Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2007, $250,000)
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.
The goal of the County of Nevada's JMHCP grant is to improve community health and increase public safety by facilitating collaboration among the criminal justice, juvenile justice, mental health, and substance abuse treatment systems. This process will enhance access and increase services for offenders with co-occurring mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders. The County of Nevada Behavioral Health Department will focus the first six months on finishing their strategic plan and the subsequent 24 months on implementing a portion of the strategic plan. To achieve this goal, the Collaborative Team will implement the following strategies: 1) increase the Mental Health Court (MHC) from bi-weekly to weekly; 2) expand MHC participant capacity from 15 to 30; 3) implement supportive integrated dual diagnosis treatment services and support; 4) provide training for law enforcement personnel on how to most appropriately respond to mentally ill offenders; 5) provide training to mental health staff that will focus on evidence based, best-practices integrated dual diagnosis treatments; and 6) hire staff members to train others.
This will result in the following: 1) A decrease in the percentage of mentally ill offenders by 50 percent; 2) A decrease in the rate of recidivism by 35 percent; 3)An increase of MHC services to weekly with an increased capacity of 30 participants; and 4) treatment and supportive services provided for 100 percent of MHC participants.
CA/NCF