Juvenile Justice Role in Access to Mental Health Services for Youth - Kelleher, Adelsheim, Cuellar, Cocozza

A high number youth with mental illness are found in the juvenile justice system. Estimates are that as many as three-quarters of those in the juvenile justice system have a diagnosable mental disorder, usually a conduct disorder, substance use disorder, or both. Many youth may be there because they fall through the cracks of our Nation’s fragmented mental health system. While the high rate of mental illness among youth in the juvenile justice system is well-known, other basic information is lacking about the types of care they receive. That information is needed to inform policy and improve the mental health and juvenile justice systems. This project is designed to compare the mental health care received by youth involved with juvenile justice system against care received by other youth. Further, the project assesses the impact of having justice system contact, including incarceration, on mental health service patterns and use of psychotropic medications.

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Last modified: June 1, 2006
©2006 MacArthur Foundation Network on Mental Health Policy Research
Last Revised: June 2006