Caring for Youth with Behavioral Health Needs in the Juvenile Justice System: Improving Knowledge and Skills of the Professionals Who Supervise Them was developed by the National Center for Youth Opportunity and Justice as part of the Center’s Research to Practice Brief series. Seventy percent of justice-involved youth have at least one diagnosable mental illness. With 800,000 people under the age of 18 arrested in 2017, a substantial number of youth with behavioral health issues are regularly brought into contact with juvenile justice professionals. These professionals often lack necessary training to best serve their roles and youths’ needs when such conditions are present.

Caring for Youth with Behavioral Health Needs in the Juvenile Justice System offers analyses of this situation and of a training program designed to improve it, the Mental Health Training for Juvenile Justice (MHT-JJ). The curriculum is an 8-hour, interactive training that covers adolescent development, childhood trauma, mental and substance use disorders, effective interventions, practical strategies for working with youth and their families, and self-care approaches to mitigate the harmful effects of secondary traumatic stress in staff.

  • Associated Mappings:
    • Critical Intervention Mapping for Youth

This resource was first shared in 2020.

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