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Collaborative Jail Mental Health Services -- Multnomah County, Oregon

NCJ Number
182553
Journal
American Jails Volume: 14 Issue: 1 Dated: March/April 2000 Pages: 49-53
Author(s)
Bill Midkiff
Date Published
2000
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article describes how the Multnomah County Inverness Jail (Oregon), a medium-security adult correctional facility located in northeast Portland, has developed a collaborative relationship with mental health service providers to meet the mental health needs of jail inmates.
Abstract
An increasing demand for mental health services in the jails, combined with increased acuity, budget constraints, and diminishing community treatment resources presented jail administrators with a serious dilemma. To address this need, a joint sheriff's office/health department "Mental Health ADD Package" for establishing a therapeutic milieu in Dorm 13 at the jail was funded beginning October 1, 1999. In February 1998, the sheriff's office dedicated part of a 55-bed dorm for mentally ill male offenders. Corrections health staff provide assessment and evaluation services, consultation, and medication management. Corrections staff who work in this dorm are trained to deal with inmates who have various types of mental illness. The assessment and treatment priorities are suicide prevention, crisis intervention, the treatment of serious mental illness, continuity of care and release planning, classification, and dealing with complaints of mood or anxiety problems. In-custody mental health services include initial screening by community health nurses, review by classification deputies, referrals for evaluation/treatment, housing, multidisciplinary case review, life skills groups, individual counseling and testing, coordination with Oregon State Hospital, and emergency services. Postrelease programs have also been instituted to ensure that releasees continue to receive needed mental health services in the community. 4 notes