Expansion of treatment services for high-risk/high-need Veteran population through dedicated coordinator's strategic coalition development in community and comprehensive case management/planning.

The Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara is requesting $500,000.00 in BJA funding over the course of four years to enhance its Veterans Treatment Court (VTC) which serves over 200 veterans annually. The VTC is designed to assess veterans post-adjudication, and provide for early intervention into a 12-24 month program that promotes sobriety, stability and focused reentry into the community. The program begins immediately upon booking into the county jail, where veteran-specific treatment is provided, including but not limited to, Medication-Assisted Treatment. Treatment plans are case-specific and allow for individualized planning to address the specific and unique needs of each veteran. The choice of available treatment options for addictions involving opioid use, stimulants and other substances is robust and involves a shared decision between the VTC team and the participant. Preferences, past treatment history, treatment setting, medication partiality, and available programming are all taken into consideration when each individual treatment plan is developed.

The proposed enhancement project will serve a total of 240 clients over the project’s lifetime through a coordinated case management model that will serve to provide heightened emphasis on substance abuse reduction, and enrich coalition building and service linkage throughout the community. The project will pursue funding from Category 2 of the solicitation, under the VTC, Type B model. At this time, no other funding has been leveraged to support the VTC.

Since its inception, the VTC has been open to individuals who have served at any time in the military; and have been diagnosed with a substance abuse disorder, mental illness, and/or other co-occurring disorder. The Court has forged strong local partnerships to offer VTC participants a non-adversarial approach to adjudication and specialized treatment services. However, the Court and its partners have recognized an immediate need for effective, coordinated case management. This deliberate case management would help participants engage in, and carry to completion, their substance abuse and mental health treatment and ultimately aid in substance abuse reduction. While continuing to incorporate best practices specifically for VTC programming, the project enhancements will also continue to align with NADCP adult drug court best practice standards, as addressed in the project narrative, as follows: Standard #5 (p.11), Standard #9 (p.12) and Standard #10 (p.12). The jurisdiction is not currently leveraging any other federal funding sources to support VTC and has received a drug court grant from OJP to support our Juvenile Drug Court (Award No.: 2019-DC-BX-0100).