Weaving together different disciplinary perspectives in an exploration of integration between mental health and criminal justice systems in Norway

Offender mental ill health is a major societal challenge. In Europe, there are unacceptably high numbers of people in contact with the criminal justice system who have mental health issues with almost 9 out of 10 prisoners demonstrating signs of at least one mental disorder. This is far higher than the average population level of mental illness and as such represents an area of severe health inequality within the EU. This is attributable to less than optimum levels of organisational and professional integration between mental health (MHS) and criminal justice systems (CJS). In this paper we introduce an EU funded project exploring levels of integration and collaborative practices between the mental health and criminal justice systems in the Norwegian context. This knowledge will contribute to the development of a pedagogical framework to underpin training that prepares professionals in both systems to deliver collaborative practice in the interest of the mental health of the offender population. We focus here specifically on the development of the research framework underpinning this study, borrowing from techniques that guide a narrative synthesis, to combine key theoretical perspectives from innovation, collaboration, integration and competency based education disciplines. The overarching research framework and its operationalization through specific research questions, potential research designs, methods and sampling structure are then presented and future research directions discussed.