There are currently more individuals diagnosed with severe mental illness (SMI) in jails and prisons in the United States than in hospitals [1]. Deinstitutionalization (explained in the next paragraph), changes in sentencing policy, the war against drugs and mass incarceration have all contributed to the dramatic increase in the number of mentally ill who are… Read more »
Tag: Mental Health
A new method of addressing mental health and crime
Imagine your friend, Alex, has bipolar disorder. Alex feels like the medication he has been taking gives him headaches and that getting high on pills works better, and he chooses to stop taking it as a result. Very soon, Alex’s symptoms begin to come back. To you he seems anxious and maybe even impulsive, but… Read more »
How do you get adolescents to meditate? Part 1
In the health behavior field, we often focus on what health professionals should help young people avoid, such as risk behaviors, rather than positive health behaviors that we could help them acquire. So, when I decided to start working on my PhD, and I wanted to study health promoting behaviors, I knew I would be… Read more »