Stephanie Cross

Title : Report on jr substance use disorder & treatment needs

Abstract:

This report is a snapshot of clients who were in either a Juvenile Rehabilitation (JR) institution or community facility in Washington State on Aug. 11, 2021 (N=332).

While this study does indicate that some clients with high treatment need are receiving treatment, the majority of these clients with SUD treatment needs were not receiving treatment (64%) at the studied moment in time. This study also found that clients initially scoring as having little or no treatment needs are often later identified as having a SUD treatment need, showing the possible benefit of administering screening tools that are more exhaustive. JR is encouraged to reexamine the current SUD assessments being used (GAIN-SS and ASUA) to ensure the assessments are accurately identifying clients with SUD treatment need and in a timeframe that provides the client with a greater opportunity to access treatment.

It is clear that JR needs to find ways to expand evidence-based SUD treatment services to a larger proportion of the JR population. This can be accomplished with more SUD treatment dedicated staff and more funding dedicated to evaluating current SUD treatment programs and expansion options. JR is currently onboarding significant resources from targeted funding for SUD treatment in the form of nine full time employees in institutions, re-classifying all SUDPs for retention, and increasing aftercare at community facilities and within the community through community-based contracts.

Biography:

Stephanie Cross graduated in 2007 with a MS in Administration of Justice, specializing in statistics/research methods from Portland State University (PSU) in Portland, Oregon and then went on to work as a research associate for the United States Sentencing Commission in Washington, DC.  In 2011 Stephanie moved back to Portland to pursue her Ph.D in Public Affairs and Politics specializing in Criminal Justice at PSU.  She taught both Crime Analysis and Theories of Crime during her time as a doctorate student at PSU.  In 2016 Stephanie moved to Olympia, Washington where she was a juvenile justice analyst for Washington’s Statistical Analysis Center, eventually moving on to work for Washington’s Dept. of Children, Youth, and Families where she currently does research in conjunction with Seattle Children’s hospital, focusing on substance use disorder among juvenile justice youth.