Providing Mental Health Training to State and Local Juvenile Justice Systems

OJJDP's Juvenile Justice System Improvement Grants program was established to provide grants and cooperative agreements to organizations that provide programs and services critical to the mission of OJJDP, and organizations that OJJDP has selected for funds in prior years. This program will be authorized by an Act appropriating funds for the Department of Justice.

The Mental Health Training Curriculum for Juvenile Justice (MHTC-JJ) - developed and tested by the Models for Change Mental Health/Juvenile Justice Action Network through support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, was created to address training needs gaps for juvenile justice staff who supervise youth in juvenile detention and correctional facilities. The MHTC-JJ is an eight hour training focused on adolescent development, mental health disorders and treatment, the important role of families, and practical strategies for engaging and interacting with youth. In 2011, the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice (NCMHJJ) received support from OJJDP and the MacArthur Foundation to train juvenile correctional and detention trainers on MHTC-JJ in 10 competitively selected sites. The NCMHJJ used a train the trainer approach to train over 350 local and state trainers on the MHTC-JJ. These trainers, in turn, trained over 2400 staff on the MHTC-JJ as of September 30, 2013. NCMHJJ will expand this training initiative to new sites and states using a Train the Train model to teach trainers to use the curriculum. To enhance the impact of the training strategy, a slightly modified approach to the program approach will be used to increase the amount of support offered to the selected sites pre and post training; increase the amount of time the expert trainers spend on site; and provide additional support to trainers to enhance their effectiveness in delivering the MHTC-JJ.
NCA/NCF