Mental Health Resource Team Co-responder Implementation

The Bureau of Justice Assistance’s (BJA) Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP) supports cross-system collaboration to improve responses and outcomes for individuals with mental illnesses (MI) or co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse (CMISA) who come into contact with the justice system. JMHCP is authorized by the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004 (MIOTCRA) (Public Law 108-414), the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Reauthorization and Improvement Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-416), and as amended by the 21st Century Cures Act (Public Law 114-255). JMHCP seeks to increase public safety by facilitating collaboration among the criminal justice, mental health, and substance abuse treatment systems to increase access to mental health and other treatment services for individuals with MI or CMISA. The program promotes officer and public safety through the coordination of system resources for people who are accessing multiple services including hospital emergency departments, jails, and mental health crisis services. JMHCP promotes cross-discipline training for justice and treatment professionals; and facilitates communication, collaboration, and the delivery of support services among justice professionals, and treatment and related service providers. In addition, projects funded through JMHCP must address opioid abuse reduction.

The recipient will use funds to increase public safety and reduce recidivism among high risk people with MI and CMISA. After BJA approves the recipient’s “Planning and Implementation Guide,” the recipient will implement one or more law enforcement, prosecution, court-based, corrections, parole and/or probation initiative. Allowable implementation activities include: training for criminal justice, mental health, and substance abuse treatment personnel; screening, assessment, and information sharing processes to identify individuals with MI or CMISA in order to appropriately inform decision making and prioritize limited resources and identify needed capacity; specialized caseloads for people on community supervision with more significant mental health needs and higher risk of reoffending; case management and service coordination including evidence-based treatment models that are tailored to meet the assessed mental health, substance abuse, and criminogenic needs of the target population; case management and service coordination housed inside police agencies; evidence-based or promising mental health treatment practices shown to improve clinical outcomes for people with serious mental illnesses; and/or information sharing within and across criminal justice and behavioral health treatment agencies to make eligibility determinations, and ensure direct connections to treatment services in the community.

CA/NCF