Improving Evidence Based Mental Health Screening and Treatment for Persons with Mental Disorders in the Justice System (R01) | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), released this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to support research focused on improving how evidence-based mental health care is actually delivered within the justice system. The core aim is not to invent brand-new therapies, but to test practical, real-world strategies that make proven screening tools, diagnoses, treatments, services, and suicide prevention approaches work effectively in criminal justice and juvenile justice environments. In other words, the emphasis is on implementation and service delivery: figuring out what systems, workflows, staffing models, training approaches, and adherence supports lead to better mental health outcomes when the setting is a jail, prison, detention center, probation/parole supervision, or a reentry program.

The FOA is particularly interested in three justice-related settings. First is incarceration or detention, which includes jails, prisons, and juvenile detention facilities. Second is community corrections, specifically probation and parole, where people are supervised in the community and often face barriers to consistent treatment. Third is transition or reentry programs that help people move from incarceration back into the community, a period widely recognized as high-risk for relapse, crisis, and suicide. While all three settings are eligible, NIMH highlights a special priority for studies that address delivery of mental health treatment during incarceration, reflecting the urgent need to improve care behind the walls where access is constrained and suicide risk can be elevated.

The kinds of projects NIMH is seeking are studies that directly test the effectiveness of strategies to improve mental health screening and diagnosis, the delivery of evidence-based treatments and services, and patient adherence or engagement with those treatments in justice settings. This can include evaluating approaches that increase accurate identification of mental disorders at intake, ensure people receive appropriate evidence-based psychotherapy and/or medication management, reduce drop-off in care, and build continuity between correctional and community providers. The FOA also explicitly calls out suicide prevention during incarceration as an area of interest, supporting research that can strengthen suicide risk detection, monitoring, and intervention practices within facilities. Importantly, the target conditions are those commonly encountered in justice populations, where there are already mental health interventions with proven effectiveness in non-justice settings, and the research question becomes how to implement them effectively under justice-system constraints.

This opportunity uses the NIH Research Project Grant (R01) mechanism, which is typically suited for more mature, larger-scale research projects with strong preliminary rationale and a clear plan to test effectiveness. The FOA runs in parallel with a companion announcement of the same scientific scope, RFA-MH-11-061, which uses the R34 mechanism (Pilot Intervention and Services Research). In practical terms, that pairing signals that NIH is supporting both pilot-stage work (R34) and fuller-scale effectiveness testing (R01), depending on how developed the proposed strategy and evidence base already are.

In terms of funding, NIMH anticipated committing about $3,000,000 in total costs in fiscal year 2011 across this FOA and its companion announcement, with an expected 4 to 5 total awards. The listed award ceiling is $500,000. There is no cost sharing or matching requirement, which means applicants are not required to contribute non-federal funds as a condition of the award. The catalog number associated with this program is CFDA 93.242 (Mental Health Research Grants), which is a standard NIH mental health research assistance listing.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of organizations that could plausibly partner with justice agencies or operate within justice environments. Eligible applicants include for-profit organizations (including small businesses), nonprofit organizations (including those with and without 501(c)(3) status), private and public institutions of higher education, state and local governments (state governments, counties, cities or townships, special district governments, independent school districts), and public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities. Tribal entities are included, such as federally recognized Native American tribal governments and tribal organizations, along with tribally controlled colleges and universities (TCCUs). The eligibility language also points to inclusion of Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, regional organizations, eligible federal agencies, and U.S. territories or possessions. This wide eligibility is consistent with the reality that justice-based mental health research often requires partnerships among universities, correctional agencies, community providers, and local government systems.

Key administrative details from the announcement include the funding opportunity number RFA-MH-11-060 and a posted/created date of August 26, 2010. The original and current closing date listed is November 30, 2010, and the archive date is December 31, 2010. The issuing agency is the National Institutes of Health, with NIMH as the institute leading the scientific program. For additional details, the FOA directs applicants to the full announcement at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-MH-11-060.html, and provides NIH Office of Extramural Research (OER) webmaster contacts for technical access or linking issues.

Overall, this FOA is designed for research teams that can rigorously evaluate how to implement and sustain evidence-based mental health practices in correctional and community supervision environments, with a strong preference for work that improves treatment delivery during incarceration and addresses high-impact needs such as accurate screening, engagement/adherence, continuity of care, and suicide prevention.

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