Supplemental Mental Health Treatment for Batterer Program

PROJECT SUMMARY 2002-MU-MU-0002

Approximately one quaarte of the men sent to batterer counseling would qualify for mental healyh treatment. Te nature and extent of such treatment, has not, however, been documented and its effective has not been nature and extent of such treatment, has not however, been documented and its effectiveness has not been wvaluated. the purpose of this research is to, describe the nature and extent of mental health treatment obtained by batterers with diagnosable mental disorders, and to test the rlative effectiveness of such mental health treatment for batterer program participants through an experimental clinical trial. Court-Ordered counseling supplement with mental health treatment will be compared to the batterer counseling only. At batterer program intake , men court -ordered to batterer counseling in Pittsburg will be screened fro mental health disorders using the Psychiatric Diagnostic Screening Questionnaire and Brief Sympton Inventory (N=400). Those men who show evidence of a disorder on the self-report instrument will be randomly referred to a local mental health outpatient clinic for assessment and appropriate treatment. First, a descriptive study f the mental health treatment will summarize the clinical diagnoses, prescribed treatment, and treatment coompliance of court-ordered batterers using the batterer's clinical records obtained from the outpatient clinics. Second, the effectiveness of the mental health treatment will be tested using a 12 month follow up study design. Phone interviews with batterer's femal partners will be conducted at risk 3-month intervals to determine re-assault, and arrest records will be obtained and coded to determine further criminal offense.