Forensic Mental Health ─ Framing Integrated Solutions

Forensic Mental Health: Framing Integrated Solutions describes a criminal justice-mental health nexus that touches every population—juvenile and adult male and female offenders, probationers and parolees, the aging adult prison population, and victims of crime. In the US today, the criminal justice system functions as a mental health provider, but at great cost to society. The author summarizes the historical roots of this crisis and provides an overview of mental illness and symptoms, using graphics to illustrate the most prevalent disorders encountered by police and other first responders. Bratina demonstrates in detail how the Sequential Intercept Model (SIM) supports integration of the US healthcare and justice systems to offer more positive outcomes for offenders with mental illness.

This book takes a multidisciplinary approach, addressing social work, psychology, counseling, and special education, and covers developments such as prison rights to treatment and trauma-informed care. Designed for advanced undergraduates, this text also serves as a training resource for practitioners working with the many affected justice-involved individuals with mental illness, including juveniles, veterans, and substance abusers.

Michele P. Bratina is an Assistant Professor in the Criminal Justice Department at West Chester University in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Previously, she was the Forensic and Children’s Mental Health Coordinator for the Florida Department of Children and Families in the 19th Judicial Circuit—a role that inspired this book. She is First Vice President of the Northeastern Association of Criminal Justice Sciences (NEACJS) Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and holds the position of Executive Counselor for the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) Juvenile Justice Section. Her research interests and publications revolve around issues related to human exploitation, criminological theory, race, social structure, ethnicity and crime, and forensic mental health. She has published her work in the Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice and in the International Journal of Police Science and Management.