Title: OJJDP Mental Health Initiatives



Series: Fact Sheet



Author: Kay McKinney



Published: August 2001



Subject: Emotionally disturbed delinquents, Juvenile

delinquency prevention, Mentally ill offenders



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OJJDP Mental Health Initiatives



By Kay McKinney



To prevent and reduce juvenile delinquency, it is

necessary to address not only the offenses that bring

youth to the attention of the juvenile justice system

but also the underlying problems these youth face,

including mental health problems. The Office of

Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)

recognizes the critical importance of mental health

problems in the lives of youth involved in the

juvenile justice system and has been working for

several years on a number of projects to increase

knowledge and improve available services. This Fact

Sheet highlights a number of current activities in

this area.



Assessing Alcohol, Drug, and Mental Disorders Among

Juvenile Detainees



Researchers at Northwestern University Medical School

in Chicago, IL, have been studying alcohol, drug, and

mental disorders among a large sample of juvenile

detainees in the Cook County Detention Center in

Chicago since November 1995. With funding from OJJDP,

other Federal agencies, and private foundations, a

longitudinal component was added to this study in

November 1998. Investigators are tracking and

reinterviewing members of the original sample,

regardless of whether they have returned to the

community, remain incarcerated, or have left the

immediate area. The longitudinal study is allowing

researchers to assess the developmental course of

substance abuse and mental disorders among juvenile

detainees; examine service availability, service use,

and barriers to service access; and identify patterns

of risky behavior in the areas of violence, substance

use, and HIV/AIDS. An OJJDP Fact Sheet, Assessing

Alcohol, Drug, and Mental Disorders in Juvenile

Detainees, describes this research project.



Intergenerational Transmission of Antisocial Behavior



Researchers at the University at Albany, State

University of New York, are examining the development

of childhood antisocial behavior in a

three-generation prospective panel study. The focus

of this study is on the children of current

participants in OJJDP's Rochester (NY) Youth

Development Study, a longitudinal study of 1,000

Rochester youth (who were in the seventh grade when

the study began in 1987-88) and their parents. By the

time they reached age 21, 40 percent of the original

Rochester youth participants were parents. The

intergenerational study will combine data obtained

from the original study of the Rochester participants

and their parents with new data on the children of

the original participants. This approach provides a

unique opportunity to examine and track the

development of delinquent behavior across three

generations in a particularly high-risk sample. The

results of the study should provide very useful

findings with policy implications for prevention

programs. OJJDP is funding the program through an

interagency agreement with the National Institute of

Mental Health.









Mental Health Issue of OJJDP's Journal



OJJDP devoted an issue of its journal, Juvenile

Justice (Volume VII, Number 1, April 2000), to the

topic of mental health. Journal articles discuss

youth with mental health disorders and emerging

responses to them; Wraparound Milwaukee, a program

that has successfully integrated a broad array of

services to better meet the mental health needs of

youth who have been adjudicated delinquent; and

suicide prevention in juvenile facilities.



Mental Health-Juvenile Justice: Building an Effective

Service Delivery Model



The goal of this new OJJDP-funded initiative is to

create a model for the delivery of mental health and

related substance abuse services to youth involved

with the juvenile justice system. Researchers will

review the literature on theory and best practices in

the areas of screening, assessment, service

provision, and quality assurance; conduct a survey of

mental health needs and services among

system-involved youth in selected regions; visit

localities engaged in promising programs; and, based

on these activities, develop a model to provide

comprehensive mental health services at every point

in the juvenile justice system. The model will

subsequently be replicated and evaluated at several

sites. This is the largest mental health initiative

ever undertaken by OJJDP. The research is being

conducted by Policy Research Associates, Inc., of

Delmar, NY.



Multisite, Multimodal Treatment Study of Children

With ADHD



In 1992, the National Institute of Mental Health

began a study of the long-term efficacy of stimulant

medication and intensive behavioral and educational

treatment for children with attention deficit

hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). OJJDP's participation,

which began in fiscal year 1998, is helping to fund

continued investigation into these children's

delinquent behavior and contact with the legal

system, including arrests and court referrals. OJJDP

staff have helped researchers revise one of their

data collection instruments to capture information

that would be of interest to juvenile justice

researchers and practitioners. Some of the children

involved in the study, who currently range in age

from 9 to 13, have already come in contact with the

juvenile justice system for behaviors such as

truancy, fighting, and stealing. A May 2001 OJJDP

Fact Sheet, A Treatment Study of Children With

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, describes

study findings.



Pathways to Desistance: A Prospective Study of

Serious Adolescent Offenders



OJJDP-funded research at the University of Pittsburgh

is following 1,200 serious adolescent offenders from

Phoenix, AZ, and Philadelphia, PA, for 3 years after

their involvement with the juvenile justice system.

Researchers will interview the youth and individuals

who know them; review official records (e.g., arrest

records, institutional records, treatment summaries);

and explore background characteristics (e.g.,

services received and sanction histories), mediating

factors (e.g., vocational opportunities), changes in

functioning (e.g., antisocial/prosocial behavior),

and involvement with interventions and sanctions

during the followup period. Data analysis will focus

on identifying subgroups of offenders,

differentiating those who continue offending from

those who desist. The researchers will evaluate the

impact of life events, treatment interventions, and

sanctions on patterns of antisocial and prosocial

behavior, mental health, and social functioning. 



Tribal Youth Program Mental Health Initiative



OJJDP's Tribal Youth Program is providing funds to

American Indian and Alaska Native tribal communities

to improve mental health services for tribal at-risk

youth and juvenile offenders. The first six grantees

selected for this program are engaged in a variety of

diagnostic, service, and prevention projects, all

with a significant mental health component. The

grantees are the Hannahville Indian Community

(Potawatomi Band) of Wilson, MI; the Chugachmiut of

the Chugach Region, Anchorage, AK; the Pyramid Lake

Paiute Tribe of Nixon, NV; the Mississippi Band of

Choctaw Indians of Philadelphia, MS; the Fort Peck

Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of Poplar, MT; and the

South Central Foundation of Anchorage, AK. OJJDP will

competitively select additional grantees in 2001.



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For Further Information



The information in this Fact Sheet was extracted from

OJJDP Annual Report 2000, which includes a full

chapter on OJJDP's current mental health initiatives.

All publications mentioned in the Fact Sheet are

available from OJJDP's Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse

(800-638-8736) and at OJJDP's Web site

(ojjdp.ncjrs.org).



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Kay McKinney is a Senior Writer-Editor in OJJDP's

Information Dissemination and Planning Unit.



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The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency

Prevention is a component of the Office of Justice

Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice

Assistance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the

National Institute of Justice,and the Office for

Victims of Crime.



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