Implementation of the National Judicial Task Force to Examine State Courts' Response to Mental Illness Report and Recommendations
The Task Force made a number of important findings with corresponding recommendations supported by over 100 resources for courts and our partner stakeholders. Each Behavioral Health Alerts revisits an original Task Force resource or a new resource that supports a Task Force recommendation.
Measuring Your Progress Courts share the responsibility for identifying and moving individuals with mental health and co-occurring substance use disorders out of the justice system to treatment, yet many court systems do not fully understand the level of need for diversion programs or the need to collect data, share information, and track outcomes. Collecting, analyzing, and sharing data is essential to developing and enhancing court and justice partner collaborations to divert people with mental health and co-occurring and substance use disorders away from the justice system and into treatment.
Task Force Recommendations Implementation - Resources and News
New Dates Set for Decriminalizing Mental Illness: The Miami Model These two-day workshops in Miami provide an opportunity to hear directly from Judge Steve Leifman and his colleagues about Miami’s innovations in crisis response, diversion, civil off-ramps, competence to stand trial alternatives, and the effective use of peers. Attendees also visit the model wraparound services facility, the Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery. Most importantly, they learn how to engage in meaningful system change, and leave with a plan to implement new strategies in your jurisdiction. The new dates: October 11-12, November 7-8, and December 5-6. Contact Rick Schwermer at rschwermer@ncsc.org to hold a spot for your team.
Federal Judge is 'Deeply Concerned' About Suicides in Miami-Dade Jails U.S. District Court Judge Beth Bloom grilled county mayor Daniella Levine Cava about the county’s plan to open a mental health facility at a recent hearing, WLRN news partner the Miami Herald reports. Miami-Dade County previously told Bloom the facility [the Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery] — meant to treat people with mental illnesses rather than jail them — would be open earlier this year. That still hasn’t happened. Cava told Bloom the mental health facility may be opened by the end of this year, but she could make no guarantees.
Research and Resources
Now Available: 2024 CCBHC Impact Report New data from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing shows that Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) are improving access to care across the country, having served an estimated 3 million people in 40% of all U.S. counties last year. Through their documented ability to improve access to lifesaving substance use treatment, crisis services, integrated care, and other services for clients in urban and rural areas, CCBHCs are eliminating barriers to access for people in hundreds of communities. And the number of people those clinics serve continues to grow, according to the new report.
Diversion to Treatment When Treatment Is Scarce: Bioethical Implications of the U.S. Resource Gap for Criminal Diversion Programs Despite significant scholarship, research, and funding dedicated to implementing criminal diversion programs over the past two decades, persons with serious mental illness and substance use disorders remain substantially overrepresented in United States jails and prisons. Why are so many U.S. adults with behavioral health problems incarcerated instead of receiving treatment and other support to recover in the community? This paper explores this persistent problem within the context of “relentless unmet need” in U.S. behavioral health.
Beyond Problem-Solving Courts This Article argues it is time to stop trying to perfect problem-solving courts and to instead begin to close this door to the criminal courthouse altogether. This will require some radical honesty about what these specialized courts do —and do not do — and the ways this punishment model creates unintended harms. But this reckoning is also an opportunity to revive the experimentalist spirit that animated the earliest problem-solving courts and inspired judges to do things differently in the hopes of building a different future.
Applying Family Mediation to the Creation of Psychiatric Advance Directives Psychiatric advance directives (PADs) are used to plan for specific events when a person may lose the capacity to give or withhold informed consent for psychiatric treatment. A PAD can be created when an individual has the ability to consider their options for treatment and comes into use in the event of a mental health emergency. This Note proposes that, for individuals in the process of creating a PAD who have close family ties and seek their family’s involvement, mediation can be used where the individual values the opinions of their family members regarding their mental health treatment. The goal of applying mediation to these situations is to help individuals have productive conversations with their families about their intentions for future care. The mediation process can also serve to address concerns between the parties surrounding any potential disagreements.
CSG Justice Briefing Improving behavioral health outcomes; Hallie Fader-Towe selected to lead CSG Behavioral Health Division; Arkansas addresses recidivism; Supporting parents who are incarcerated; and more.
SAMHSA’s Webinar on Psychiatric Advance Directives to Promote Community Living In honor of the 25th Anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision, join us to learn how psychiatric advance directives (PADs) can promote community living! This event will describe the benefits and challenges of completing a PAD, highlight the role peers can play in advancing PAD usage, and share tools and innovations. Provider, advocate, and peer perspectives will be included.
June Webinar: Judge as “Life Coach” in AOT Assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) judges who go above and beyond to support AOT participants in their recovery. Join us as Judge Elinore Marsh Stormer of Summit County, OH facilitates a panel of AOT judges from across the country to discuss rapport-building, engagement strategies, and more as we explore the judge as “life coach” in AOT. As always, webinar participants will have an opportunity to ask questions.
The Living Room: Leveraging the Peer Workforce in Crisis Stabilization Organizations across the country are leveraging lived experience and peer supports to innovate and build robust ER alternative programs for Crisis Stabilization services. Join presenters from the National Council and Ellis Mental Health Services, to explore and discuss the Living Room Model, one such recovery-centered alternative, which has helped provide support to many individuals facing challenges related to mental health, substance use and serious mental illness.
Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use Program First Responder Deflection Mentor Site Selection Application The First Responder Deflection Mentoring Initiative is looking to add new mentors to the program. This program is focused on first responder- or community responder-led deflection and pre-arrest diversion initiatives that serve individuals with opioid, stimulant, and other substance use disorders, mental health disorders, and co-occurring disorders. Priority will be given to applicant deflection initiatives in rural areas that respond to stimulant use disorders and initiatives serving racially and ethnically diverse communities.
2024 Practitioner Training As a reminder, registration is now open for practitioner training from All Rise's Treatment Court Institute. These four-day in-person trainings will be held in Oklahoma City and facilitated by national experts. Research confirms that individualized training and role-specific education improves treatment court outcomes.
New FAQs on Medicaid and CHIP Coverage of Peer Support Services Available from CMS These FAQs were developed in close collaboration with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to provide clarification regarding federal policy on coverage of peer support services outlined in the State Medicaid Director (SMD) letter #07-011 issued on August 15, 2007, which established that states “have the option to offer [p]eer [s]upport services as a component of a comprehensive mental health and substance use service delivery system.”
Reducing the Number of People With Mental Illnesses in Jail: Six Questions County Leaders Need to Ask This new edition of “Reducing the Number of People with Mental Illnesses in Jail: Six Questions County Leaders Need to Ask” advances the original Stepping Up framework published in 2017 by embedding a racial equity lens and uplifting the voices of people with lived experience. It provides six guiding questions for county leaders, offers tips gleaned from counties across the country that answered the call to action, and addresses ongoing challenges.
Police Encounters and Individuals With Mental Health Disorders: Training Imperatives Proper departmental training and officer implementation of best practices ensures those encounters with individuals in mental crisis end safely and not as another headline. Reviewing courts have looked closely at police actions precipitating the use of force in situations involving individuals undergoing a mental health crisis. Courts have also considered department training and response protocols. This article focuses on the best practices that are being implemented to address these issues.
In the News
New Mexico Supreme Court Announces Pilot Project To Help Arrested People Obtain Care for Mental Illness A new court-based initiative will help guide people with severe mental illness to appropriate treatment and away from the criminal justice system when they are arrested for misdemeanor offenses in Doña Ana County. Court and county leaders today announced the competency diversion pilot project in the Doña Ana County Magistrate Court that will focus on adults charged with misdemeanor offenses, such as trespassing and petty theft, who have a history of mental illness and have previously been found incompetent to stand trial on criminal charges. “The goal is to empower people to lead safer and more productive lives by connecting them to behavioral health treatment and community services for food, housing, and other needs,” Supreme Court Justice Briana H. Zamora said. “Doing this promotes public safety by reducing rearrests and will lessen the strain on emergency rooms, courts, and law enforcement who otherwise may repeatedly interact with the same individuals struggling with mental illnesses.”
New Mexico Courts Could Soon Be Allowed to Have Someone Undergo Mental Health Treatment The Assisted Outpatient Treatment Act is a court-ordered treatment that tries to help reduce hospitalization and incarceration for people living with mental illness or battling drug addiction. The governor's proposal would allow a list of people, including parents, qualified professionals, and police officers, to file a petition with a district court asking them to require someone to undergo treatment. This assisted outpatient treatment proposal would also allow police officers to take people to a center instead of charging them with a misdemeanor.
They Were in a Mental Health Crisis at a Hospital. This Is How They Landed in Jail. Washington, like most states, has a law intended to protect health care workers. Instead, it’s led to prosecutions of people with severe mental illness. Under Washington state law, any assault on a health care worker can be a felony — including spitting, slapping, or other actions that might otherwise be treated as minor offenses with fewer consequences for the accused. From 2018 through 2022, county prosecutors filed 151 cases for felony assault on a health care worker. Court records show that 76% of these cases were filed against people with signs of serious mental illness. That included people who were involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility, were in an emergency room for a mental health evaluation, or had EMTs respond to their mental health crisis.
County Calling Reform to Law Driving Up Costs of Ensuring Defendants Are Mentally Competent to Stand Trial When a criminal suspect with mental health issues enters the justice system following an arrest, that defendant has a constitutional right to understand the proceedings whether the defendant eventually ends up accepting a plea offer or facing trial. Officials in Genesee County want to see the law changed because it is antiqued, and complying with it is expensive and less effective than more contemporary options for dealing with a defendant's mental health capacity. “We’re in a new era, and things need to change,” Lynda Battaglia, director of Mental Health & Community Services, told the committee. “We have more innovative services; we have diversion; we have mental health treatment courts. All of that can be utilized before a person even gets to court.”
Group Urges Lewiston Shooting Commission to Look at 'progressive Treatment Plan' A group whose members have been affected by severe mental illness in their families said an under-utilized program might have helped avert last October's mass shooting in Lewiston. Under a “progressive treatment program,” or PTP, the head of a psychiatric hospital, a doctor, or a police officer can ask the courts to order someone to undergo mental health treatment. The program is aimed at people who pose a “likelihood of serious harm” to themselves or others but are unlikely to voluntarily follow a treatment plan.
Investigating California's Mental Health Courts Amid concerns that some felony defendants could be misusing California’s Mental Health Diversion Court to have their violent crimes dismissed, a CBS News California investigation found that there is no reliable data to indicate how successful the state program is.
“Grateful To Be Alive”: Clubhouse Programs Take Pressure Off Overwhelmed Texas Mental Health Hospitals Thousands of people are discharged from Texas mental health hospitals yearly, and so-called step-down programs like clubhouses can help them integrate back into the community.
Wellbeing
Judicial Wellbeing Given the impact of judicial decisions in people’s lives and the pivotal role judicial officers play in our democratic system, courts arguably have a duty not only to individual judges but also to the wider community to investigate and promote judicial wellbeing. This curated collection of resources aims to support judicial officers’ understanding of their own wellbeing and the individual and systemic factors that affect judicial stress.
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