Justice and Mental Health

PART I: THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM AND THE MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM

Standard 7-1.1. Terminology

(a) Unless otherwise specified, these Standards adopt the definition of “mental disorder” found in the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association.* In the settings addressed by the Standards, mental disorder is most likely to encompass mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorders; developmental disabilities that affect intellectual and adaptive functioning; and substance use disorders that develop from repeated and extensive abuse of drugs or alcohol or some combination thereof.

(b) “Mental health professional,” as used in these Standards, includes psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and psychiatric nurses and other clinicians with expertise in the evaluation and treatment of mental disorders.

(c) “Mental health evaluation,” appearing throughout the Standards as “evaluation,” means an evaluation by a mental health professional of an individual accused of, charged with, or convicted of a criminal offense or detained by the police for the purpose of assessing:

Amends the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004 to: (1) expand the assistance provided under such Act, and (2) reauthorize appropriations for FY2016-FY2020.

Authorizes the Attorney General to award grants to establish or expand: (1) veterans treatment court programs, which involve collaboration among criminal justice, veterans, and mental health and substance abuse agencies to provide qualified veterans (preliminarily qualified offenders who were discharged from the armed forces under conditions other than dishonorable) with intensive judicial supervision and case management, treatment services, alternatives to incarceration, and other appropriate services, including housing, transportation, job training, education, and assistance in obtaining benefits; (2) peer to peer services or programs to assist such veterans in obtaining treatment, recovery, stabilization, or rehabilitation; (3) practices that identify and provide treatment, rehabilitation, legal, transitional, and other appropriate services to such veterans who have been incarcerated; and (4) training programs to teach...