Mental Health Facts in Brief

Mental Health Facts in Brief are designed to orient judges and court professionals to mental health topics. The briefs are presented from a clinical and research perspective with a focus on significant psychiatric issues and how they relate to the courts.

Mental Health Facts in Brief

Up-to-date listing of all Mental Health Facts in Brief publications including descriptions and pdf links.
Violence and Mental Illness Myths and Reality

An overview of the over-emphasized relationship between mental illness and violence that can result in liberty restrictions and further stigmatize a population of people who may be better served in a treatment setting. (November 2022)
Social Determinants of Health and Mental Health

Strategies for recognizing and considering social determinants that propel people toward poorer outcomes and criminal justice system involvement in order to mitigate risks and improve life trajectories. (December 2021)
Connecting Care for Better Outcomes

The significance of continuity of care for individuals moving among health, homelessness, criminal justice and other systems, and presents considerations for improving handoffs that may produce beneficial individual and public outcomes. (November 2021)
Treatment Considerations in Correctional Settings

Distinctions between true therapeutic settings and the realities of jail mental health care and their related clinical outcomes, and alternatives to correctional settings for individuals who enter the criminal justice system as a result of unaddressed mental health conditions. (November 2021)
Trauma and Its Implication for Justice Systems

Overview of how a trauma history may relate to individual justice involvement and implications of trauma awareness for the justice system. (March 2020)
Co-Occurring Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders (CODs)

The history and issues presented by co-occurring mental illness and substance use disorders and the strategies courts can use to address them. (March 2020)
Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) Community-Based Civil Commitment

Assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) is a form of civil commitment that authorizes the judicial system to commit eligible individuals with severe psychiatric disorders to mental health intervention in the community. (January 2020)
The Psychiatric Care Continuum

The range of psychiatric services that may be relevant when serving justice-involved individuals. (January 2020)