Mental Health Systems and Juvenile Justice Outcomes

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The program of training and research proposed in this Mentored Research Scientist Development Award application is designed to further both the applicant's near-term and long-term career goals. In this near term it will allow her to develop skills in conducting longitudinal studies dealing with the relationship between mental health and juvenile justice systems using large, secondary datasets. In the long-term it will help her develop theoretical models and empirical tests about the behavior of mental health care and juvenile justice systems, the dynamics of their relationship, and their responses to policy change. The proposed training and research program is designed to address three career development needs: 1) develop a knowledge base of the juvenile justice system as it relates to youth with emotional disorders; 2) develop statistical skills in longitudinal data analysis; and 3) train in the responsible conduct of research and scientific communication. This training will facilitate the applicant's pursuit of innovative, comprehensive, and technologically efficient approaches in research on mental health and juvenile justice systems. The research plan is divided into three separate studies which will complement the proposed sequence of training activities and provide the applicant research experience with dynamic modeling using a variety of datasets. The specific aims of the proposed studies are 1) to estimate the impact of major health policy changes, including Medicaid eligibility and mental health managed care, on juvenile crime outcomes, using two separate approaches; 2) to estimate the effects of major policy changes and key organizational structures on the continuity of mental health service delivery for youth exiting the juvenile justice system; and 3) to estimate the effects of a mental health diversion program for youth in the juvenile justice system on criminal outcomes.