Publications and Digital Products

The book is composed of SAMHSA’s “National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care: Best Practice Toolkit” and related papers on crisis services. The toolkit reflects relevant clinical and health services research, review of top national program practices and replicable approaches that support best practice implementation. The related papers address key issues relevant to crisis services, homelessness, technology advances, substance use, legal issues impacting crisis services, financing crisis care, diverse populations, children and adolescents, rural and frontier areas, and the role of law enforcement.

This Advisory highlights how mental and substance use disorder treatment programs can better serve people with physical and cognitive disabilities and substance use disorders (SUDs) and/or serious mental illness (SMI).

This Advisory can help clinicians who work in a mental health facility implement a tobacco cessation program to reduce the use of tobacco-related products and tobacco-related diseases among clients with SMI.

This manual provides a starting place for jurisdictions looking to use data to better understand and improve the outcomes of people with mental and/or substance use disorders who come into contact with the criminal justice system. 

This guide focuses on using medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder in jails and prisons and during the reentry process when justice -involved persons return to the community. It provides an overview of policies and evidence-based practices that reduce the risk of overdose and relapse.    

This report provides evidence-based practices for screening and assessment of adults in the justice system with mental illness, substance use disorders, or both. It discusses the importance of instrument selection for screening and assessment and provides detailed descriptions of recommended instruments.

This document provides state by state information on implementation of intensive care coordination using a wraparound approach for children and youth with complex mental and substance use disorders. 

This brief provides guidance to state governments on increasing the availability of evidence-based medication-assisted treatment (MAT) in criminal justice (CJ) settings. By including the criminal justice system as a path to treatment, states may see an increase in access to and retention in treatment, and lower rates of overdoses, re-offending, and re-incarcerations. In this brief, states are provided an overview of the issue, the challenges to incorporating MAT, key considerations for establishing MAT in CJ settings, and existing standards/guidelines.

This guide provides information and practices that behavioral health providers can implement in their daily practice with patients or clients who are involved in the criminal justice system. 

This guide helps local systems use data to implement Crisis Intervention Team programs that can improve the safety and effectiveness of law enforcement response to people experiencing behavioral health crises. It provides information about building necessary partnerships, documenting program activities, identifying key metrics, establishing data collection processes, analyzing and reporting data, using data to improve programs, and expanding capacity to collect and use data. The guide is a companion to Practice Guidelines: Core Elements in Responding to Mental Health Crises.