LaConda Fanning, MA RNC, Mental Health Services, Sentara Healthcare, 600 Gresham Drive, Norfolk, VA 23507, (757)668-2051, lafanning@sentara.com

Has the juvenile justice system assumed the role as the mental health system for many of the “at risk youth?” This is a question raised by many mental health and juvenile justice professionals. More than one million juveniles come in contact with the juvenile justice system each year and more than one-hundred thousand of them are placed in detention and correctional facilities (Cocozza, 1997). Research suggest that at least one out of five youth in the juvenile justice system is experiencing a serious mental disorder that interferes with their functioning and for whom access to mental health services is critical (Cocozza & Skowyra, 2000). This has resulted in a reliance on juvenile correctional facilities to care for these youth. This presents a significant shift and challenge to the young adult penal system. In a response to this new conundrum, many juvenile justice systems have initiated specialized programming; curriculum based treatment modalities and centralized assessment techniques. This study utilized a program centered administration consultation to evaluate the clinical utility of the care delivery system of youth with mental health needs within secure confinement. This presentation demonstrates how the juvenile justice system can utilize and evaluative process to explore and identify the clinical efficacy of current treatment modalities, key components of model programming and offer recommendations and preliminary findings to integrate research into practice

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