Mental Health Model

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

At national, state, and local levels, there is increasing recognition of the importance of identifying and responding to the mental health needs of youths in the juvenile justice system, as policymakers and practitioners struggle to find ways to address causes and correlates of juvenile crime and delinquency. The proposed guidelines for mental health assessment provide explicit information about how, why, and when to obtain mental health information on justice youths at each important juncture in processing.

America has a staggering problem among its youths and is in desperate need of help. Every day, young, innocent children are being abused. Unfortunately, this rate only seems to be growing as the foster care system is becoming flooded with children who need help. According to the website, Foster Club, a child is entered into the foster care system every two minutes. The reasoning for a child being placed in foster care can range, but mostly it is because of abuse. These traumatizing experiences and memories can hinder a person for the rest of their life. These kids find themselves in a terrible situation and learn ways to cope with the pain. It can be easy to judge their behaviors but for somebody with a normal life we can never understand the trials that they have had to live through. Fortunately, the psychological damage that is done can be reversed but in order to understand this fully we first need to know the negative psychological affects abuse can have on a person.

There are different types of trauma child welfare programs focus on. They typically focus on behavioral and emotional problems and ways to correct the child (Greeson et al. 94). However, it is not as simple as the welfare programs want it to be. One first must look at the trauma history of the child, or the “Trauma History Profile”, also known as THP (Greeson et al. 97). The THP addresses “lifetime exposure to trauma and contains a

There has been an enormous amount of research, going back almost thirty years, about the relationship between childhood trauma, and juvenile delinquency. Many researches cannot say that there is a direct link between the two, but after much research, researches have found that childhood trauma can perhaps be a predictor for juveniles who later in life commit crimes. Trauma is defined as, “a disordered psychic or behavioral state resulting from severe mental or emotional stress or physical injury,” because the definition is broad and can range from a variety of different events, for the purpose of this paper, the focus will be on neglect trauma in juveniles (Trauma, 2016). Neglect according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is, “the failure of a parent or other person with the responsibility for the child to provide needed food, clothing, shelter, medical care, or supervision such that the child’s health, safety and well-being are threatened with harm” (Kazemian, 2011).

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.

Many juveniles who entered the juvenile justice system are victims themselves of parental mistreatment such as neglect, physical, and emotional abuse. Once children into the juvenile system and is labeled a juvenile similar to adults being labeled a felon. These young offenders are stigmatized as criminal with little distinction between adults and juvenile offenders entering the prison system for the first time. Bernstein (2014) paints a vivid picture of how incarcerated juveniles expose to a new set of challenges such as posttraumatic stress syndrome, curtailed education, gang affiliation, and a gladiator mentality. These challenges that can develop in juvenile facility has

In the journal article, “Foster Care Youth Share Stories of Trauma Before, During, and After Placement: Youth Voices for Building Trauma-Informed Systems of Care”, they discussed people’s stories about the trauma in their life before, during, and after foster care placement. 19% of current foster care youth show clinically significant posttraumatic stress symptoms. (Kolko et al., 2010) Complex trauma includes youth exposure to multiple kinds of family trauma, such as physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, as well as neglect and domestic violence. Over 2,000 children and youth who lived in foster care, over 70% met the criteria for complex trauma. One third of foster alumni reports some maltreatment during foster care. Trauma scores are the highest for young

To properly evaluate the effectiveness, outcomes, and cost of the Therapeutic Detention Center for Juveniles program it will be necessary to conduct a mixed methods research approach that includes both qualitative and quantitative analysis. Fifty percent of juveniles who have been ordered by the court to this program will be randomly selected to be enrolled into a 5-year study. Juveniles diagnosed with a mental illness based off DSM-5 criteria who have been court ordered to the Therapeutic Detention Center will be eligible for the study. Consent should be obtained by both the juvenile and their parent/guardian for enrollment.

Diehl, Howse, &Trivette (2011) describe such traumas as child abuse and neglect, domestic violence, and the death of loved ones as traumatic events. The general youth population will experience one event; but youth in foster care generally will have exposure to two or more types of trauma. Youth also lack a sense of stability due to 85.6% of foster care clients experiencing two placements or

It is estimated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human services that one million children are victims of child abuse and neglect in the U.S every year. This number may be an underrepresentation however, as many cases are unreported. Children who experience trauma in early childhood years or adolescence have impacts that follow them throughout adulthood. The common effects include relationship attachment issues, mental disorders, substance abuse, increased

Recent research has shown that childhood trauma can have a dramatic impact on the child’s mental health and lead to neuropsychological damage (Boyda&McFeeters, 2015). One of the most worrying issues today is the aetiology of mental disorders. More than determining causes, it is sought increasingly to find which factors are associated and can be seen as predictive factors of vulnerability of the individual (Kramer , 2015). The reasons for this concern can be from many such as: the growing concern with health prevention and the search for more effective strategies to promote it.

There are many types of trauma that can effect an adolescent and without the proper treatment of the traumatic event the adolescent can have difficulty adapting and developing into adulthood. Kathleen J. Moroz, of the Vermont Agency of Human Services, defines trauma as a physical or psychological threat or assault to a child’s physical integrity, sense of self, safety of survival or to the physical safety of another person significant to the child. She goes on to list the types of trauma a child may be exposed to. Abuse of every kind, domestic violence, natural disasters, abandonment, serious illness or an accident are just a few traumatic events that can effect the development of a child. (2) When these events occur as an acute event

Child abuse and neglect are considered a social phenomenon that plays a crucial role in American society as well as in the American criminal justice system. All types of ages, genders, ethnicities at some point or another are represented as victims or perpetrators of child abuse or neglect. Child abuse includes physical, psychological and sometimes sexual abuse to a person who is below the age of 18. Child abuse or neglect victims tend to grow up with long terms consequences such as low self-esteem, depression, and other major consequences such as engaging in criminal behavior as adults, teen pregnancy and not to mention the severity of physical child abuse consequences can end up in a death of an innocent victim. This literature

While pursuing my Master’s degree, I completed my field experience at Family Continuity Mental Health Clinic located in Whitinsville, Massachusetts, where I was able to work with adults, children, families, and groups of low socioeconomic status who have experienced trauma of some sort at one point or another throughout their lives. Moreover, the individuals I worked with were largely disempowered, lacked insight on their psychological distress, were victims of social injustice and were mostly