Juvenile Justice Mental Health Initiative - JJMHI
Through a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), YNC operated the Juvenile Justice/ Mental Health Initiative (JJMHI) from September 2005 to November 2006. JJMHI operated through twenty-two youth services provider organizations at thirty-eight sites throughout Illinois.
JJMHI enabled the Youth Network Council (YNC) and its statewide division, the Illinois Collaboration on Youth (ICOY) to support the provision of mental health services, such as: assessment; psychiatric and psychological evaluation; treatment; prescription medication management and case management to adolescents involved with, or at risk of involvement with the juvenile justice system. Prior to the inception of this initiative the local community agencies that received these youth did not have the resources to offer mental health diagnoses or treatment to continue services. Through an extensive and comprehensive evaluation component, JJMHI tracked service data to validate program effectiveness. Data from the independent evaluation of the initial phase of the JJMHI, released in April 2007, show that, approximately 90% of the youth served did not offend or re-offend while participating in the program.
