Promising results from new UK prison study

May 14, 2012

A team from the United Kingdom have published results from a pilot randomized trial testing the feasibility of using a brief version of CTI with persons with mental illness following release from prison. Sixty prisoners were randomly assigned to receive either a brief CTI intervention or usual discharge planning services. The study aimed to see whether the intervention would effectively connect mentally ill prisoners with social, clinical, housing and welfare services during the first weeks following release.  Results showed that a higher proportion of persons assigned to CTI were connected to services than were those assigned to usual services. In addition, those assigned to CTI were more likely to be receiving medication and to be registered with a general practitioner. The team is currently in the midst of a full-scale randomized trial that will more conclusively test the model with a larger number of research participants.

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