Lessons Learned through The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati's Substance Use Disorder and Severe Mental Illness in the Criminal Justice System Initiative

The aim of this report is to present the findings of an evaluation of an initiative to improve the outcomes of justice-involved individuals with severe mental illnesses in the Greater Cincinnati area. It is divided into five parts: introduction-importance of the Initiative, substance use disorder and severe mental illness in the criminal justice system, and the Urban Society study; grantee interviews; grantee outcomes; lessons learned for criminal justice and behavioral health practitioners, for criminal justice practitioners, for policymakers, public administrators, and other decisionmakers, for researchers, and for funders; and conclusions. “Overall, the Health Foundation can point to an array of positive outcomes associated with the Initiative. As evidenced in the literature, the Initiative was focused squarely on an under- and unserved population and can point to several benefits of program participation for this population. Further, the Initiative has generated lessons for future behavioral health and criminal justice programming as well as the different system stakeholders who have the ability to foster such programming” (p. 22).