Fall 2010 - Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences - Case ...

Mental Health in theJustice SystemAmy Blank Wilson is an assistantprofessor at MSASS and recentlycompleted a National Institute of MentalHealth postdoctoral fellowship at theInstitute for Health, Health Care Policy,and Aging Research at Rutgers University.Dr. Wilson joined MSASS in July and isteaching Direct Practice classes thissemester. She has received extensivetraining in both quantitative andqualitative research methods and has worked on numerousprojects examining mental health services using thesemethods. Her dissertation used ethnographic researchmethods to examine how people with mental illness accessservices after release from jail. During her postdoctoral training,she examined the experiences of people with mental illnessesin jail using Medicaid claims and jail data. Her dissertationresearch raised a number of questions about the paritybetween the services available in the public mental healthsystem and those available to people with mental illnessinvolved in the criminal justice system and the barriers theseindividuals face when trying to access services upon release.Since completing her doctorate degree, Dr. Wilson has receivedfunding from the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economicsand the National Institute of Disability and RehabilitationResearch to explore the community participation of peoplewith serious mental illness leaving jail and the public mentalhealth system’s capacity to provide services to theseindividuals. There are several areas related to service deliverysystems and people who are either incarcerated or homelessthat she would like to pursue to build upon her earlier research.One critical area involves the identification requirements ofhealth and mental health services. Her study would examinethe expanded use of identification requirements in health andmental health care services and how these requirementsimpact people with serious mental illnesses and their access toservices, especially among those who are homeless or involvedin the criminal justice system.Dr. Wilson would also like to take the study further by testingthe feasibility of using observation research techniques to studyhow people with mental illness engage community resourcesand participate in community activities after release from jail.One aspect of this study would examine where this participationtakes place in relation to where individuals live. Because there istypically no “exit plan” for parolees, Dr. Wilson would compareand contrast how people with mental illness define their ownservice needs when they are released from jail and what kindsof strategies they use to meet these needs. These would thenbe compared with the goals and service strategies thatprofessionals who work with these individuals might develop.10 MSASS Action