The mental health female offender needs are growing. To trace the mental health problem to its original cause, researchers has found that often times the mental health problems are linked to the offender’s childhood “surveys conducted among incarcerated women have consistently shown a strong link between childhood abuse and adult mental health problems, particularly depression, posttraumatic stress, panic, and eating disorders.” (Messina, 2006). Mental health counseling is not a one program fits all kind of fix. This program is designed specifically for those female offenders that are in need of mental health assistance for their mental health problems of depression, Posttraumatic stress disorder PTSD, and in some cases eating disorders. When identifying PTSD disorder that a female offender may have, the offender is evaluated using a formula that check for life-stressor events that would have occurred during the childhood. …show more content…
There is a four-item screening process to determine PTSD’s presents. Those events would indicate that indeed there were life stressors or criterion-related signs for PTSD or those with co-occurring substance abuse as well “Individuals with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are at more than 4 times the risk for substance use disorders (SUD) than the general population” (Kimerling, 2006). As indicated, a female offender diagnosed with PTSD is often associated with substance abuse and the two together can become a gateway to crime. The two comorbid components combined can make it difficult for a counselor to separate the two conditions in order to treat them separately. Female offenders with drug abuse or mental health issues, when it come to employment, opportunities are limited, “mental health problems account for a substantial portion of the difficulties female drug users face in obtaining employment” (J. Matthew Webster, 2007). When that opportunity for employment occur, the decision has to be made “do I tell of my issues or not.” At times when the issues are disclosed, question will be about the illness instead of the ability to do the