Introduction: Innovative Treatment Approaches in Forensic and Correctional Settings

Mental health professionals who work with individuals in forensic psychiatric and correctional facilities often need to develop treatment approaches that differ from those implemented in other settings. Interventions in forensic-correctional settings must strike a balance between addressing identified clinical treatment needs and managing challenging or dangerous behaviors and physical safety concerns. To provide appropriate treatment while managing risk, clinicians often adapt established interventions and develop innovative programs and therapy interventions. The interventions developed under such conditions can be well-grounded in theory, built upon established and evidence-based methodologies, and effective. However, despite the effort, knowledge, creativity, and resources put into their development and often demonstrable therapeutic benefits, many of these interventions never receive exposure outside of the treatment settings where they are applied. After a pressing clinical or administratively prioritized need is addressed, the limited resources applied to such programs may be redeployed. Interventions may be discontinued, stripped of resources, or altered until they become unrecognizable. Such interventions may disappear without ever being adequately documented and without formal research demonstrating or validating their effectiveness.