This application requests funding for a Mental Health and Criminal Justice (MH-CJ) postdoctoral training program that provides mentored, cross-training to doctorate-level investigators who are committed to developing the capacity to develop, conduct, and fund services and intervention research on the dynamic between the mental health and criminal justice systems. The training program would be situated in the NIMH-funded Center for Mental Health Services & Criminal Justice Research, a joint venture among Rutgers University, the University of Pennsylvania (PENN), and the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The Center focuses exclusively on mental health services issues that arise when persons with mental illness have encounters with the CJ system. The proposed MH-CJ post-doctoral training program, a collaboration between Rutgers and the PENN, requests funding for six post-doctoral trainees. This application seeks support to develop a MH-CJ post-doctoral training program that will contribute to the national capacity to conduct MH-CJ services and intervention research using a multi-system-disciplinary actor perspective. Specifically, our aims are to: 1. Build a High Quality MH-CJ Post-doctoral Training Program; 2. Develop the Theory base and Collaborative """"""""Research Style"""""""" of MH-CJ Services/Intervention Researchers; 3. Develop the """"""""Research Skills"""""""" of MH-CJ Services/Interventions Researchers; and 4. Develop the """"""""Professional Skills"""""""" of MH-CJ Services/Interventions Researchers. It is expected that the proposed MH-CJ post-doctoral training program will yield as its final outcome a cadre of MH-CJ services/intervention researchers who are prepared to develop research projects that (a) focus on problems that are central to practice and policy; (b) build stakeholder networks that help frame the research questions and facilitate the development and conduct of related research; (c) conceptualize the research question using a multi-disciplinary-system-actor approach; (d) incorporate the most appropriate research methods; and (e) translate into externally funded research. ? ?
