Manual of Forms and Guidelines for Correctional Mental Health

This compendium of forms, guidelines, and procedures for use in clinical correctional mental health settings has been specifically designed to provide guidance in documentation and procedures for administrators, clinicians, and correctional officers. Unlike texts with a more theoretical bent, "Manual of Forms and Guidelines for Correctional Mental Health" focuses on practical applications and provides the tools for putting them to work. This book represents the first attempt to collate such information based on input from correctional mental health providers across the United States and reflects the experience of contributors from a variety of settings, allowing users to compare their current practices with those of their professional counterparts.

Review :
"As promised in the preface by the editors, this handbook is intended for clinicians, administrators, and custody personnel working in correctional mental health settings to provide useful tools and forms to include in a correctional mental health healthcare tool box. I must applaud their methodologies and selection of appropriate and useful tools and forms, and I highly recommend and support this handbook to provide essential information to staff in such instituions to promote the provision of quality services to meet the constitutional rights of inmates and detainees. Many of the contributors are well known to the correctional mental health community and their contributions are extraordinary. Chapters focus on areas that are important to the achievement of quality and adequate access to mental health care and the assessment and treatment planning processes for these populations. This handbook is a "must" for dedicated clinical and correctional staff who provide care and custody in "It is difficult to compare this work with any others as it is relatively unique for this specific patient population. Undoubtedly working in these clinical environments creates new and difficult challenges, not the least of which is documenting accurately and appropriately, and this manual provides templates and other useful tools for this purpose. Of particular value is the CD-ROM, which allows users to customize their own documents using the basic framework provided by the authors. Chapters are succinct, but dense, and give ample suggestions about some of the best ways to record data which will be useful to others for treatment. This is a very worthy effort and correctional facilities of all kinds would benefit from having this manual as a reference for their mental healthcare providers."-- "Doody Enterprises, Steven T. Herron, M.D.", "October 2010" "The " Manual of Forms and Guidelines for Correctional Mental Health" provides practical advice for the development of processes and procedures related to assessment and mental health treatment in jails and prisons. Basic as well as advanced information is provided and both are discussed thoroughly and illustrated with numerous helpful examples. Discussions are clinically focused, practical and relevant for mental health practitioners of all disciplines. Examples include appropriate documentation and common pitfalls, errors and omissions. The sample forms that are included may be used as reference materials or templates. This will be a much used and welcomed addition to the libraries of all mental health practitioners working in correctional settings."-- "Kathryn A. Burns, M.D., M.P.H., Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at both the Ohio State University and Case Western Reserve University"