Juvenile Offenders
Of the more than 120,000 incarcerated youth (ages 13-20) over 40% have been shown to have identifiable mental disorders. These disorders include not only psychiatric conditions ie., Axis I conditions such as schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, and ADHD but developmental disorders such as autistic spectrum disoders (ASD) and mental impairments (diminished capacity due to cognitive impairment). This has become of concern due to the lack of adequate care provided to these youth during their incarceration which results in these youths being held accountable for behavior they are unable to control. This can result in violent youth commiting more and more seriously violent crimes they are unable to clearly understand or stop. Youth with ASD being unable to successfully participate in PPC treatment because of limited social skills.
Experience
Dr. Alessi has been involved with juvenille offenders and mental health issues for over 25 years. His interest started when he was a fellow in child and adolescent psychiatry and he functioned as a consultant at a local training school. Susequently he participated in a study to characterise the psyhcopathology among these youth versus those in a state hospital. This study carried out with Mike McManus MD, Lex Grapentine MD and Arthur Brickman PhD between 1981 and 1982 resulted in a number of scientific publications and presentations showing the frequency of psychpathology, the degree of neuropsychological impairment and how this compared to a psychiatric institutional population. The psychopathology was more severe in the training schools and yet they received less care. Since that time many studies using the same strategies have demonstrated similar findings.
Dr. Alessi has worked in the same training school both in the delivery of direct care to these youth, but also to help in the development of an integrated system of care that deals with both the criminality of these youth and their psychopathology. Not surprisingly their are few programs to our knowledge that can successfully deal with these issues at the same time. Whereas the first hurdle was the identificantion of the conditions in the youth, the most significant issue is the development of integrated treatment plans that can be implemented by the youth specialists that work directly with the youth. Dr. Alessi has worked with the staff but most importantly he has worked with Dr. Tony Rome and Ms. Diane McGhee both veterans in the criminal justice and juvenile justice fields. Together they have developed new integrated standard operating procedures (SOP) that facilitates the integration of care through a new behavioral health record, integrated comprehensive clinical review meetings and staff education about mental and developmental conditions in these youth.
Service
Our sustained interest has spanned over thirty years. We understand often the expertise we have to deal with this problem is not readily available. For those agencies interested we can provide a review of your program and work to develop an integrated state of the art program. It is clear that after 30 years the problem has not gone away. We hope to provide a bridge for your agency to move forward and form a foundation that will allow you to keep pace with the future direction of mental health issues.
Those interested in a consultation contact our office.
Phone: 1-734-222-6222
Fax: 1-734-222-6224
email: office@nlessimd.com