In December of 2004, the Dallas County Commissioners Court contracted with Health Management Associates (HMA) to perform a comprehensive review of the medical and mental health services at the Dallas County Jail. HMA, in order to assure a highly qualified and comprehensive review, subcontracted with Dr. Michael Puisis, a specialist in the correctional health with significant experience in both operating jail health services and reviewing such programs across the country, to perform the on-site analysis..."