Levine, Eliot
Jett, Catherine http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9580-2684
Johnson, Jeremiah
Connors, Heather
Funding for this research was provided by:
Guardian Community Trust
Article History
First Online: 20 December 2019
Compliance with Ethical Standards
:
: All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.
: This study is a retrospective analysis using a de-identified data set and does not meet the criteria for human subjects research. The UMass Donahue Institute received de-identified, individual level data from Guardian Ad Litem Services (GAL). All participants in this study are clients of GAL whose mental illness has reached a level of severity that a guardian/conservator has been assigned. Upon enrollment in the GAL program, each individual’s conservator meets face to face with GAL staff and is presented with release forms from each hospital that the individual has been a patient in, as well as from the Department of Corrections. GAL staff verbally explain that these release forms allow GAL to obtain medical and legal data about its participants, which is used both to aid in case management of the individual and in analyses of program effectiveness. Data are only collected from institutions for which appropriate release forms have been signed.