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A new study from Florida Institute of Technology has found that criminal defendants who graduated from mental health court demonstrated substantially reduced re-arrest rates a full three years following their release, the longest period of post-program behavior examined in a published study involving mental health courts and the clearest indicator yet of the potential for diversionary programs to ease the burden on the nation’s overcrowded prison system.

Additionally, the study from Florida Tech’s Julie Costopoulos, an assistant professor in the university’s School of Psychology, and doctoral student Bethany Wellman found that for those who participated in mental health court, prior criminal behavior, no matter how serious, was not an indicator of post-release recidivism.

And even when they re-offended after failing to complete the full complement of treatment and support, participants committed less serious crimes in doing so, the study found, with the severity of offenses declining the longer they had remained in the mental health court.

“Jail doesn’t stop crimes by the mentally ill, treatment does. Yet jails and prisons are now the largest mental health treatment facilities in the United States,” Costopoulos said. “We know mental health court not only reduces jail overcrowding, it also helps participants find support to live independently and successfully while getting treatment. And now, with our study, we have shown that mental health courts also reduce arrests by the mentally ill, regardless of how much they have offended in the past.”

Read more on MedicalXpress.com. Read the abstract of the study.

The epidemic of opioid addiction in the US, which has reached never before seen heights in the past two years, has put an immense strain on the already resource-starved US health care system. Among the most devastating consequences of this crisis has been the thousands of children who lose their parents to addiction every day. These children have flooded the foster care system, and their cases have exhausted social services.

According to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in 2012, 397,000 U.S. children were in foster care. By 2015, that number had risen 8 percent, to 428,000. There is no concrete data yet for 2016; however, experts predict that the past two years—the height of the opioid epidemic so far—has increased that number dramatically.

A recent study published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that in 14 states the number of foster kids rose by more than a quarter between 2011 and 2015.

States that are experiencing a massive influx of children into protective custody all face similar problems, with varying degrees of severity. None are equipped with the resources to adequately deal with the crisis. Three of the hardest hit states have been Maine, Florida, and Ohio.

Read more on WSWS.org.

Disparities in mental health care are greater than in most other areas of healthcare services, especially in communities of color. Mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety, remain one of the highest health burdens for minorities. The social inequalities for risk appear to increase with age, and the social disadvantages of being Latino in the U.S. increase the risk for common mental disorders across a person’s lifespan.

While barriers to alleviate mental disorders exist for everyone, they are even more pronounced for minorities who might have fewer socioeconomic resources.

Despite the need for mental health services, minorities are not seeking medical care. Even when they do seek treatment, they are less likely to receive adequate mental health care and tend to drop out of treatment two to three times more frequently.

Compounding this problem are the physical health disparities that minorities face: They are 1.2 times more likely to be obese and 1.5 times more likely to have diabetes. Moreover, research shows they are more likely to be sedentary, and they are not pursuing changes in their physical activity. Mental illness often occurs with these chronic, physical illnesses, leading to a high degree of impairment and decreased quality of life.

Read more on MiamiHerald.com.

The Center for Juvenile Justice Reform (CJJR), in partnership with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s (OJJDP) Center for Coordinated Assistance to States, has issued a request for applications for jurisdictions seeking to engage in system improvement efforts through the Multi-System Collaboration Training and Technical Assistance Program (MSC-TTA). This program supports jurisdictions that are interested in developing a sound infrastructure to promote multi-system approaches to serving at-risk and justice-involved youth and their families. CJJR will provide distance learning training and technical assistance at no cost to a cohort of as many as six jurisdictions to help them:

• identify gaps in policy and practice,
• enhance information sharing capacities,
• explore how key decision points impact the trajectory of the youth currently being served,
• develop an evaluation strategy for tracking system- and youth-level outcomes, and
• sustain long-term system change.

Deadline to apply is August 11, 2017.

Read more on CJJR.Georgetown.edu.

Hospitalizations involving opioid pain relievers and heroin increased 75 percent for women between 2005 and 2014, a jump that significantly outpaced the 55-percent increase among men, according to a new report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

Because of the accelerated rates among women during that 10-year period, women and men were hospitalized at virtually the same rate nationwide in 2014 – about 225 hospitalizations per 100,000 people, according to AHRQ’s analysis.

“As the report makes clear, over the past decade, opioid abuse has affected both sexes and all age groups,” said AHRQ Director Gopal Khanna. “The crisis, however, looks different in different places.  AHRQ’s data can help frontline providers, researchers and policymakers know more about the trends and patient characteristics among people being hospitalized or visiting the ED because of opioids, and plan interventions accordingly.”

AHRQ’s report, which provides the most current national rates on opioid-related hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits, also includes data that illustrate wide variation by state. Among those findings:

• In 2014, opioid hospitalization rates among women were highest in West Virginia, Maryland and Massachusetts. Each of those states reported rates exceeding 350 hospitalizations per 100,000 people.
• Among men, the highest hospitalization rates in 2014 were in the District of Columbia, New York and Maryland, each of which reported rates higher than 440 hospitalizations per 100,000.
• The lowest hospitalization rates for both men and women were in Iowa and Nebraska. 
• Men were more likely to make opioid-related visits to emergency departments in 2014, though ED visit rates increased sharply for both sexes between 2005 and 2014.
• The age-group most likely to have an opioid-related hospitalization varied substantially across states. In 13 states, including California, people 65 years old and older were the most likely to be hospitalized.
• In all states reporting on opioid-related visits to emergency departments, the rate was highest among adults age 25-44 years.

AHRQ’s new data are summarized in “Patient Characteristics of Opioid-Related Inpatient Stays and Emergency Department Visits Nationally and by State, 2014” (pdf), a statistical brief from the agency’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP).

The data in AHRQ’s report are drawn from the agency’s Fast Stats, a database that displays national and state health statistics The online resource includes overall trends in opioid-related hospital stays and emergency department visits as well as breakdowns by age, sex, community-level income and urban versus rural residency. More than 40 states contribute to the Fast Stats website.

Read more on AHRQ.gov. Read the full report (pdf).

It’s been 36 years since HIV/AIDS first popped up in the US. The disease quickly spiraled into an epidemic, but medical advances have since made HIV controllable with medication — especially if diagnosed early.

An estimated 1.1 million Americans currently live with HIV in the US, however, and thousands still die from AIDS every year.

AIDSVu, a project run by Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health in partnership with biotech company Gilead Sciences, has been mapping HIV by county since 2010. On Wednesday, it released its newest data — the maps show the prevalence of HIV as of 2014, as well as new diagnoses from 2008 to 2015. Here’s what the researchers found: Dr. Patrick Sullivan, the project’s lead researcher, told Business Insider that southern states are disproportionately affected by HIV; In fact, the five cities with the highest rates of new diagnoses are all in the south: Miami, Jackson, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Atlanta; Sullivan also said that one age group is experiencing a disproportionate amount of new diagnoses: Those between the ages of 13 and 24.

In addition to providing a breakdown of HIV prevalence in the US, the project also maps out where testing centers are, as well as where people can get access to preventive treatments.

Read more on BusinessInsider.com. View the maps on AIDSVu.com.