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Collaborations Between Criminal Justice and Mental Health Systems for Prisoner Reentry Amy Blank Wilson, L.S.W. and Jeffrey Draine, Ph.D., M.S.W. OBJECTIVE: This study assessed reentry programs throughout the nation for people with mental illness who were leaving prisons or jails and developed a classification of service strategies based on practices that are emerging in the field in response to this need. METHODS: A national survey identified service strategies that assist people who are incarcerated in prisons or jail and have a mental illness reenter the community. Data were used to develop a typology of reentry service strategies. RESULTS: Fifty-eight reentry programs were identified. Program descriptions were developed for 50. Findings supported the use of a 2x2 typology of initiatives, with one factor being whether the criminal justice or mental health system initiated the program and the other being the degree of collaboration between the two systems. CONCLUSIONS: If the funding...

The characteristics of young patients who commit acts of deliberate self-harm vary widely, but the risk of suicide is very high in this population, UK investigators report. "Deliberate self-harm and suicide are both major problems in young people," Drs . Keith Hawton and Louise Harriss , of the University of Oxford, point out. "Rates of deliberate self-harm, the term used for the intentional self-poisoning or self-injury in many European countries because of the mixed motivation that is often involved, are highest in young persons," the researchers write in Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. The researchers collected information on consecutive deliberate self-harm patients between the ages of 15 and 24 years who were seen at a general hospital over a 20-year period (1978 to 1997). National mortality registers were used to identify deaths recorded up to the end of 2000. Read this important article by linking to: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_57882.h...