Center for Behavioral Health and Justice

We envision communities in which research, data and best practices are used by multiple stakeholders to enhance the optimal well-being of individuals with mental illness and/or substance use disorders who come in contact with the criminal/legal system. As facilitators of community change, our mission is to ensure that individuals with mental illness and/or substance use disorders are treated with dignity, respect and justice and that they receive needed services. We work in five ways in order to have the broadest impact: I. We work collaboratively. We bring together diverse stakeholders to influence systems change. II. We bring to the table the best-of-the-best. We gather together staff, faculty and community expertise in evidence-based and best practices to lead, guide and support local communities’ change efforts. III. We harness the power of real-time data. We help stakeholders from a variety of disciplines make sense of complex, often disconnected data so that they can assess programs, evaluate outcomes and make real-time data driven decisions. IV. We offer a social work lens on transformation. We use social work values along with a multi-disciplinary approach to explore solutions and help communities create a new vision for what is possible. V. We seek out and share new strategies and solutions. We provide systems mapping, data collection/analysis, action planning and other technical assistance to maximize stakeholder effectiveness.