A Randomized Trial of Specialty Mental Health Probation: Measuring Implementation and Effectiveness Outcomes

Although the research on specialty mental health probation (SMHP) is promising, there have been no randomized controlled trials (RCT) of the prototypical model advanced in the research literature and little focus on SMHP implementation. This study assesses the adoption of SMHP in two counties and examines its impact on mental health and criminal justice outcomes. Researchers conducted a RCT within a hybrid implementation-effectiveness study to examine intervention adoption as well as mental health treatment engagement and criminal justice outcomes for 100 individuals with serious mental illnesses on probation in one rural and one urban county in a southeastern state. Randomization produced equivalent treatment (n = 47) and control (n = 53) groups with no statistically significant differences between groups on demographic or background characteristics. Compared to standard probation officers, SMHP officers addressed the mental health needs of individuals with serious mental illness (i.e., adoption) at higher rates (p < 0.001). Compared to individuals on standard caseloads, individuals on SMHP had a higher rate of mental health engagement (e.g., mental health assessment, attending treatment appointment; p < 0.050); however, more individuals on SMHP caseloads had a new crime violation during follow-up compared with individuals on standard caseloads (p < 0.01). In conclusions, results suggest successful adoption of the intervention and increased mental health engagement among those on SMHP caseloads. Results are consistent with the mixed findings on the impact of SMHP on improving criminal justice outcomes.