Impact of family, neighborhood, and schools on behavioral health needs of justice-involved Latinx adolescents.

Children entering custody within the child welfare system have been found to have high levels of trauma and significant behavioral health needs. In this paper, authors demonstrate how a structured functional well-being assessment can be used with the custody population to promote an understanding of behavioral health needs, inform case planning, and measure functional improvement over time. Specifically, this paper will: (a) briefly describe how two states implemented a common standardized assessment of functioning to inform case planning and measure well-being progress of children in the custody of a public child welfare system (b) examine what this common assessment tool reveals about the strengths and needs of children entering custody across two sites and (c) describe the magnitude of change in functional improvement measured across 6 months. This paper will contribute to the existing knowledge by sharing possible themes in functioning related to children entering custody while examining changes in functioning over time. Implications for practice, policy, and future research will be discussed.

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Gender, Geography, and Justice: Behavioral Health Needs and Mental Health Service Use Among Women in Rural Jails

Criminal Justice and Behavior ◽

10.1177/00938548211017588 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 009385482110175

Author(s):

Erin B. Comartin ◽

Amanda Burgess-Proctor ◽

Jennifer Harrison ◽

Sheryl Kubiak

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Behavioral Health ◽

Rural Women ◽

Service Use ◽

Urban Women ◽

Health Needs ◽

Mental Health Service Use ◽

Urban Men ◽

Health Need ◽

To Receive

This multi-jail study examines the behavioral health needs and service use in a sample of 3,787 individuals in jail, to compare women in rural jails to their gender and geography counterparts (that is rural men, urban women, and urban men). Compared to urban women (17.9%, n = 677), rural men (18.2%, n = 690), and urban men (56.1%; n = 2,132), rural women (7.6%, n = 288) had significantly higher odds of serious mental illness and co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. Rural woman were nearly 30 times more likely to receive jail-based mental health services; however, a discrepancy between screened mental health need (43.1%, n = 124) and jail-identified mental health need (8.4%, n = 24) shows rural women are severely under-identified compared to their gender/geography counterparts. These findings have implications for the changing nature of jail populations and suggests the need to improve behavioral health identification methods.

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