A Return to Rawls: Applying Social Justice to Mental Health Provision in the Youth Offending Service

Abstract

Mental health services provided through the Youth Offending Service (YOS) are inadequate to meet the needs of young offenders. The differing viewpoints of mental health and criminal justice are not incompatible, but require consideration in terms of how to work together. This has not occurred within youth justice, and there are tensions between the YOS and CAMHS. If the YOS structure better allowed for social justice approaches to occur within practice, these tensions could be avoided and the needs of young people better met. This research looked at the ways in which provision of mental health services impacts upon social justice within the YOS. A case study was constructed looking in detail at mental health provision, the challenges faced by mental health workers and their ability to overcome these problems. Mental health workers and managers within the YOS were interviewed to construct the case study. From this a number of issues were identified within practice that impact upon social justice, and how some youth offending teams had overcome them. From this both long and short-term suggestions and strategies for practice have been created to improve levels of social justice within youth justice practice.