Advanced Center for Mental Health Services and Criminal Justice Research

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This is a second submission of an application that requests funding for an ACISIR focusing on mental health (MH) and substance abuse (SA) services issues that arise when persons with mental illness have encounters with the criminal justice (CJ) system. The Center for Behavioral Health Services & Criminal Justice Research, developed with support from a NIMH developing center grant (P20 MH661170), seeks to (a) improve the ways in which the MH, SA and CJ systems respond to the needs of persons with mental illness and (b) inform the policies and practices that are intended to affect these responses. This objective is accomplished by fostering collaborative, multi-disciplinary research that is informed by the expertise of practitioners, policymakers, advocates, and consumers. The Center is situated at Rutgers University and co- directed by Drs. Nancy Wolff (Rutgers) and Jeffrey Draine (University of Pennsylvania). The Operations, Methods, Research, and Network cores are directed, respectively, by Dr. Wolff; Dr. Steven Belenko; Dr. Draine; and Mr. Richard Baron (with Dr. Wolff). The Rutgers site provides the structure for research and training in MH-SA-CJ systems dynamics and coordinates all Center-related activities. The multi-disciplinary team is situated in a "borderless" research environment that includes researchers and research sites located across the country. Central to the Center's mission is the involvement of stakeholders at all stages of the research and dissemination process while building their capacity to apply research in practice and in policymaking. Together, under the Center's auspices, researchers and stakeholders pursue timely, rigorous and multi-disciplinary MH-SA-CJ services and intervention research. The Network Core focuses on building social networks, through local and web-based communities of practice to facilitate learning about research evidence, research process, practice and policy dynamics, and challenges related to persons with mental illness involved with the CJ system. The proposed advanced center will develop conceptually coherent research and supporting methods, and a series of research initiatives that will culminate in the submission and funding of grant applications that provide findings that will improve practice and policy. The revision includes: adding 7 MH intervention researchers, clarifying the role of culture, diversity, and qualitative methods in our research, and developing three new intervention projects.