Exploring the identification, validation, and categorization of the cost and benefits of criminal justice in mental health: the PECUNIA project

Abstract

Background Mental health disorders and their treatments produce significant costs and benefits in both healthcare and non-healthcare sectors. The latter are often referred to as intersectoral costs and benefits (ICBs). Little is known about healthcare-related ICBs in the criminal justice sector and how to include these in health economics research. Objectives The triple aim of this study is (i) to identify healthcare-related ICBs in the criminal justice sector, (ii) to validate the list of healthcare-related ICBs in the criminal justice sector on a European level by sector-specific experts, and (iii) to classify the identified ICBs. Methods A scientific literature search in PubMed and an additional grey literature search, carried out in six European countries, were used to retrieve ICBs. In order to validate the international applicability of the ICBs, a survey was conducted with an international group of experts from the criminal justice sector. The list of criminal justice ICBs was categorized according to the PECUNIA conceptual framework. Results The full-text analysis of forty-five peer-reviewed journal articles and eleven grey literature sources resulted in a draft list of items. Input from the expert survey resulted in a final list of fourteen unique criminal justice ICBs, categorized according to the care atom. Conclusion This study laid further foundations for the inclusion of important societal costs of mental health-related interventions within the criminal justice sector. More research is needed to facilitate the further and increased inclusion of ICBs in health economics research.

Harmonization issues in unit costing of service use for multi-country, multi-sectoral health economic evaluations: a scoping review

“…Examples for intersectoral costs and benefits (ICBs) resulting from healthcare interventions that affect the education sector could include special education services and the costs for student transport to the education facility [56,57]. Criminal justice inter-sectoral costs compromise costs for court proceedings, police services, or forensic services [56,58]. The methodology for the valuation of health-related service use in the education and (criminal) justice sectors is less established.…”

Establishing a comprehensive list of mental health-related services and resource use items in Austria: A national-level, cross-sectoral country report for the PECUNIA project

“…In contrast, the search for the CJ sector was not limited to a specific study design. Summaries of the main methodological characteristics of the conducted systematic literature searches and their necessary sector specific adaptions are presented in S1 Table . Full descriptions have been published elsewhere [33,34]. They included sector-specific, peer-reviewed publications and were conducted at sector level to serve as a scientific foundation.…”

A Semiautomated Classification System for Producing Service Directories in Social and Health Care (DESDE-AND): Maturity Assessment Study

“…However, the aggregation and comparison of services from a whole system’s perspective is not an easy task, as shown by previous developments in disability or functional dependency in Europe [ 9 , 10 ], older adults [ 11 ], and mental health and chronic care [ 12 ]. These attempts have been recently extended to education [ 3 ] and justice [ 4 ] where similar problems have been identified.…”