The Wayne State University School of Social Work Center for Behavioral Health and Justice provides local communities, organizations, and behavioral health and law enforcement agencies across Michigan with the following services to optimize diversion of individuals from jail and prison through the implementation of best and innovative practices at every intercept of the criminal justice continuum.

• Expertise
• Evaluations
• Support
• Training
• Technical Assistance

We encourage to peruse our website and learn more about the impact of the Center for Behavioral Health and opportunities for you to get involved. 

Vision

The Center for Behavioral Health and Justice envisions communities in which research, data, and best practices are used by multiple collaborators to enhance the optimal well-being of individuals with mental illness and/or substance use disorders who come in contact with the criminal/legal system. 

Mission

As facilitators of community change, our mission is to ensure that individuals with mental health and/or substance use disorders are treated with dignity, respect, and justice and that they receive needed services. 

We work in five ways in order to have the broadest impact: 

1. We work collaboratively.
   We bring together diverse collaborators to influence systems change.
    
2. We bring to the table the best-of-the-best.
   We gather together staff, faculty, and community expertise in evidence-based and best practices to lead, guide and support local communities' change efforts. 
    
3. We harness the power of real-time data.
   We help collaborators from a variety of disciplines make sense of complex, often disconnected data so that they can access programs, evaluate outcomes and make real-time data driven decisions.
    
4. We offer a social work lens on transformation.
   We use social work values along with a multi-disciplinary approach to explore solutions and help communities create a new vision for what is possible. 
    
5. We seek out and share new strategies and solutions.
   We provide systems mapping, action planning and other technical assistance to maximize collaborator effectiveness.