By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The 23rd Judicial District is implementing a new court program to keep people with mental illness in the community and out of hospitals and jails.
Assisted Outpatient Treatment is a preventive program to help people with severe and persistent mental illness from a cycle of hospitalization and acute mental health episodes, said District Judge Tom Drees.
Within the last five years, Ellis County has averaged about 71 care and treatment cases annually. These are civil cases and not criminal.
These are people who are a danger to themselves or others, to property or have exhibited a failure to care for themselves.
Some people come to the attention of the court through family members, agencies or law enforcement. Although some people who will be referred to the program may have outstanding criminal cases, those cases are handled separately in criminal court.
Drees said specialty court programs, such as assisted outpatient treatment and drug court, an existing court program in the judicial district, are becoming increasing popular across the United States.
A committee made up of members from the court and mental health services will meet monthly to choose people they think could benefit from the program and work to recommend treatment plans.
The first court hearings for the program are set for today.
Criteria for the program includes one of the following:
• History of at least two hospitalizations during the last three to four years.
• Using the emergency room for mental health treatment rather than staying on a mental health treatment program
• Having a severe and persistent mental illness
• Lacking an insight into their illness and having not been participants in their treatment program
• Having a history of incarceration
• Having had a violent behavior.
Sometimes a person’s mental illness makes it difficult for them to understand the need for treatment, Drees said, but we want to safeguard their due process rights, help them understand what is being asked of them and get them to buy into their treatment.
“In the 32 years I was in the county attorney’s office, I had some people who were committed 10, 12, 14 times,” he said. “Those are the ones we’re looking at — the ones with repetitive break downs, not following their treatment and ending up back in the system.”
The program will try to focus on community resources, which could include outpatient therapy, case workers, medication, and peer support through organizations such as High Plains Independence and National Alliance on Mental Illness.
High Plains Mental Health will coordinate the clinical services for the program participants. Participants who are under outpatient treatment orders would normally be seen in court once every three to six months, said Jessica Sherfick, assistant clinical director for community support services for High Plains Mental Health.
Under assisted outpatient treatment, the participant would be seen in court once a month. Sherfick said the hope is that services can be provided in the least restrictive setting as possible.
Most often the program would include individuals with diagnoses of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and bipolar disorder. Sherfick said these diagnoses can severely affect an individual's ability to live work and play in comparison to someone without a mental illness. They are also usually lifelong afflictions.
"This program is going to save lives," Sherflick said.
The program is not one-size-fits-all. The treatment programs are tailored for each individual.
“The hope is if we can match the services to what is needed in their life" Drees said, "then they will more embrace their outpatient treatment, stay compliant and reduce the cycle of get back on track, quit following treatment, deteriorate, bad community event, back in for another care and treatment and then you start the whole cycle all over again."
Gina Anderson, director of High Plains Independence and a member of NAMI, is on the program's committee. She said peer support can be just as important as clinical treatment.
“I will provide the peer side, which is peer service where I’m talking to them as one of them," she said. "I’m somebody who has a mental illness. I’m someone who believes in recovery.
“We work a program out here that if you want to recover with your mental illness and live a happy, productive life, we have tools you can use,” she said. “That’s what it’s all about is working together.”
Drees said the program can also help the community as a whole.
“If it can help prevent them from going to the ER when they need services, landing in jail when they need services, that’s a great benefit to the community,” he said. “More importantly it's going to be a benefit to these individuals to hopefully break their cycle of crisis..."
Drees said bringing a team together is a good concept instead of dealing with each case separately.
“I think it’s helpful to the court when you have the team approach,” he said. … “Instead of I have 10 minutes in a courtroom to guess to what they need and to issue orders.
The program is being supported through a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services grant.
“It is really nice that the federal government and part of our state government is starting to understand that with the proper treatment and the proper availability of services, people can make different choices, and that’s what it’s all about, giving them a choice, ” Anderson said.
Cover photo courtesy of Pixabay.