Victims of Crime Recovery Program Decreases Risk for New Mental

Abstract

Mental illness is pervasive among trauma populations and is linked to worse outcomes and recidivism. The Victims of Crime Advocacy and Recovery Program (VOCARP) prospectively provides patient services such as educational materials, compensation, advocacy and mental health care to patients with physical injuries. The purpose was to assess for relationship between resource use and development of mental illness after injury. Two control groups: a random selection of patients who did not use VOCARP (n=212) and 201 patients with non-violent trauma were obtained. Over 22 months 1,019 patients utilized VOCARP. Of all 1,432 patients, 43% had preexisting mental illness, and 17% had a new or worsening mental illness after injury. Patients with VOCARP use had more preexisting mental illness (47% vs. 35%, p<0.01), particularly depression and stress disorders. Conversely, VOCARP use was associated with lower rates of mental illness post-injury (15% vs. 22%). Following injury, VOCARP users had more stress disorders (57% vs. 37%), but less depression (25% vs. 41%) and suicidal ideation (7% vs. 24%), all p<0.05. 113 patients (11% of 1,019) used mental health services, which was associated with lower recidivism for new violent injury (4.4% vs. 11.7%, p=0.016). On regression analysis, unemployment (OR: 0.61, p=0.012) and use of VOCARP services (OR: 0.54, p=0.008) were predictive of decreased risk for new mental illness. Mental illness is pervasive among patients with injuries resulting from violence. VOCARP programming appears beneficial for limiting risk of new mental illness after injury.