A study published in the April 01, 2006 issue of Health Services Research found evidence of a positive relationship between religious service attendance and the outcome of outpatient mental health care. Author Sharon L. Larson reports that among patients with serious distress, there was a strong association with religious beliefs and the use of outpatient care and medication, indicating that mental health care policy initiatives may be able to build upon the structures and referral processes that presently exist in many religious organizations. .

             The vast majority of numerous studies that have investigated the relationship between religious involvement and mental and emotional well-being have found a positive association, and a decreased likelihood of experiencing a mental health disorder. .

             Moreover, studies of patients with diagnosed psychiatric disorders have also found that religious involvement is associated with better mental health outcomes over time. Other studies indicate that while religious providers play a fairly small role in the mental health care delivery system, contact with these providers represents a crucial entry point into the formal mental health care system. In fact, according to epidemiologic data from the National Comorbidity Survey, approximately 25 percent of people first turned to religious providers for help with their mental or emotional problems. .

             Larson's study confirmed that findings of previous studies concerning the association between mental health and religious beliefs, and found strong support for the hypothesis that religious attendance, "irrespective of frequency" is positively related to the use of mental health services among individuals with serious distress (Larson 2006).

             In the April 12, 2006 issue of the Wisconsin State Journal, attorney Todd Winstrom, a former correctional mental health clinician currently specializing in the needs of inmates with mental illness for Disability Rights Wisconsin, reports that the Department of Corrections does not provide adequate treatment for the more than 5,000 inmates with mental illness incarcerated in Wisconsin's prisons.