FY 2008 Guam Mental Health Court Pilot Project

The Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP) seeks to increase public safety through an innovative, cross-system collaborative response for individuals with mental illness who come in contact with the criminal or juvenile justice systems. This program is funded through the Public Law 110-161 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008) and is authorized through Public Law 108-414 (Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act, 2004). 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 will encourage early intervention for 'system-involved' individuals with mental illness; provide new and existing mental health courts with various treatment options; maximize diversion opportunities for non-violent offenders with mental illness and co-occurring disorders; promote training for justice and treatment professionals on criminal justice processes and mental health and substance abuse issues; and facilitate communication, collaboration, and the delivery of support services among justice professionals, treatment and related service providers, and governmental partners.

The Judiciary of Guam will use their FY 2008 Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (Category II - Planning and Implementation) funds to create the Guam Mental Health Court pilot project, which will provide a sustainable system to better serve the mentally ill and developmentally disabled population on Guam. The Guam Mental Health Court pilot project will improve collaboration, communications, and coordinate services among criminal justice, mental health, and community service providers to bring services to the court clients.

To goals of the project are to: 1) identify best practices for promptly identifying, treating, and judicially monitoring persons who are mentally impaired; 2) reduce recidivism rates; 3) increase treatment engagement; 4) coordinate cases involving persons who are mentally impaired in the court and mental health systems; 5) develop a management information system (MIS) that all key stakeholders will be able to view and update participant information; 6) identify types of data necessary to collect, which will be used by the judge and key stakeholders to measure program success and shift focus and resources necessary to overcome obstacles identified in the system; and 7) ensure law enforcement is prepared to respond to calls involving persons who are mentally impaired in the community.

To meet the goals the Mental Health Court will: 1) ensure key stakeholders and ancillary team members understand the MHC philosophy; 2) provide structured, individualized treatment for persons with a mental impairment; 3) coordinate treatment with a services delivery system; 4) provide service collaboration between the courts, mental health providers, and housing services for disabled persons; and 5) promptly identify potential participants during calls for service by developing a screening tool and training first responders.

CA/NCF