Methods: We will use both primary and secondary data for this study. A trained clinical assessment team will interview and evaluate youths at the juvenile hall. Additionally, de-identified administrative data from juvenile hall will be analyzed.

Significance: An estimated 18,200 minors are admitted to juvenile hall annually and access to publicly-funded adolescent inpatient psychiatric care is limited. These youth often have symptoms of more than one disorder and have higher rates of exposure to violence, abuse and neglect. The Juvenile Justice Pilot Screening Project was conducted to assess the feasibility of an on-site two-stage screening program at three juvenile halls and to provide preliminary estimates of mental health problems. However, this pilot study lacks a standardized screening measure in Spanish, provides little data to interpret how screening instrument scores relate to mental health service need, under-represents females, excludes youth entering juvenile hall because of placement failure or probation violation, and lacks follow-up with those with mental health problems.

The C-FOY Project seeks to address these limitations by conducting a validity study of the English and new Spanish version of the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-Second Version (MAYSI-2) as well as conducting a 3-month follow-up study examining mental health service use, changes in mental health problem symptoms, and recidivism among youth entering juvenile hall. Both studies will use gender-stratified random samples.

Impact: The Caring for Our Youth (C-FOY) Project aims inform service delivery planning for detained youth with mental health problems and support the development of quality improvement interventions.

Current status: Ongoing.

Principal Investigator:
Bonnie Zima, MD, MPH

Sponsored by:
Department of Mental Health