Nebraska Justice-Mental Health System Collaboration Planning Project

The Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP), seeks to increase public safety through innovative cross-system collaboration for individuals with mental illness who come into contact with the criminal or juvenile justice systems. This program is funded through the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004 (MIOTCRA) (Public Law 108-414). The program is designed to increase public safety by facilitating collaboration among the criminal justice, juvenile justice, and mental health and substance abuse treatment systems to increase access to services for offenders with mental illness. Activities under this initiative encourage early intervention for 'system-involved' individuals with mental illness; provides new and existing mental health courts with various treatment options; maximizes diversion opportunities for nonviolent offenders with mental illness and co-occurring disorders; promotes training for justice and treatment professionals on criminal justice processes and mental health and substance abuse issues; and facilitates communication, collaboration, and the delivery of support services among justice professionals, treatment and related service providers, and governmental partners.

This JMHCP grant to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services will result in a Strategic Action Plan. The Strategic Action Plan will guide implementation strategies to help Nebraska achieve its vision of an improved cross-disciplinary system of care for persons with mental illness who encounter the criminal justice system throughout the state. Special attention will be given to young adults with behavioral health needs who are aging out of the juvenile justice system at age 19. The University of Nebraska Public Policy Center will facilitate the strategic planning process with guidance from a 20-member steering committee of partnering state agencies, court administration, consumers and families, service providers,and law enforcement. The planning process will interface with related diversion program initiatives in the metropolitan cities of Lincoln and Omaha, including the Nebraska Behavioral Health Reform Initiative, Medicaid Reform, and the Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health State Infrastructure Grant.

CA/NCF