NCSC creates courses for treatment court professionals

NCSC creates courses for treatment court professionals

The nation’s opioid crisis highlighted a persistent challenge for state courts: what to do with the massive number of non-violent drug offenders who find themselves in court. It also highlighted the need to provide additional training for those who work in the nation’s treatment courts.

NCSC’s Institute for Court Management has been working for a year and a half to create online courses to train judges, administrators and others who work in treatment courts.

“Treatment courts are a specialty court that doesn’t operate like a traditional criminal or civil court,” said Derek Felton, ICM’s director of Creative Learning Services. “People working in treatment courts need foundational knowledge to help them better understand the mission of treatment courts and the participants they will be working with.”

The work, done on behalf of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals and funded by the U.S. Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, has so far involved creating interactive courses that focus on these 10 areas:

• Psychopharmacology
• Assessment &Treatment
• Co-Occurring Disorders
• PTSD
• Drug Testing
• Recurrence
• Confidentiality & Ethics
• Mentors in Veterans Courts
• Introduction to the Department of Veterans Affairs, and
• Military Culture

These courses are replacing a course ICM developed for NADCP in 2008 as well as several webinars used by the association, a training and advocacy organization for the treatment court model, which includes about 4,000 programs in every state, four territories and more than 20 countries.

“We want to empower every person working in treatment courts to continue to expand their knowledge and deepen their understanding of core principles and practices,” said NADCP Chief of Training and Research Carolyn Hardin.

The new courses feature self-paced content modules that present the most up-to-date science and best practices in the treatment court field. The modules employ interactive exercises, animation and audio voice over to guide participants through the training.

Felton, who oversaw the creation of the courses, said ICM is also creating courses that cover seven of NADCP’s 10 Adult Drug Court Best Practice Standards. And ICM recently signed a new contract with NADCP to develop four courses to help treatment court law enforcement officers.

Happy birthday to us!

NCSC was founded 50 years ago today.

What better day than to share some key dates in our history:

• March 11, 1971 – At the First National Conference on the Judiciary, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger calls for the creation of a national center for state courts.
• June 15, 1971 – NCSC is founded.
• Jan. 23, 1978 – NCSC moves into its headquarters building in Williamsburg, Va.
• 1980 – First edition of State Court Organization is published.
• 1984 – The Institute for Court Management becomes NCSC’s education division.
• 1984 – NCSC opens its Denver office, where the Court Consulting Services Division is located.
• 1992 – NCSC starts an international program that becomes one of our largest divisions.
• 1999 – NCSC conducts survey on Public Trust and Confidence in Courts.
• 2001 – NCSC receives contract to administer Federal Court Interpreter Certification Exam.
• 2005 – NCSC develops CourTools.
• 2008 – NCSC creates the Justice Case Files graphic novel series to promote civics education.
• 2013 – NCSC, along with CCJ and COSCA, established the Civil Justice Reform Initiative.
• 2018 – NCSC staffs CCJ and COSCA initiative, the National Judicial Opioid Task Force.