State Mental Health Agency Responsibility for Forensic Mental Health Services

One of the 15 new State Mental Health Profiles reports released by NRI focuses on State Mental Health Agency (SMHA) responsibilities for forensic mental health services. Forensic mental health services refer to evaluation activities, including forensic evaluations or treatment services provided to individuals with mental illnesses who are involved with the criminal or juvenile justice system. In 25 states, the State Mental Health Agency (SMHA) has primary responsibility for the provision of forensic mental health services to adults, whereas, in 13 states, the SMHA shares the responsibility for the provision of mental health assessments and treatments for criminal justice involved adults with the state department of corrections. SMHAs use a variety of treatment delivery settings to treat forensic clients and sex offenders. The most common setting SMHAs use is a state psychiatric hospital that provides treatment to forensic clients and sex offenders.

This new NRI State profiles “State Mental Health Agency Responsibility for Forensic Mental Health Services” report is available at www.nri-inc.org/profiles. This report is one of 15 new Profiles reports available to the public. SMHA staff have exclusive access to additional state-by-state information that are summarized in the public reports. There are detailed reports available about SMHA initiatives about Competency to Stand Trail and Competency Restoration available on the Profiles website. For more information about the State Profiles system, please e-mail [email protected].