This report provides evidence-based practices for screening and assessment of adults in the justice system with mental illness, substance use disorders, or both. It discusses the importance of instrument selection for screening and assessment and provides detailed descriptions of recommended instruments.

This brief provides an overview of Forensic Assertive Community Treatment (FACT)—an intensive service delivery model intended for people with serious mental illness who are involved in the criminal justice system.

This action brief provides rural communities recommended strategies for adapting promising or proven interventions to better support crisis response and pre-arrest diversion in their communities. It is the first of three briefs developed from the SAMHSA Pre-Arrest Diversion Expert Panel.

This brief provides an overview of workforce issues to consider when addressing the needs of older adults living with serious mental illness (SMI). Information includes demographics; challenges faced by a provider workforce, and ideas for strengthening the geriatric workforce to address SMI.

This brief provides guidance to state governments on increasing the availability of evidence-based medication-assisted treatment (MAT) in criminal justice (CJ) settings. By including the criminal justice system as a path to treatment, states may see an increase in access to and retention in treatment, and lower rates of overdoses, re-offending, and re-incarcerations. In this brief, states are provided an overview of the issue, the challenges to incorporating MAT, key considerations for establishing MAT in CJ settings, and existing standards/guidelines.

This guide provides information and practices that behavioral health providers can implement in their daily practice with patients or clients who are involved in the criminal justice system.

This guide helps local systems use data to implement Crisis Intervention Team programs that can improve the safety and effectiveness of law enforcement response to people experiencing behavioral health crises. It provides information about building necessary partnerships, documenting program activities, identifying key metrics, establishing data collection processes, analyzing and reporting data, using data to improve programs, and expanding capacity to collect and use data. The guide is a companion to Practice Guidelines: Core Elements in Responding to Mental Health Crises.

This Executive Summary to the 2017 report to Congress shines the spotlight on the critical issues and services for Americans with serious mental illnesses (SMI) and serious emotional disturbances (SED). The 2017 report to congress represents the starting point in a five-year process of improving the lives of people with SMI and SED. This 8-page summary delineates the five focus areas, each with 8-10 recommendations. These recommendations are from the non-federal members and represent common areas in which federal partners and stakeholders can work together to implement over the next five years.

This report shines the spotlight on the critical issues and services for Americans with serious mental illnesses (SMI) and serious emotional disturbances (SED), and the importance of concerted efforts by the federal government to address their needs. The report presents the current status of federal activities and a summary of advances in the care and treatment of people with SMI and SED. The report describes key advances in research and strategies to improve services to these individuals based on presentations given by the Interdepartmental Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee (ISMICC) members at the first ISMICC meeting.

The SAMHSA Spotlight Series highlights different approaches to building trauma-informed, resilient communities. This issue focuses on San Francisco's efforts to implement a trauma-informed framework to improve services and address trauma in the public health workforce.