By Bethany Growns, Jeff Kukucka, Richard Moorhead, Rebecca K. Helm

Background: Wrongful criminal conviction can signifi-cantly impair the mental health of exonerees. However, much less is known about wrongful accusation: the impact of wrongful legal allegations or investigations—absent con-viction—on mental health outcomes.Method: To address this gap, we surveyed 101 victims of the Post Office Scandal in the United Kingdom who were wrongly accused, convicted and/or investigated for finan-cial ‘losses’ that were actually caused by software errors.

Results: Most respondents reported clinically significant post-traumatic stress (67%) and depressive (60%) symptoms—irrespective of the outcome of their case. These results suggest that both wrongful accusation and wrongful conviction can significantly impair mental health.

Conclusion: Our findings have important implications for victims of the Post Office Scandal and highlight the unique needs of people impacted by flawed convictions and flawed legal accusations. Our findings underscore the need to pro-vide exonerees with holistic postrelease support and demon-strate that this support should also be extended to victims of wrongful accusation.

Legal and Criminological Psychology Volume 29, Issue 1 Feb 2024

By of Justice Assistance

Co-occurrence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorder (SUD) are very common, so it is crucial that SUD treatment providers incorporate initial PTSD screening and ongoing PTSD symptom monitoring. Doing so will allow for early intervention opportunities and better long-term outcomes. PTSD and SUDs often occur together, and an individual with diagnosed PTSD-SUD faces several associated long-term health risks. As a result, SUD treatment providers should consider PTSD screening at the beginning of treatment programs as well as ongoing PTSD symptom monitoring. Screening and monitoring for PTSD-SUD will allow for early intervention using strategies that are tailored for a dual diagnosis. Lifetime PTSD is a common psychiatric diagnosis (occurring in approximately 6.1 percent of adults), with even higher rates among rural, low-income communities. PTSD alone is associated with several adverse health outcomes, but individuals with PTSD also are likely to suffer from other disorders, including substance use disorders (SUDs). Individuals with both PTSD and an SUD (PTSD-SUD) report more severe long-term functional impairments than individuals with only one of these diagnoses. In addition, SUD recovery rates are much lower in people with PTSD than in those without.

Washington, DC: BJA, 2023. 6p.