Help on a position paper

You are the Director of Mental Health Halfway House which deals drug addicts with brain disorders that have found their way into the criminal justice system. The patients in this program were diverted from incarceration into prison because a clear link was established between the drug offenses they committed and their mental illness. Mental illness is often a reason for the individual to turn to substance abuse. The majority of your inmate/patient population requires medication to maintain a semblance of social function and to be allowed to leave the facility to work and see family members. You must continually evaluate the participants of the program utilizing the Axis criteria and the patient evaluation from the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) Scale (DSM-IV, 1994, p. 32). The GAF is broken into ten groups from 0 to 100. A person in the category from 91-100 would be perfect mentally. This is not normally found with anyone. The person found in the category of 0-10 which is the opposite would be a persistant danger to everyone around them including themselves. They would be completely dysfunctional socially and unable to work. As the director you are required to use the GAF to monthy evaluate the ability of your charges to remain in the program.