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."  
  

Youth depressive symptoms and changes in relationships with parents and peers (Canada)Study from Statistics Canada in the "Children and youth research series" - "This study examines links between changes in relationships with parents and peers during adolescence and adolescent depressive symptoms. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, this study provides insight into: the relationships between youth and their mothers, fathers and friends; how these relationships changed over a two-year period; and how these changes related to depressive symptoms experienced by youth at ages 16 and 17."  
  

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].  
  

Wake Forest Baptist launches mental health program for elderly (North Carolina) Business Journal story - "Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is launching a program to provide psychiatric services to frail, elderly people in their homes. The program, modeled on successful efforts in the United Kingdom and Canada, is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, hospital officials said in a news release. The idea is to treat homebound patients for their mental illnesses sooner, before they become so severe as to require more expensive hospitalization or nursing home care. "  
  

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).