(Chicago, IL) — August 10, 2009 – The New York Times‘ Solomon Moore reports that degraded funding for community mental health care has converted inadequate county jails and state prisons in treatment centers for youth struggling with mental health illness:

As cash-starved states slash mental health programs in communities and schools, they are increasingly relying on the juvenile corrections system to handle a generation of young offenders with psychiatric disorders.

About two-thirds of the nation’s juvenile inmates — who numbered 92,854 in 2006, down from 107,000 in 1999 — have at least one mental illness, according to surveys of youth prisons, and are more in need of therapy than punishment.

At least 32 states cut their community mental health programs by an average of 5 percent this year and plan to double those budget reductions by 2010, according to a recent survey of state mental health offices.

Juvenile prisons have … read more

(Chicago, IL) — Service providers who work with children and young adults will be among those in attendance for a Thresholds Institute conference July 18 – “From Cliff to Slope: Easing the Transition to Adulthood for Youth with Mental Health Needs.”

This conference will discuss best clinical and psycho-educational practices for young adults with mental illness to help young adults make educated choices.

The event will be co-sponsored by the Illinois Division of Mental Health and Department of Children & Family Services.

It will include a keynote address by Tanya R. Anderson, M.D., Illinois Division of Mental Health’s Acting Chief of Clinical Services.

More information on the one-day conference in Evanston is available by contacting Whitney Key at (773) 572-5138 or wkey@thresholds.org or by going to http://www.thresholds.org/pdf/clifftoslopesavedate.pdf