Mental Disorders In Adolescents

The correlation of mental health and substance use in adolescence is very problematic. Many believe that the relationship between the two are so strong that it plays a causative role in the development of adolescents. It places adolescents at risk for problems within their families, communities, and as an individual. This disease can be severe enough that it impairs the adolescent 's ability to function as a person. Both mental health and substance abuse are entangled within one another, that it makes it difficult to decipher which condition is causing each symptom. However, several research studies concluded that adolescents who suffer from mental illness may self-medicate their symptoms by using drugs. The juvenile justice systems suffer from adolescents with mental health disorders, substance abuse or even both.

The juvenile justice system faces a significant challenge in identifying and responding to the psychiatric disorders of detained youth because research has shown that it is difficult to define the best means to use and enhance the scarce mental health resources (Kessler & Kraus, 2007). According to Cocozza and Skowyra (2000) “Children’s and adolescents’ mental health needs have historically been addressed inadequately in policy, practice, and research and have only the number of youth with mental illness and their level of unmet needs recognized” (p 4). Furthermore, that the juvenile justice system has gone from treatment and rehabilitation to retribution and punishment, that the prevalence is

The Texas juvenile justice system is comprised of 166 juvenile probation departments serving all 254 Texas counties. Approximately 98% of youth in the Texas juvenile justice system are provided services through their local probation departments. These departments and residential facilities provide numerous services, but only a small number of facilities offer programs and housing for mental health juvenile offenders. Many public officials, officers, educational staff and those dealing with juvenile offenders are typically quick to label a juvenile as a typical behavioral issue. This is normally the case but in recent years data has showed that… “Of the new admissions in 2014, there were 54% who presented with at psychiatric diagnosis, indicating a need for mental health care.” Certified peace officers,

The number of people with mental illness in the criminal justice system is one of the most pressing problems facing law enforcement and corrections today (Cuellar, McReynolds, & Wasserman, 2006). The Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health estimated that about 20% of children and adolescents in the general population have mental disorders with some degree of at least mild functional impairment (USPH, 1999). Subsequent research has found much higher rates of serious mental health problems among youth in the juvenile justice system. Among youth who have been arrested, one study found that 31% of youth had received services from the mental health system (Rosenblatt, Rosenblatt, & Biggs, 2000). Two studies of youth in juvenile detention found that between 60% and 68% met the diagnostic criteria for a mental health disorder (Teplin, Abram, McClelland, Dulcan, & Mericle, 2002; Wasserman, Ko, & McReynolds, 2004). Once youth with emotional disturbances enter the justice system, repeated arrests are common through the remainder of childhood and into adulthood. Recidivism rates for individuals with a serious mental illness are nearly double those in the general population (Baillargeon, Binswanger, Penn, Williams, & Murray, 2009; Constantine, Petrila, Andel, Givens, Becker et al., 2010). In an analysis of juvenile trajectories, youth with emotional disturbances in their late adolescent years were more likely to fall into the high arrest trajectory class and much

Juvenile justice settings, especially in Texas, were not designed as sites for comprehensive psychological and psychiatric treatment of adolescents’ mental disorders. On national, state, and local levels there has been a major increase in the interest of mental health needs within the juvenile justice system. Evidence-based research and data has become more available with societies interest into this matter. A continuous struggle with Texas policymakers and officials is identifying and properly treating mentally ill juveniles and keeping them out of the justice system. Acknowledging established data and comparing it to current Texas mandates helps seek recommendations for improvement within all levels and jurisdictions of the Texas juvenile justice system.

The patient is a thirteen year old female diagnosed with depression/ depression NOS. She is in the hospital for attempting to kill herself by stabbing her stomach with a knife. She had been there for almost a week when the assessment was conducted. Hand off states she sees things in the shadows (visual hallucinations), and she was molested by her thirty year old cousin and sodomised by her neighbor when she was four. Her home situation is not a therapeutic one, her and one of her mother’s fights constantly, and see feels her mother is two faced and she cannot talk to this mother about her feelings. The patient is very shy, and just wants to draw ninja turtles, but through therapeutic communication and observation she began to open up. She is dressed appropriate for the weather, and has a good understanding of advance vocabulary, but does go off on her own to look outside a lot. The full assessment can be found in the appendix at the end of the paper. The aim of this study is to describe priority nursing diagnoses, outcomes, and interventions, tests, labs and medications for this patient, the patient’s diagnosis according to the DSM-V and then examine a nursing article that relates to this patient.

Many adolescents entering detention centers and prisons may already have pre-existing mental disorders from past violence and abuse. As Lutz stated (2016), “research shows more than half of all suicides in juvenile facilities occurred while young people were held in isolation.” Prolonged isolation can be grueling on any healthy adult, and it can have a severe impact on a minor. Kalief

The authors utilized children who are in the juvenile justice system and the vast majority of the children were faced with abuse and neglect. This shows that aiding the the ending and treatment of child abuse would help to decrease the number of children in the juvenile justice system. It is obvious that most juvenile offenders go on to become a member of the criminal justice system, so early treatments could help prevent that from happening. These children could learn ways to deal with the trauma they faced besides going down the criminal path. If the children do have a developmental disability, early treatment could help them from falling behind in school which could also result in them not dropping out and ending up on the streets. If a child has PTSD or another emotional disorder, early help could prevent the child from using illegal drugs and ending up in the wrong circle. Increasing a child normalcy is key when discussing the best interest of the

Lastly, the juvenile justice system fails to appropriately diagnose and manage the mental health issues of young offenders. Thus understanding this failure could lead to the development of evidence-based practices for diagnosing and managing mental health disorders in these young-offenders with the idea of rehabilitating and preventing future offenses (Townsend, 2010).

In the year of 2004, Investigations Division Report the U. S. House of Representatives found that two-thirds of juveniles who were housed om a detention facility were awaiting community mental health treatment. That is more than half the juveniles that enter the facilities. Within the facilities, many of the juveniles will bring their problems to receive attention. 60% of juveniles that are incarcerated reported that they have anger problems. Additionally, more than 50% of juveniles incarcerated reported that they have feelings of depression and anxiety. Many times their anxiety stems from the worry and loneliness that they develop from being isolated in the facility. Suicidal thoughts are a latent dysfunction of these mental health problems. Reports show that one-fifth of juveniles incarcerated have suicidal thoughts or have previously attempted suicide. Mental health is a serious, growing problem within the criminal justice system that needs to be given attention at a young age. Lacking the attention will only lead to worse problems as the years advance. Early intervention is always the best answer to such

The principles of this paper are to outline how mental health disorders can effect an adolescents mind and actions to lead them down a path of crime. The most apparent realization is that having a mental health disorder alone will not land you in prison, however the actions behind the thinking will most certainly get you in trouble unless you can learn to control them. More than 50% of the juvenile crime populations suffers from a mental disorder but has landed themselves their for various reasons. Today, almost 25% of our generation ages 13-19 have struggled with some type of mental health disorder in their young lifetime. The crime rate of juvenile delinquents is increasing, resulting in a higher capacity of offenders with these mental

Parental criminality is considered as one of the risk factors behind the development of criminality in children and adolescents (Nijhof, 2009).These children have less educational success and struggle to build positive relationships with others. They tend to have poor social skills, attitudes and seem to be at a disadvantaged in society (Turanovic, 2012). Efforts have been made by researchers using qualitative studies in order to create an understanding behind intergenerational criminal behavior and get a closer look at their offending history. Findings suggest that the environment that children are raised in contributes substantially to parent and child criminal behavior particularly in neighbors of low economic status, where social strain

Social structure theories focus on the economic and social conditions in which lower-class youth live. The relationship between socioeconomic structure and crime is a relationship that scholars concluded that effected urban areas in which it promoted criminal behavior. While studies have shown a direct link between lower-class citizens and crime it is mistake to predispose all of them to a life of crime. Social structure theories examine why lower-class youth are more likely to commit crime than middle and upper-class youth. Social structure theories focus on two major factors that influence delinquency: socioeconomic conditions and cultural values. These conditions and values, in turn, are based on social and economic inequality in the

However, the majority of detainees face a troubling home situation that is comprised of members who face issues in substance abuse, sexual abuse, and domestic abuse. Research has “found that children who had been abused or neglected as children have 30% higher arrests as a juvenile and as an adult for a violent offense” (Widom, 2006). Based, on the data a clear correlation can be seen between the quality of a person's uprising and the chances of them being apprehended. Furthermore, children of the neglectful household, experience trauma at a young age and when they reach reformatories such as juvenile detention halls they are not only faced with their previous traumas but alongside with new traumas. In the article “Prevalence of Mental Disorders Among Youth in the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention” the research discloses that “ 70% of youth in juvenile justice facilities have psychiatric disorders and that 27% of these youth have severe impairment”(Cocozza et al.,2007). The alarming amount of people who are encountering mental issues in juvenile facilities isn't being given the resources to counselors and other health professions in order to alleviate their

The first study found looks at depression and other childhood problems and how they can relate to juvenile delinquency (Mallett, Stoddard Dare, & Seck, 2009) . The study looks at how the mental disorders such as depression in their childhood can affect their rates of delinquency and then how to provide preventative measures. This study looks at five hundred and fifty five children who are facing the juvenile court system. In the United States, five to ten percent of juveniles face mental illness and many of them do not have the appropriate resources to be able to deal with their mental illness. There has been in the United States