Blueprint for Change: Funding Mental Health Services for Youth in Contact with the Juvenile Justice System

Blueprint for Change: Funding Mental Health Services for Youth in Contact with the Juvenile Justice System explores the funding and resources available to provide mental health services for youth in the juvenile justice system.

There are large numbers of youth with mental health disorders involved with the juvenile justice system. Recent advances have resulted in the development of new tools, interventions, and technical assistance resources to help the field better identify and respond to this problem. Yet a significant and remaining barrier to the full application of these new resources in the field is a lack of practical information about how to fund services and programs that provide mental health screening, assessment, and treatment services to youth involved with the juvenile justice system.

In response, and building on its report Blueprint for Change: A Comprehensive Model for the Identification and Treatment of Youth With Mental Health Needs in Contact with the Juvenile Justice System, the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice conducted a brief survey of promising programs highlighted in the Blueprint. The goal of this effort was to learn how these programs, which provide mental health services to youth involved with the juvenile justice system, are funded.

As programs improve their response to these youth, it is critical that they have the knowledge and information necessary to fund and provide the best services they can. The results of this survey, along with the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice’s analysis of the findings, represent the first step in addressing this need.

The National Center for Youth Opportunity and Justice (NCYOJ) originally developed and maintained this resource. The NCYOJ was operated by Policy Research, Inc. and operated from 2001 to 2022 and was formerly known as the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice. The NCYOJ improved life opportunities for youth through systems and practice improvement initiatives.

This resource should be viewed as a reference document. It has not been updated since its publication. In addition, this document has not been made 508 compliant. If you would like a 508 compliant version of this document, please email communications@prainc.com.

This resource was first shared in 2007.

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