OBJECTIVE People who have been wrongly incarcerated report exceptionally poor mental health, and despite having been exonerated, they face discrimination similar to other formerly incarcerated people when seeking housing and employment opportunities. The current audit study was designed to test whether exonerees likewise face discrimination when seeking mental health treatment. HYPOTHESES Therapists will reply less often to treatment inquiries from exonerees and parolees compared to another prospective client with the same symptoms and trauma history-and when therapists do reply, they will less often be willing to meet with exonerated or paroled help seekers. METHOD We emailed 752 therapists across the United States while posing as a man seeking therapy for the mental health symptoms most commonly reported by exonerees. By random assignment, this help seeker had been either incarcerated and paroled, wrongly incarcerated and exonerated, or working as a first responder (control). For each email, we noted whether the therapist replied and, if so, the speed and length of the reply. We also content analyzed all replies for predetermined themes, including willingness to meet. RESULTS Overall, therapists replied less often to exonerees (50.6%) than to first responders (62.9%) or parolees (61.1%), who did not differ (V = .11). Therapists' replies also differed in their willingness to meet (V = .13), such that inquiries from first responders would more often result in a meeting with a therapist (31.7%) compared with inquiries from exonerees (19.6%) or parolees (21.0%). CONCLUSIONS Exonerees' staggering rates of mental illness may be compounded by lesser treatment access. Therapists' reluctance to assist exonerees may reflect stigma and/or perceived incompetence. Our data highlight the need to destigmatize wrongful conviction, empower clinicians to treat exonerated clients, and advance legislation and other means to expand exonerees' access to mental health care. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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对错误监禁者心理健康治疗障碍的审计研究。


目标 被错误监禁的人报告心理健康状况异常糟糕，尽管已被无罪释放，但他们在寻求住房和就业机会时仍面临与其他前被监禁者类似的歧视。目前的审计研究旨在测试无罪释放者在寻求心理健康治疗时是否同样面临歧视。假设 与具有相同症状和创伤史的其他潜在客户相比，治疗师较少回复无罪释放者和假释者的治疗询问，而且当治疗师做出答复时，他们也不太愿意会见无罪或假释的求助者。方法 我们假装成一名男性，向美国各地的 752 名治疗师发送了电子邮件，寻求针对无罪释放者最常报告的心理健康症状的治疗。通过随机分配，这名求助者要么被监禁并假释，要么被错误监禁并被无罪释放，要么担任急救人员（对照）。对于每封电子邮件，我们都会记录治疗师是否回复，如果回复，则回复的速度和长度。我们还对所有预定主题的回复进行了内容分析，包括见面的意愿。结果 总体而言，治疗师对无罪释放者 (50.6%) 的回复频率低于对急救人员 (62.9%) 或假释者 (61.1%) 的回复，后者没有差异 (V = .11)。治疗师的答复在会面意愿方面也有所不同 (V = .13)，因此与无罪释放者 (19.6%) 或假释者 (21.0) 的询问相比，急救人员的询问更常导致与治疗师会面 (31.7%) %）。结论 被释放者的精神疾病发病率惊人，可能因为治疗机会较少而变得更加复杂。治疗师不愿帮助无罪者可能反映出耻辱和/或被认为无能。 我们的数据强调需要消除错误定罪的污名，授权临床医生治疗无罪的客户，并推进立法和其他手段以扩大无罪者获得精神卫生保健的机会。 （PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。