Resource Letter for Judges and Attorneys Handling Cases Involving Mental Health and IDD

June 2, 2023

This resource letter is designed to facilitate communication among the JCMH, the judiciary, attorneys, and mental health stakeholders. Please forward this letter to any judges, attorneys, mental health professionals, law enforcement, or other community and state leaders who might be interested. To ensure that you regularly receive this letter, please click on the subscribe button at the bottom of this page, if you have not already. 

Pre-Arrest Diversion Learning Collaborative

HHSC’s Office of the Forensic Director is offering a Pre-Arrest Diversion Learning Collaborative, which will guide local teams in learning about and implementing pre-arrest diversion opportunities in their communities. The Learning Collaborative goals are to:


  • Provide hands-on support for select local teams in planning for and implementing pre-arrest diversion programs in their communities; and
  • Share resources with local partners that focus on implementing a range of pre-arrest diversion programs to include descriptions of different models, readiness and implementation assessments, descriptions of screening tools, and funding opportunities to support diversion models.


The focus of this collaborative will be on programs that occur in intercepts 0 and 1 on the Sequential Intercept Model. Examples of pre-arrest diversion programs could include, but are not limited to, crisis intervention teams, law enforcement and behavioral health co-responder models, Mental Health Deputy programs, embedded clinicians in 911 call centers, crisis triage centers/diversion centers, and peer respite centers. Applications are due by June 9, 2023.


IDD and Dementia Workshop in Lubbock

The National Task Group on Intellectual Disabilities and Dementia Practices is holding a workshop June 20-22, 2023 at the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Training Academy in Lubbock, Texas. The workshop will prepare attendees with the background and skills necessary to care for an aging adult with an intellectual or developmental disability who is at risk of or who has developed Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia. Sessions will cover a range of topics including early detection, diagnosis and misdiagnosis, physical environment modification, and end of life care. Tickets are still available.

For a complete list of Resources, please visit the Judicial Commission on Mental Health webpage. Information provided by the JCMH should not be read as a commentary by the Supreme Court of Texas, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, or any other court. The JCMH website is not equipped to facilitate dialogue or conversation about matters related to the information in this communication. For more information about the JCMH, please visit our website.

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Judicial Commission on Mental Health | TexasJCMH.gov