The Worldwide Research Evidence on Working with People with a Mental Illness in Probation

Three narrative systematic reviews were undertaken in the following fields: mental health, suicide and substance misuse. In this chapter, the findings from the reviews and the subsequent discussion have been condensed. The aim is to underline the paucity of ‘effectiveness’ research in the broad field of mental health in probation around the world. It is argued that ‘effectiveness’ research in the field of health lends itself to quantitative methods. This is not the predominant paradigm used in probation research.