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“Being able to focus on physical and mental health needs separated from criminality is a complete transformation of how we do things.”
—Laura Garnette |
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About the Healthy Returns Initiative
According to national estimates, as many as 70 percent of adolescents in juvenile justice systems struggle with mental health or co-occurring disorders; 20 percent have a serious mental disorder and at least 10 percent have a serious medical condition. Many do not receive the care they need.
The Healthy Returns Initiative, a four-year project of The California Endowment, is designed to strengthen the capacity of five California probation departments to improve access to mental health and health services for adolescents in detention facilities, to ensure continuity of care upon their release, and to address policies that impede access to care. Each probation department—in Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara and Humboldt counties—has created an interdisci-plinary, interagency team that includes a probation officer, a mental health clinician and a health provider, usually a nurse.
The departments have also implemented a standardized mental health screening instrument; engaged in health and mental health case planning; provided services while adolescents are in detention; and activated connections with culturally appropriate county and community-based mental health organizations to ensure that treatment plans started in detention are followed up on after a youth’s release. The initiative is being evaluated to track the process and impacts of collaborative system reforms to benefit youth in the juvenile justice system.
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