Implementing Reform: Approaches to Alter the Use of Local Jail for People with Behavioral Health Conditions.

To reduce the overrepresentation of people with behavioral health conditions in jails, jurisdictions have implemented evidence-based programs/policies (EBPPs) and treatments (EBTs). Using survey data from 519 U.S.

Cascade of care for substance use and mental health disorders for justice-involved populations.

Introduction: Justice-involved populations have dramatically higher rates of substance use disorders (SUD) and mental health disorders (MHD) compared to the general population. Despite high rates of SUD and MHD, treatment for this population is often limited and not evidence-based. The cascade of care model estimates drop-offs in the continuum of care from screening to identification of need, referral, care initiation, care engagement, and care completion.

Predictors of mental health among U.S. adults during COVID-19 early pandemic, mid- pandemic, and post-vaccine eras.

Background: A collective trauma like COVID-19 impacts individuals differently due to socio-contextual and individual characteristics. Younger adults, minorities, affiliates of certain political parties, and residents of some regions of the United States reported experiencing poorer mental health during the pandemic. Being diagnosed with COVID-19, or losing a friend/family to it, was related to more adverse mental health symptoms.

Recommended Mental Health Practices for Individuals Interacting With U.S. Police, Court, Jail, Probation, and Parole Systems.

Objective: Tens of millions of individuals with mental health problems interact with the U.S. criminal legal system (including 911, police, jail detention and sentences, courts, and probation and parole) each year.

Impact of County-level health infrastructure on participation in a reform effort to reduce the use of jail for individuals with mental health disorders.

Background: The national Stepping Up Initiative has attracted over 500 counties interested in reducing the use of jail for individuals with mental health disorders. This paper identifies socioeconomic, criminal legal, and health care factors that predict the likelihood of counties joining Stepping Up.

Results: After performing variable selection, logistic regression models were performed on 3,141 U.

The relationship between community public health, behavioral health service accessibility, and mass incarceration.

Background: The relationship between healthcare service accessibility in the community and incarceration is an important, yet not widely understood, phenomenon. Community behavioral health and the criminal legal systems are treated separately, which creates a competing demand to confront mass incarceration and expand available services. As a result, the relationship between behavioral health services, demographics and community factors, and incarceration rate has not been well addressed.

Assessing the reliability and validity of the Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) program tool.

Background: Fidelity assessment tools can assess whether a program embraces a core set of principles and performs well. A quality fidelity tool with valid scales can be a feedback loop to identify areas that need further work to improve the program. Using data collected from 1816 correctional and reentry programs in the United States in the construction sample and 761 programs in the confirmation sample, this study examined the internal consistency of the Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) Program Tool, an online resource to capture information about structural features of a program.

Substance use and firearm access among college freshmen.

Objective: Examine the proportion of students with rapid firearm access and associations with recent alcohol and marijuana use.

Participants: Cross-sectional data from college freshmen ( = 183) in 2020 who participated in the study.

Methods: Using logistic regression, associations were examined between past 30-day substance use and access to firearms within 15-min.

What Matters More in Explaining Drug Court Graduation and Rearrest: Program Features, Individual Characteristics, or Some Combination.

This study examines the program- and individual-level factors that impact the success of drug court clients in terms of: (1) graduation; and (2) not being arrested while participating in the court program. The data consist of 848 individuals in nine drug courts. This paper discusses how different individual- and program-level factors impact the success of drug court participants.

Drivers of County Engagement in Criminal Justice-Behavioral Health Initiatives.

Several large, county-level initiatives are underway to improve behavioral health care for justice-involved clients. Unfortunately, only about a quarter of counties participate in these efforts, leaving justice-involved populations at risk of poor mental health, substance use, and judicial outcomes. This study examined characteristics of 2,922 U.

Protocol for the Mason: Health Starts Here prospective cohort study of young adult college students.

Background: Young adulthood is a period of increasing independence for the 40% of young adults enrolled in U.S. colleges.

Multilevel Matching in Natural Experimental Studies: Application to Stepping up Counties.

Among many approaches for selecting match control cases, few methods exist for natural experiments (Li, Zaslavsky & Landrum, 2007), especially when studying clustered or hierarchical data. The lack of randomization of treatment exposure gives importance to using proper statistical procedures that control for individual differences. In this natural experimental study, which has a hierarchical structure, we plan to evaluate the efforts of 455 counties across the United States to make targeted efforts to improve mental health services and reduce jail utilization over time.

Protocol for a quasi-experimental, 950 county study examining implementation outcomes and mechanisms of Stepping Up, a national policy effort to improve mental health and substance use services for justice-involved individuals.

Background: The criminal justice system is the largest provider of mental health services in the USA. Many jurisdictions are interested in reducing the use of the justice system for mental health problems. The national Stepping Up Initiative helps agencies within counties work together more effectively to reduce the number of individuals with mental illness in jails and to improve access to mental health services in the community.

Learning Analytics to Assess Beliefs about Science: Evolution of Expertise as Seen through Biological Inquiry.

Epistemological beliefs about science (EBAS) or beliefs about the nature of science knowledge, and how that knowledge is generated during inquiry, are an essential yet difficult to assess component of science literacy. Leveraging learning analytics to capture and analyze student practices in simulated or game-based authentic science activities is a potential avenue for assessing EBAS. Our previous work characterized inquiry practices of experts and novices engaged in simulated authentic science inquiry and suggested that practices may reflect EBAS.

Predictive value of inflammatory markers for functional outcomes in patients with ischemic stroke.

Inflammatory processes have been proposed in the pathophysiology of ischemic stroke. The present study was designed to evaluate the relationship between tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin 6 (IL-6), IL 1 beta (IL-1β), and high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) with the prognosis and functional outcome in patients with less severe ischemic stroke. We measured the level of IL-1β, IL-6, hsCRP, and TNF-α on days 1 and 5 after stroke onset by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).