Funder: Massachusetts Office of the Child Advocate (OCA)
Project Team: Gina Vincent, PhD (PI), Thomas Grisso, PhD, Kayla Carew, BA
Description: The Law & Psychiatry team has been working with the MA Office of the Child Advocate and the Department of Youth Services to develop, implement, and sustain evidence-based screening and assessment practices for the Youth Diversion Lab in Massachusetts. This is a pre-arraignment diversion practice designed so youth who do not need high levels of intervention to prevent further delinquency can avoid formal involvement with the juvenile justice system. The Law & Psychiatry Program team assisted the agencies with the design and implementation of their behavioral health screening, risk/needs for reoffending assessment, and case planning protocols. These practices include the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-Version 2 (MAYSI-2), the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI) and its screening version, and risk-need-responsivity-based case planning. The implementation support includes developing a master trainer model and providing case plan reviews and staff coaching for sustaining these practices with fidelity.