Describe how the State of Texas is treating juvenile offenders with mental health issues.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Some of the elements the state considers are the following: (1) coordinated service delivery and planning between probation and mental health staff, (2) provision and monitoring of medication, (3) individual and/or group therapy, (4) skills training, (5) in-home services such as multisystemic or functional family services, (6) family focus support services, and (7) co-location of supervision and treatment services. Youth participation is determined by indicators on the mental health screening instrument and the availability of a caretaker/guardian willing to work with the mental health and probation departments. At this point, an additional clinical assessment is made to determine the child’s ability to function in society. As a side note, it was found that 22% of these youth suffered from depression, 19% qualified for the diagnosis of oppositional defiant disorder, 18% had the diagnosis of conduct disorder (a precursor to antisocial personality disorder), and 9% had attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The Special Needs Diversionary Program illustrates how important assessment can be to both community supervision and mental health services. This program also demonstrates how public safety and offender needs can be better served when disparate community agencies create partnerships in providing service to special needs populations. Such partnerships, when coupled with accurate assessment instruments and procedures, can provide better interventions that are tailored for the offender. Interventions then will be more likely to have a better “goodness of fit” with the needs of the juvenile offender and will be better able to target those most at risk of recidivating when released on community supervision.