MHM Enters the Forensic Market
By Michael S. Pinkert, Chairman & CEO
June 1, 2008 -- With the acquisition of Forensic Health Services (FHS) in Braintree, Massachusetts, MHM has formally entered the forensic healthcare market. FHS has been working with us as a subcontractor in both our Massachusetts and New Hampshire contracts. They brought a level of expertise into areas of forensic evaluation and treatment that was necessary to win these contracts, and have worked alongside us since these contracts started in 2007.
FHS, which has nearly 200 employees, was founded by Dr. Joel Haycock, a nationally recognized expert in forensic behavioral health. Joel has agreed to continue to be available to us for the next couple of years in an advisory capacity. Judith Willison, who has been with FHS since 1996 and is currently their Director of Program Development and Quality Assurance, will be taking over for Dr. Haycock in running FHS.
Hal Smith will be moving from MHM Clinical Operations to our new Forensic Health Services Division, and will be ultimately responsible for FHS and other forensic health services MHM will be providing.
FHS provides services to a wide range of clients, including court systems, prisons, jails, community programs (including re-entry and diversion), and city governments, such as New York City. These services include sex offender treatment, qualified examiner services, and juvenile diversion, consultation and training.
Forensic mental health refers to mental health services provided to inmates who have been sentenced, as well as to inmates who have been found incompetent to stand trial or those who have been adjudicated as not guilty by reason of insanity. The market for these services includes programs for civilly committed offenders, such as sex offenders, as well as for free standing facilities such as Bridgewater State Hospital (an MHM/FHS client).
The services and staff that FHS provides are highly regarded in the forensic industry. It is our plan to look for opportunities for FHS to expand both to markets we currently service as well as into new untapped areas.
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PBS Documentary Features MHM Client and Medical Director
Frontline Program, "The New Asylums," May 2005. View the program at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/asylums/view/
Described by FRONTLINE reporters as "the new asylums," correctional facilities are now the center of increasing media attention and public concern for the treatment of mentally ill inmates. Recently, the PBS news documentary program, FRONTLINE, focused on the treatment services dedicated to addressing this mounting problem by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC). The program featured inmates in treatment, mental health professionals who provide services, as well as ODRC administrators who must meet the mental health needs of a growing number and percentage of inmates, while at the same time promoting public safety and budgetary control.
MHM Correctional Services, Inc. (MHM) provides psychiatric staff and services for 18 of the 23 total facilities in Ohio. During the program, MHM Medical Director, Gary Beven, MD, recounts the progress that has been made in Ohio, while describing the special treatment challenges facing correctional mental health. MHM’s clients, Director Reginald Wilkinson and Mental Health Bureau Chief Debbie Nixon-Hughes, talk about the important role that correctional agencies must now play within a broad array of state and community-based agencies serving the severely mentally ill.