News

NYC Commissioner Mattingly boosts support for "home-based and community-based treatment" programs

August 16, 2009
The New York Times
Letters to the Editor

To the Editor:

Research demonstrates that delinquent youth with mental health issues can be far more effectively helped by home-based and community-based treatment than in correctional institutions. That is why in 2007 the Bloomberg administration began the Juvenile Justice Initiative, which provides treatment at home as an alternative to incarceration for juvenile delinquents.

Treatment for these youth, many of whom have been diagnosed with mental illness, is provided by trained clinicians with small caseloads who help families with obtaining appropriate psychiatric services. This reduces recidivism by 30 to 70 percent (far better than the 90 percent re-arrest rate for youth placed in juvenile prisons), and provides treatment for a fraction of the cost, while more successfully addressing antisocial behavior and teaching caregivers for these youth how to manage the symptoms of their children’s mental illness.

By wrapping services around the youths and their families in the community, therapeutic gains can be sustained after treatment ends.

John B. Mattingly
Commissioner, New York City
Administration for Children’s Services
New York, Aug. 11, 2009