Consensus Project October 2010 Newsletter
Each month, the Justice Center spotlights high-quality collaborative criminal justice/mental health initiatives that have received funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance's Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP). Justice Center staff members ask the practitioners in these programs to discuss some successes and challenges they have encountered in the planning and implementation process. This month's profile is from the Alabama Department of Mental Health and the Alabama Administrative Office of Courts, a 2009 planning and implementation grantee.
Project Summary:
The Alabama JMHCP project aims to build capacity for state-level training and technical assistance for jurisdictions interested in or already operating mental health courts or mental health diversion programs. On October 13–15, 2010, the Alabama Department of Mental Health and Alabama Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) hosted the first Alabama Mental Health Court Conference. John Houston, commissioner of the Alabama Department of Mental Health (DMH), and Callie T. Dietz, administrative director of courts, opened the conference by stressing the importance of cross-system collaboration in times of jail and prison overcrowding and diminishing resources. About 150 judges, attorneys, treatment providers, and community corrections officers from around the state participated in two-and-a-half days of presentations and breakout sessions led by national experts and practitioners from existing Alabama mental health courts. The conference agenda is available here.
In the next year, the Alabama grantees will prepare for a second conference scheduled for the fall of 2011, continue development of a technical assistance "toolkit" that will include sample forms and access to existing state and national resources, and develop suggestions for standardized data collection across Alabaman mental health courts.
The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs' Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) has named its 2010 grantees under the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP), which was authorized by the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004 (MIOTCRA).
The 2010 grantees span sixty-two jurisdictions from thirty-nine states. Of these, twenty-two communities received planning grants with a maximum award of $50,000 for twelve months, twenty-seven received planning and implementation grants, with a maximum award of $250,000 for thirty months. Thirteen communities received expansion grants, with a maximum award of $200,000 for twenty-four months. All grants required a joint application from a mental health agency and the unit of government responsible for criminal and/or juvenile justice activities. View the full list of 2010 grantees.
The Council of State Governments Justice Center's Criminal Justice/Mental Health Consensus Project will provide technical assistance to the new grantees.
This is the fifth round of grantees funded through MIOTCRA. Through funds appropriated in FY2009, BJA awarded forty-three grants in thirty states under JMHCP. Through funds appropriated in FY 2008, BJA awarded twenty-three grants in eighteen states (and Guam) under the JMHCP. Read more about previous JMHCP grantees on the Consensus Project's local programs database.
In August, the Justice Center launched a new online discussion forum, where policymakers and practitioners from across the country can exchange ideas, ask questions of each other and national experts, offer comments and suggestions, and network around their collaborative criminal justice/mental health initiatives. The forum, funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Justice Programs, U. S. Department of Justice, can be accessed here.
Take a look at what's currently being discussed on the forum:
Question: "Wondering if anyone else is using Wraparound in Juvenile Justice settings? If so, from which 'silo,' 'department,' or 'agency' are Wrap team members hired? Mental Health or Juvenile Justice?"
Response: "We have been using an intersystem wrap model with Juvenile Corrections for the last 7 years. We include Juvenile Corrections, Mental Health, Schools, and Child Protection. Other systems are included as needed. Funding for MH professionals in probation and secure detention is shared by the courts and MH. These workers provide SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment) for youth and families in the court. They also facilitate a coordinated care plan for youth entering the system and provide direct MH services. Ohio has multisystem Family and Children First Councils in each county. Each council has an adopted service coordination plan based on high-fidelity wrap models which is available and used by the MH workers and team. Having our workers embedded at the court has been highly effective in not only servicing kids and families, but in solidifying intersystem relationships so that we automatically think about issues from a coordinated perspective. Relationships are the key to success. .."
To read more of this thread, or post a response, please click here.
To start your own discussion, click here.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health (TA Partnership) is pleased to announce a new series of publications designed to help system of care communities meet the mental health and related needs of young people involved or at risk of involvement with the juvenile justice system.
The series currently features three briefs, authored by the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice:
Addressing the Mental Health Needs of Youth in Contact With the Juvenile Justice System in System of Care Communities
Cocozza, J.J., Skowyra, K. R., & Shufelt, J. L. (2010)
Provides an overview of the challenges many system of care communities face in working with children, youth, and young adults involved or at risk of involvement with the juvenile justice system and provides examples of how some communities have overcome these challenges.
Successfully Collaborating With the Juvenile Justice System: Benefits, Challenges, and Key Strategies
Shufelt, J. L., Cocozza, J. J., & Skowyra, K. R. (2010)
Takes a closer look at the importance of true collaboration between community-based child-serving agencies in providing a comprehensive array of services and supports and fostering positive outcomes for children, youth, and young adults involved or at risk of involvement with the juvenile justice system.
Systems of Care Programs That Serve Youth Involved With the Juvenile Justice System: Funding and Sustainability
Skowyra, K. R., Cocozza, J. J., & Shufelt, J. L. (2010)
Explores ways in which communities can financially sustain the efforts they have in place to meet the needs of children, youth, and young adults involved or at risk of involvement with the juvenile justice system after the SAMHSA funding period has ended.
For more information about and access to these briefs, visit the Juvenile Justice Resource Series web page at http://www.tapartnership.org/content/juvenileJustice/resourceSeries.php.
The Council of State Governments Justice Center is pleased to announce its seventh webinar in the 2010 Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program Webinar Series, sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Assistance: Measuring Program Performance in Mental Health Courts . As mental health courts proliferate throughout the country, policymakers and practitioners are increasingly turning to researchers and program managers to understand how these programs work and under what circumstances they are most effective in improving participant outcomes. With funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), the National Center for State Courts has developed and piloted a set of Performance Measurements for Mental Health Courts, which will be released in October 2010. Drs. Fred Cheesman and Nicole Waters, the project's directors, will introduce the core and supplemental measures developed and piloted through this initiative and will discuss "next steps" for the National Center for State Courts involving this initiative, as well as how interested courts can implement the proposed measures. Hallie Fader-Towe, courts policy analyst from the CSG Justice Center, will conclude with perspectives on options for data collection and performance measurement based on the Justice Center's work providing technical assistance for grantees under the BJA's Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program. More information, including a link for registration, will be available soon on the Consensus Project website.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/MENTAL HEALTH IN THE NEWS
Articles from newspapers around the country covering issues at the intersection of mental health and criminal justice can be found on the Consensus Project website. Some recent headlines from the homepage are posted below. 10/17/10 — "Carter will visit Grand Rapids Oct. 26 to discuss the state of mental health care in the U.S., first at the Gerald R. Ford Museum and later that day at a dinner for Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services. Mental health care is an issue she has championed since the early 1970s, when her husband was running for governor of Georgia."
10/13/10 — The San Diego County District Attorney's office, with San Diego County Supervisors, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, San Diego County Sheriff's Office, San Diego County Probation, San Diego County Public Defender's Office, the San Diego County Superior Court, the Health and Human Services Office, and San Diego Police Department joined to announce the approval of a $1.5 million state grant that will fund the county's first Reentry Court.
10/13/10 — "Minnehaha County is asking local agencies for proposals on how to better help those who have threatened harm to themselves or others. One proposal is a mobile crisis team to help law enforcement direct distressed and/or intoxicated people to the best services to help them."
10/13/10 — "Many Mississippi law enforcement officers lack adequate training to deal with people who have mentally illnesses, despite the fact an increasing number of those they arrest suffer from mental illness. However, current initiatives are looking to change this discrepancy by equipping law enforcement officials to handle such situations"
10/12/10 — "The Montgomery County Juvenile Mental Health Court has received a grant from the Department of Justice. The Treatment, Rehabilitation and Individual Needs (TRAIN) program that has been implemented by the court is designed to enhance public safety and to provide the necessary and appropriate treatment for youth between the ages of 9 and 17 who are in need of mental health services within the juvenile court system."
10/12/10 — "An innovative program that will deliver needed mental health services for individuals who are found incompetent to stand trial (IST) and save the State and County money is set to open in the San Bernardino County Jail."
10/11/10 — Lisbon's Municipal Court's Successful Treatment and Recovery Program, or STAR, recently enjoyed its third annual graduation ceremony which recognized graduates who are free from substance abuse and are medically stable.
10/7/10 — "Detective Randy Gore says the training he has received as a member of the Crisis Intervention Team has made him more compassionate and more aware of the needs of those who suffer from a mental illness."
10/1/10 — York, Pennsylvania, police receive special training to help equip them with the appropriate strategies and techniques for addressing the needs of people experiencing a mental health crisis.
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