Logan County Mental Health Initiative

The Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP) seeks to increase public safety through an innovative, cross-system, collaborative response to individuals with mental illness who come in contact with the criminal or juvenile justice systems. This program is funded through Public Law 111-8 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2009). 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 processed 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.

Logan County Probation will use the planning grant funds for the Logan County Mental Health Initiative (LCMHI), a dedicated effort to assess the needs of the county and its residents related to the ability to effectively intervene with individuals with mental health disorders or co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders who come in contact with the justice system. The LCMHI has the following project goals that will guide all planning process activities: 1) identify barriers to providing appropriate mental health services to justice-involved individuals in Logan County and 2) propose a strategic plan to remove these barriers and work collaboratively toward implementing the plan. To meet these goals, the LCMHI partners have agreed to convene community forums comprised of justice agencies, treatment providers, community partners, residents, and consumer advocacy organizations; and form a steering committee of system stakeholders. This initiative has been designed in response to the county's commitment to meet community concerns of safety and well being and provide a culturally relevant program to a population that is not receiving mental health services due to budget cuts and gaps in service provision.

CA/NCF