Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/tag/mental-health-substance-abuse/page/5/)
A new edition of the psychiatric "bible" will be released May 17, arriving on a wave of controversy that may have a profound influence on children’s mental health care in the United States.
An OJJDP-hosted webinar this week brought together officials from various agencies to discuss strategic and innovative approaches to combatting underage drinking.
A Children’s Law Center report released last week finds that young people in Washington, D.C. are not receiving speedy assistance from the District’s mental health services.
In 2010, the federal Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention released results from the first-ever nationally representative survey of youth confined in juvenile justice facilities. However, because interviews were conducted in 2003, the findings beg the question: What changes have occurred since 2003 in mental health care for confined youth?
Early in 2000, after a groundbreaking study revealed epidemic levels of mental illness among detained youth in Cook County – plus a severe lack of counseling and treatment – the Illinois Department of Human Services launched an ambitious new Mental Health and Juvenile Justice Initiative.
Courts should evaluate the risks and rewards associated with pathologizing children who find themselves in the system, especially when their behavior is consistent with our scientific understanding (and cultural acceptance) of the neurobiology of brains still in development.
A century after Cook County, Illinois launched the world’s very first separate court system for juveniles accused of delinquency, a study found more than half of the young people in the county's juvenile lock-up suffered from at least one mental health disorder.
How big a difference can new evidence-based treatment methods make in the cases of juvenile offenders with mental health problems? In Cook County, Illinois, juvenile court leaders decided to find out. Specifically, they agreed to participate in a randomized controlled experiment to test the impact of Multisystemic Therapy (MST) – a prominent new treatment methodology – against the court’s usual services for youth accused or adjudicated for juvenile sex offenses. The study, published in 2009, involved 127 youth accused of sex offenses and ordered by the court to attend sex offender treatment. Sixty-seven were assigned to MST, and 60 were assigned to Cook County probation department’s existing juvenile sex offender unit and required to take part in weekly sex offender treatment groups.
It presents one of the most vexing challenges facing our nation’s juvenile courts and corrections systems: how to treat, supervise, punish or just plain cope with troubled teens whose delinquent behaviors are connected to or caused by emotional disturbances and mental health problems. In a continuing series, the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange explores these challenges and issues.
Health care providers and other professionals have many opportunities to support and encourage the healthy development of LGBT youth, who may be at greater risk for bullying and victimization, according to a new position paper. Although most LGBT youth are healthy and well-adjusted, lack of acceptance by others can cause them added stress and lead to risky behavior or mental health issues, according to a new statement by the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine issued this month in the Journal of Adolescent Health. The report calls on professionals in medicine, social work, law, nursing, public health and other fields, to better understand the needs of LGBT youth and how to care for them in different settings. The position paper further calls on professionals to advocate for policy changes to support youth at school, at home and in child welfare and juvenile justice settings. LGBT young people may be bullied or victimized more often than other adolescents, according to the position paper, which can lead to greater risk of depression or suicide. In one survey of LGBT students cited in the paper, 85 percent said they had been verbally harassed, 40 percent reported physical harassment and two thirds said they felt unsafe at school.