Abstract Text: Background: Forty-four counties are defined by New York State Department of Health as rural. The jails in these counties are often staffed by clinicians who are not psychiatrists. For this reason, rural criminal justice systems may face proportionately greater problems than their urban counterparts in providing psychiatric care to inmates with mental illness. Although studies have presented conflicting findings, criminalization of the mentally ill may be more prevalent in rural than in urban settings. This could be due to the fact that rural communities may also have fewer specialized psychiatric resources available to mentally ill persons who come through the criminal justice system. Aims: To provide information to assist in designing a training program to improve mental health care in rural jail settings, compare these needs to those of urban jails, and propose a training program to address these needs. Methods: Rural and urban jail mental health providers in Upstate New York will be interviewed utilizing a structured questionnaire. Variables of interest are the psychiatric resources available to providers in each type of setting and the perceived needs for training in the mental health care of inmates. Descriptive statistics of the areas and outcome data from the interviews will be presented. Information regarding the availability and qualifications of mental health providers and the specific types of forensic psychiatry training needs, as identified by health care providers, will be used to propose a model for such training.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the presentation, participants will be able to: 1. Define the prevalence of mental illness in the rural jails in NYS and obtain data on criminal justice outcomes for those individuals. 2.Describe the unmet needs for mental health care in rural jail settings. 3.Articulate strategies for addressing these unmet needs. Outcomes will include: 1. Assessment of current mental illness screening and care in rural jails in New York State. 2. Description of training content for jail physicians in the evaluation of mental illness. 3. Indentification of possible training models that may be useful in improving the skills of jail practitioners. 4. Analysis of statistics on mental illness in rural jails
Keywords: Mental Illness, Forensic Populations
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Rural jails in New York state
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.