Mental health courts have recently emerged as one means to reduce the number of persons with mental illness in the criminal justice system. Using a posttest only comparison group design, this study examined rearrest rates for 1 year post discharge among three groups meeting admission criteria for a municipal mental health court. The rearrest rate of defendants who successfully completed the program (N=351) was 14.5%, compared to 38% among defendants negatively terminated from the program (N=137), and 25.8% among defendants who chose not to participate (N=89). This positive result held even when controlling for a range of variables in a Cox regression survival analysis. Factors associated with rearrest are identified for each of the three groups.

Over the last 15 years, social scientists increasingly have used focus groups as a method for collecting qualitative data. With focus groups, a moderator uses the group process with a small number of participants to stimulate discussion and obtain information on the beliefs, attitudes, or motivations of participants on a specific topic. Based upon a review of a sample of social work articles, researchers used focus groups to study a wide range of topics, with diverse and vulnerable populations, and in combination with other qualitative or quantitative methods. Although focus groups have limitations, they have the potential to be an important qualitative data collection method to capture information about the variety of issues and populations dealt with by the social work profession. In addition, social work researchers have the potential to further develop focus groups as a qualitative research method.

Participation in treatment planning can be one means of empowering clients. However, significant barriers exist to empowering people with severe mental illness through treatment planning. This qualitative study reviewed documents and conducted focus groups with clients and staff of a public psychiatric hospital to identify barriers to empowerment and the conditions that must be present for client empowerment to occur through treatment planning. The conditions for empowerment were based on both psychological and organizational factors. For empowerment to occur, clients need psychiatric stability and decision-making skills. Organizations promote empowerment by ensuring that clinical staff have the time to involve clients in treatment planning, promoting staff attitudes that are respectful of clients' ability to participate in treatment planning, providing clients with a range of treatment options, designing programs that have a strong philosophical commitment to client empowerment, and implementing programs properly.

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