Collaboration Between Mental Health Service Providers and Community Supervision Officers: A Two-state Comparison

• In Event: Integrating Justice and Care: Mental Health, Supervision, Reentry, and Recovery for Vulnerable Populations

Abstract

Specialized mental health supervision (SMHS) requires community supervision officers (CSOs) to collaborate with mental health (MH) service providers to link supervisees to treatment. Given wide variation in MH and community supervision systems across states, jurisdictions likely face diverse cross-agency collaboration challenges that impede SMHS implementation. To assess this variation, we compare cross-agency collaboration challenges in two states. The research team used content analysis to analyze semi-structured interviews with staff from community supervision and MH service providers in GA (n=23) and NC (n=40). Interviews explored reasons for collaboration between CSOs and MH providers, factors affecting collaboration, and strategies to overcome collaboration challenges. In both states, participants described similar forms of collaboration (e.g., service referrals, compliance checking), factors impacting collaboration (e.g., agency culture, staffing practices), and recommendations to enhance collaboration (e.g., cross-training, networking). Despite similarities, participants described structural differences in the states’ MH and community supervision systems and how these entities promote collaboration. Despite structural differences in the states’ MH and community supervision systems, collaboration challenges were notably similar. Findings suggest that service linkage may be inherently difficult to implement in SMHS, regardless of context. Furthermore, similarities in strategies for addressing collaboration challenges indicate innovations could be adopted across diverse SMHS contexts.

Authors

• Allison Waters, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Nicholas Powell, Georgia Department of Community Supervision

• Caroline Harris, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Tonya Van Deinse, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill