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National Initiative CCJ/COSCA Advisory Committee Sets its 2019-2020 Policy PrioritiesIn July 2019, the Advisory Committee met for the first time in Asheville, North Carolina, at the CCJ/COSCA Annual Meeting and among other business set its 2019 and 2020 policy priorities as follows: 1) address the delays in competency evaluations and restoration treatment by working with others to develop a series of action steps for states; 2) develop evidence based model law(s) for involuntary commitments and assisted outpatient treatment; 3) produce behavioral health model curriculum that can be tailored to states for judges and court personnel; and 4) document pre arrest and post arrest behavioral health diversion strategies that work.
CCJ/COSCA Regional Summits Planned to Improve the Court and Community Response to Mental Illness and Co-Occurring DisordersFollowing the successful 2019 CCJ/COSCA Western Region Summit hosted in Idaho in May 2019, the CCJ/COSCA Mid-West Region Summit is planned for October 23-25, 2019, in Deadwood, South Dakota. The summits feature a mix of outstanding speakers and educational sessions along with time for state multi- disciplinary teams to identify gaps and opportunities along with priorities for moving forward. The CCJ/COSCA Southern Region Summit will be hosted in Austin, Texas, in May 2020, followed by the CCJ/COSCA Mid-Atlantic Region in the fall of 2020 and the CCJ/COSCA New England Region in the spring 2021.
Leading Change: Improving the Court and Community’s Response to Mental Health and Co-Occurring DisordersCheck out the new national guide and coordinated responses website at https://www.ncsc.org/mentalhealth. Leading Change “train the trainer” workshops were pilot tested in Flagstaff, Arizona, last month and were well received. The Leading Change workshop is intended to train court leaders and behavioral health specialists how to lead change in their community using the Sequential Intercept Model and the Leading Change guide.
Let us hear from you!The Advisory Committee and the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) want to hear about your successes and challenges and any significant developments. Please email ptobias@ncsc.org with your news and information. One of the priorities of the National Initiative is to build a repository of information available across state lines. Thank you for making it possible.
In the News
Canadian Appellate Court Strikes Down Mental Health Law The government of Alberta is appealing a recent decision by the Court of Queen’s Bench which said portions of the provincial Mental Health Act were unconstitutional. The court found that the new provisions unconstitutionally impinged on defendants’ rights to refuse treatment and to self-determination.
Homeless People with Mental Illness to Get Court-Ordered Help on OahuOfficials with the city, state, and the Institute for Human Services are teaming up on a new approach to deal with homeless people with mental health issues by trying to get court-ordered help for the first of potentially hundreds of homeless people on Oahu.
New Psychiatric Advance Directive Law Goes into Effect in ColoradoColorado House Bill 19-1044 creates a new “behavioral health order form” so that an adult may communicate his or her behavioral health history, decisions, and preferences (also referred to as a psychiatric advance directive) in the event that he or she lacks decisional capacity to provide consent to, withdrawal from, or refusal of his or her behavioral health treatment or medication in the future.
Florida Leaders Consider Better Approaches to Handle the Revolving Jail Door for People with Mental IllnessCourt officials in Miami-Dade County have identified 97 people who, far gone into mental illness and substance abuse, together have spent 27,000 days in jail and 13,000 days in psychiatric facilities during the past five years. The cost to taxpayers: $14.7 million. “We have to start treating these illnesses as illnesses – and not crimes,” said Miami-Dade County Judge Steve Leifman.
Participation in a Mental Health Court Diversion Program Does Not Implicate Gun RestrictionsThe Nevada Supreme Court found that individuals who complete a mental health diversion court program cannot be charged under a state law prohibiting mentally ill individuals from owning or possessing firearms. The court ruled that in the absence of the Legislature defining what “adjudicated as mentally ill” entails, it requires a judicial decision-maker and deliberative proceeding with “some form of due process.” The court concluded that the process for voluntarily enrolling in a mental health diversion court, which only requires the appearance of mental illness or intellectual disabilities, did not reach that higher standard.
UK Group Recommends Changes to Accommodate Those with Mental Health Issues in CourtRules should be updated, judicial training improved, and court rooms rejigged to cater to parties with mental health conditions and other vulnerabilities in civil proceedings. That is the current thinking of the Civil Justice Council, which this week published a series of recommendations for fixing the long-acknowledged disparity between the way parties are treated in criminal and civil cases.
Red Flag Laws-the Future Extreme Risk Protection OrdersPsychology Today: ERPO laws are controversial. These laws may also overstate the relationship between gun violence and mental illness, which propagates stigma and may discourage people from seeking mental health treatment. As more states consider ERPO laws, mental health professionals can play an important role. Lack of data points prohibits robust, data-driven conclusions. But mental health professionals can share their expertise in risk assessment and assist courts in making better-informed decisions that are consistent with our body of knowledge about the relationship between mental illness and risk of violence.
Increasing Community Services Linked to a Reduction in Emergency Department UsageFrom the TAC Weekly Research Roundup. Utilizing data from a nationwide reporting system for CHCs and the State Emergency Department Database, a team of researchers explored the relationship between CHC primary care visits and psychiatric ED visits to determine whether CHCs were reducing ED visits for individuals with mental illness.
Results of the analysis showed that for a given county, an increase in CHC visits was associated with a decrease in psychiatric ED visits, measured by population and over time. In a county with a population of 100,000 people, for example, the data suggest a decrease of six psychiatric ED visits for every increase of 100 CHC visits.
A PROJECT ON BEHALF OF THE NATIONAL INITIATIVE TO IMPROVE THE JUSTICE SYSTEM RESPONSE TO MENTAL ILLNESS
Please share any news or resources from your state or jurisdiction with the National Initiative by emailing ptobias@ncsc.org.
