Project Seeks Early Identification of Mental Health Needs of Youth in Contact with the Juvenile Justice System
Jul 2, 2009
Our country’s juvenile justice system was designed to hold young people accountable for their behavior and provide individualized treatment, supervision, and rehabilitation to prevent future delinquency. Increasingly, however, it is filled with youth whose troubled behavior stems from untreated mental health problems, most of whom have fallen through the cracks of other public systems, including education, child welfare, mental health, and other social services. The Models for Change initiative is working to implement reform efforts to divert youth away from the juvenile justice system and toward the mental health services they need, providing more effective solutions to prevent future behavioral problems and decrease recidivism.
According to a study conducted by the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice, 70% of youth in the juvenile justice system suffer from mental health disorders and 27% of youth are experiencing disorders so severe that their ability to function is significantly impaired. Many of these youth land in the juvenile justice system because their conditions are unrecognized, community services aren’t available, or systems aren’t coordinating effectively to put the right support in place. Unfortunately, young people with mental health problems often get worse, not better, when they are inappropriately treated or confined without support. In fact, many youth would do as well or better in community-based settings that provide appropriate treatment without jeopardizing community safety.
Given the prevalence of mental health issues in youth in the juvenile justice system, it is critical that a scientifically validated mental health screening process is available for youth at the earliest point of contact with the system. This process allows early identification of potential emotional or mental health disturbances that may be in need of further assessment or immediate intervention. Well-developed screening processes enable kids to gain access to the mental health services they need, providing a more effective, long-term solution to hopefully more informed and efficient decisions regarding the treatment needs of youth to prevent future behavioral problems and unnecessary penetration into the juvenile justice system.
The Models for Change Mental Health/Juvenile Justice Work Group in Pennsylvania has supported a pilot program to implement a mental health screening process at intake in juvenile probation departments in the Commonwealth. The Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument, Version 2 (MAYSI~2), was selected as the mental health screening tool for the project. This validated mental health screening instrument is currently in use in 48 states and has been in use for nearly a decade in Pennsylvania’s juvenile detention and state run Youth Development Centers (secure facilities that provide specialized therapeutic services for delinquent youth).
The MAYSI~2 enables the juvenile probation officers to prioritize or “triage” the need for assessments and services based on the acuity of emotional or mental health issues that a youth reports, thereby more efficiently using valuable time and resources. The multiple benefits of such a process, include:
- Structured identification of youth with mental health needs who enter the juvenile justice system and referral to necessary services
- Where appropriate, diversion of youth from unnecessary juvenile justice placement and into services more appropriate to their needs - including in-home and community-based treatments
- More rational and effective use of resources
Twenty-four Pennsylvania County Juvenile Probation Departments are in various stages of implementation of the project. A statewide summary report on MAYSI-2 results and implications are compiled on a quarterly basis from data submitted, and county-specific reports are made available to the counties upon request.
- Issues
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Mental health
- States
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Pennsylvania
- Action networks
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Mental Health / Juvenile Justice Action Network