Monday, February 28, 2005

Screening and Assessing Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders Among Youth in the Juvenile Justice System: A Resource Guide for Practitioners This online guide (in Adobe Acrobat format) from NAMI's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention "presents information on instruments that can be used to screen and assess youth for mental health- and substance use-related disorders at various stages of the juvenile justice process. The Guide includes profiles of more than 50 instruments, guidelines for selecting instruments, and best practice recommendations for diverse settings and situations. It is intended as a basic tool for juvenile justice professionals working toward the goal of early, accurate identification of youth with mental disorders. Once identified, these youth can receive the services required to improve their lives, reduce recidivism, and promote community safety."  
  

In City's Jails, Missed Signals Open Way to Season of Suicides Feature article in today's New York Times on the suicides of six inmates and how "government investigators reached a stinging judgment about one or both of the authorities responsible for their safety: Prison Health Services, the nation's largest for-profit provider of inmate medical care, and the city correction system. In their reports, investigators faulted a system in which patients' charts were missing, alerts about despondent inmates were lost or unheeded, and neither medical personnel nor correction officers were properly trained in preventing suicide, the leading cause of deaths in American jails." See also the related story, Private Health Care in Jails Can Be a Death Sentence - "The examination of Prison Health also reveals a company that is very much a creature of a growing phenomenon: the privatization of jail and prison health care. As governments try to shed the burden of soaring medical costs - driven by the exploding problems of AIDS and mental illness among inmates - this field has become a $2 billion-a-year industry." [Viewing New York Times resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Mental health problems driving up prison costs (Oklahoma) Tahlequah Daily story - "People don't like to hear their government is wasting money. But according to a report by the Governor's and Attorney General's Blue Ribbon Task Force on Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Domestic Violence, the state of Oklahoma is facing an $8 billion mental health problem that is driving up prison costs. 'Untreated and under-treated people with mental illness, substance abuse or addictions and survivors and perpetrators of domestic violence and sexual assault represent a significant portion of those entering the state's criminal justice system,' the report states. The report indicated mental health and substance abuse problems lead to a direct cost to the statem exceeding $3 billion a year. It pegged the loss in human productivity at more than $5 billion." See also the Task Force Recommendations (Adobe Acrobat format).   
  

Union County forms mental health unit (New Jersey)Brief Asbury Park Press story - "The Union County Prosecutor's Office has formed a special mental health unit that will work to identify defendants who may be mentally ill. The plan is to create a mental health court in Union County where defendants go before a special judge who considers alternatives to jail, similar to drug courts that have been set up around the country..."