A Comparison of Behavioral Health Crisis Response Models in Meeting Behavioral Health Goals and Improving Criminal Legal Diversion.

Various behavioral health crisis models have been developed to advance the shared goals of improving behavioral health outcomes and increasing diversion from criminal legal systems. The effectiveness of these models is promising, yet research is needed to understand their comparative advantages. This study compares the effectiveness of three community mental health response models-co-response, mobile response, and office-based response-and law enforcement-only response in addressing key behavioral health and diversion goals.

Assessing County-Level Behavioral Health and Justice Systems with the Sequential Intercept Model Practices, Leadership, and Expertise Scorecard.

The Sequential Intercept Model has helped conceptualize interventions for people with serious mental illness in the criminal/legal system. This paper operationalizes the Sequential Intercept Model into a 35-item scorecard of behavioral health and legal practices. Using interviews, survey, and observational methods, the scorecard assesses an exploratory sample of 19 counties over 27 independent data collections.

Identification, Referral, and Services for Individuals With Serious Mental Illness Across Multiple Jails.

Identification of serious mental illness (SMI) among those entering jail is the first step in diversion or appropriate services in jail. Although best practices guidelines for identifying SMI exist, many jails do not employ these standards. Researchers describe identification of SMI in the "practice as usual" and compare/contrast the results with a validated screening instrument for 2,961 individuals across eight jails.