Announcing the Mental Health Courts Collaborative!

Without accessible resources, some people with mental illness cycle through the court system repeatedly. Mental Health Court Programs can interrupt this cycle by connecting justice-involved individuals with long-term community-based treatment, resources, and ongoing judicial monitoring. Texas counties with a population of 200,000 or more are required by law to create a Mental Health Court Program unless the county seeks but does not receive funding for such a program. See Tex. Gov’t. Code 125.005. Currently, over fifty percent of the counties of this size do not have a Mental Health Court Program that serves adults.

JCMH is launching the Mental Health Courts Collaborative, a program providing technical assistance and support for judges who want to start a Mental Health Court Program or judges whose Mental Health Court Program is less than a year old. Consisting of three online sessions in early 2024 and an in-person component at the annual conference of the Texas Association of Specialty Courts, the small group will cover topics critical to the creation of a Mental Health Court Program: model courts, judicial ethics, grant writing, and more. This Collaborative will be for judges, by judges, with the chance to learn from experienced mentor judges and collaborate with other judges facing the same challenges.

Applications are now open and must be received by November 1, 2023. More information can be found here.