U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) (Rockville, MD)
This resource guide provides very important information for individuals helping families with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) children involved with the juvenile justice system. Its intent is to help practitioners “understand the critical role of family acceptance and rejection in contributing to the health and well-being of adolescents who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender … [and] implement best practices in engaging and helping families and caregivers to support their LGBT children. The family intervention approach discussed in this guide is based on research findings and more than a decade of interactions and intervention work by the Family Acceptance Project (FAP) at San Francisco State University with very diverse families and their LGBT children” (p. 3). Sections address: the critical role of families in reducing risk and promoting well-being; helping families decrease rick and increase well-being for their LGBT children; increasing family support—how to help now; and resources for practitioners and families.
“The Social Security Administration (SSA), through its Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) programs, can provide income and other benefits to persons with mental illness who are reentering the community from jails and prisons. The SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access and Recovery program (SOAR), a project funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, is a national technical assistance program that helps people who are homeless or at risk for homelessness to access SSA disability benefits. SOAR training can help local corrections and community transition staff negotiate and integrate benefit options with community reentry strategies for people with mental illness and co-occurring disorders to assure successful outcomes.” This document addresses: mental illness, homelessness, and incarceration; incarceration and SSA Disability benefits; role of transition services in reentry for people with mental illness; access to benefits as an essential strategy for reentry; SOAR collaborations with jails; SOAR collaborations with state and federal prisons; and best practices for assessing SSI/SSDI as an essential reentry strategy—collaboration, leadership, resources, commitment, and training.
“[D]espite some recent advances in understanding and acceptance, LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender] individuals remain subject to the traumas of negative stereotyping, rejection, marginalization, and discrimination—all of which impede help-seeking behaviors. To compound the problem, LGBT individuals with mental health problems, addictions, or both, may experience additional forms of prejudice and discrimination related to each of those conditions … SAMHSA [Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration] convened the dialogue to develop and/or enhance partnerships among people in recovery, to identify specific factors at the individual and systems levels that can promote or hinder recovery for LGBT individuals, and to help participants gain a better understanding of a variety of perspectives and experiences in advancing recovery for LGBT individuals. In addition, by convening a range of stakeholders to address collaboratively the critical need for improving services, supports, and systems designed to address the mental health and addiction recovery needs of LGBT individuals, SAMHSA anticipated that the suggestions and recommendations summarized in this monograph would serve as a starting point for individuals and organizations interested in taking concrete action to improve recovery opportunities for LGBT individuals. This booklet is comprised of four sections: overview; dialogue themes and findings—eight major themes, personal-level factors that promote or impede recovery, and system and contextual factors that promote or impede recovery; recommendations for action—major and strategic; and milestones in the LGBT mental health consumer movement.
The opportunity for diverting offenders with mental illness and substance abuse disorders from the criminal justice system when they have their first appearance in a municipal court is explained. Sections of this publication include: introduction; Sequential Intercept Model (SIM); municipal courts—definition and caseloads; municipal courts as a venue for diversion of people with mental and substance use disorders; challenges to the use of municipal courts for diversion—case volume, time constraints and lack of leverage, and the mature of municipal courts; what the essential elements for effective diversion are—identification and screening, court-based clinician as the boundary spanner-linkage component, recovery-based engagement strategies, and proportional response; a municipal court achieving effective diversion—Seattle Municipal Mental Health Court; a municipal court achieving effective diversion—Midtown Community Court in New York City; a municipal court achieving effective diversion—Misdemeanor Arraignment Diversion Project in New York City; and summary. "Municipal courts that implement these four essential elements—Identification and Screening, Court-Based Clinician, Recovery-Based Engagement, and Proportional Response—are in the position to minimize the criminal justice system involvement and reduce unnecessary incarceration of people with mental illness and co-occurring substance use disorders as well as facilitate engagement or re-engagement in mental health and substance use disorder services" (p. 12).
"Trauma is a widespread, harmful and costly public health problem. It occurs as a result of violence, abuse, neglect, loss, disaster, war and other emotionally harmful experiences. Trauma has no boundaries with regard to age, gender, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, geography or sexual orientation. It is an almost universal experience of people with mental and substance use disorders … The purpose of this paper is to develop a working concept of trauma and a trauma-informed approach and to develop a shared understanding of these concepts that would be acceptable and appropriate across an array of service systems and stakeholder groups. SAMHSA puts forth a framework for the behavioral health specialty sectors, that can be adapted to other sectors such as child welfare, education, criminal and juvenile justice, primary health care, the military and other settings that have the potential to ease or exacerbate an individual’s capacity to cope with traumatic experiences … The desired goal is to build a framework that helps systems “talk” to each other, to understand better the connections between trauma and behavioral health issues, and to guide systems to become trauma-informed" (p. 2-3). Sections of this publication include: introduction; purpose and approach—developing a framework for trauma and a trauma-informed approach; background—trauma—where we are and how we got here; SMAHSA's concept of trauma; SAMHSA's trauma-informed approach—key assumptions and principles; guidance for implementing a trauma-informed approach; next steps—trauma in the context of community; and conclusion.
"This monograph examines a wide range of evidence-based practices for screening and assessment of people in the justice system who have co-occurring mental and substance use disorders (CODs). Use of evidence-based approaches for screening and assessment is likely to result in more accurate matching of offenders to treatment services and more effective treatment and supervision outcomes … Key systemic and clinical challenges are discussed, as well as state-of-the art approaches for conducting screening and assessment. The monograph also reviews a range of selected instruments for screening, assessment, and diagnosis of CODs in justice settings and provides a critical analysis of advantages, concerns, and practical implementation issues (e.g., cost, availability, training needs) for each instrument" (p. 1). Two parts follow an executive summary. Part I-- Key Issues in Screening and Assessment of Co-occurring Disorders in the Justice System: prevalence and significance of co-occurring disorders in the justice system; defining co-occurring disorders; importance of screening and assessment; opportunities for screening and assessment; defining screening and assessment; developing a comprehensive screening and assessment approach; key information to address in screening and assessment for co-occurring disorders; enhancing the accuracy of information in screening and assessment; and special clinical issues. Part II—Instruments for Screening and Assessing Co-occurring disorders: key issues in selection; comparing screening instruments; recommended instruments for assessment and diagnosis of co-occurring disorders—screening instruments for substance use, screening instruments for mental disorders, screening instruments for co-occurring mental and substance abuse disorders, screening and assessment instruments for suicide risk, screening and diagnostic instruments for trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), screening instruments for motivation and readiness for treatment, assessment instruments for substance use and treatment matching approaches, assessment instruments for mental disorders, and assessment and diagnostic instruments for co-occurring mental and substance use disorders.
This training manual presents an 'overview of the role and efficacy of group therapy in substance abuse treatment. The goal ' [is to] describe effective types of group therapy and offer a theoretical basis for group therapy in the treatment of substance use disorders' (p. v). Modules contained in this lesson plan are: groups and substance abuse treatment; types of groups used in substance abuse treatment; criteria for the placement of clients in groups; group development and phase-specific tasks; stages of treatment; group leadership, concepts, and techniques; and supervision.
“Reducing the pervasive, harmful, and costly health impact of violence and trauma by integrating trauma-informed approaches throughout health, behavioral health, and related systems and addressing the behavioral health needs of people involved in or at risk of involvement in the criminal and juvenile justice systems.”
