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Brief 9: Practices And Policies For Dealing With Students With Mental Health Issues, New England Resource Center For Higher Education, University Of Massachusetts Boston

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

One of higher education’s crowning achievements is that colleges and universities are currently educating many groups of people who have been denied access to this resource in the past. A growing percentage of the new population of students arrives on campus with unique mental health needs, which until now campuses have been largely unprepared to accommodate. This new student profile may be more familiar to Student Affairs’ offices, but the educational implications extend to the whole campus. Members of NERCHE’s Student Affairs Think Tank discussed this topic at one of their meetings and offer the following insights.

From Correctional Custody To Community: The Massachusetts Forensic Transition Program, Stephanie W. Hartwell, Donna Haig Friedman, Karin Orr

New England Journal of Public Policy

Offenders with mental illness who are serving correctional sentences are released to the community.Without support systems linking their transition to community-based programs following release from prison, the services necessary for their community reintegration are often fragmented and attenuated. Nearly two thirds of all inmates return to prison, and offenders with mental illness face major challenges during reintegration and have an even more difficult time living in the community without specialized, informed services. This article describes a Massachusetts program designed to bridge the transition of offenders with mental illness from incarceration to the community.The authors review historical and recent trends that …

Characteristics Of Effective Employment Services: The Consumers’ Perspective, Jaimie Ciulla Timmons, Jennifer Schuster, Doris Hamner, Jennifer Bose

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

This monograph reports on a study investigating the characteristics of effective state service systems. Findings are based on the experiences of individuals with disabilities who have used a state agency (Vocational Rehabilitation, Department of Mental Retardation, Department of Mental Health, or One Stop Center) to find employment. Interviews were conducted to examine individuals' experiences with employment services including job search, job entry, strategies that facilitated involvement, supports provided, and barriers experienced. Findings indicated five key components to effective service delivery, including agency culture, consumer-directedness, access to resources, quality personnel, and coordinated services. Obstacles faced during the employment process and personal …

Vocational Rehabilitation Outcomes For People With Mental Retardation, Cerebral Palsy, And Epilepsy: An Analysis Of Trends From 1985 To 1998, Dana Scott Gilmore, Jennifer Schuster, John Butterworth

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

This monograph presents the results of secondary analysis of the RSA-911 database from the Rehabilitation Services Administration. All successful VR closures for individuals with mental retardation, cerebral palsy, and epilepsy for six data points between 1985 and 1998 were investigated. Trends in competitive labor market and extended employment (sheltered workshops) closures were examined. The use of supported employment in the VR system and its outcomes were also discussed. Findings include increased incidence of competitive labor market closures and supported employment services, with a decrease in extended employment closures.

Comparisons of successful VR closure outcomes to trends in the general labor …