Press Room
The Consensus Project is coordinated by:
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| PROGRAM TITLE: |
Oklahoma County Mental Health Court Program |
| AGENCY/ORGANIZATION: |
Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services |
| STATE: |
Oklahoma |
| YEAR ESTABLISHED: |
2002 |
| LEVEL OF JURISDICTION: |
County |
| ISSUE AREA: |
Courts: Adjudication and Sentencing |
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Program Overview
Oklahoma County Mental Health Court was established in 2002 due to the relentless determination of the Oklahoma County Mental Health Court Task Force and a substantial private donation. This was the first mental health court in Oklahoma and was launched under the leadership of the Honorable Nancy Coats, District Judge for Oklahoma County. The Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services was awarded a Bureau of Justice Assistance Grant to establish and/or support mental health courts in April, 2003. The grant monies were made available to the Oklahoma County Crisis Intervention Center for purposes of staffing and supporting the mental health court in Oklahoma County. Since its inception, the task force, the court team and participants have experienced many accomplishments and faced some challenges. The team holds firm to their mission and are held in high regard by community stakeholders.
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Program Contact:
Vicki Downing
(vdowning@odmhsas.org)
Mental Health/Criminal Justice Specialist
Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services
P.O. Box 53277
Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma 73152
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Program Stakeholders:
Program stakeholders are leading officials from agencies and organizations that work with this program.
Nisha Wilson
(NWilson@odmhsas.org)
Criminal Justice Specialist
Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services
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>> Q & A
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Recent Dialogue
Question for
Vicki Downing
Contact Person
I am not a friend, but Jerry Gage did some work for me in 2007, and his family has helped over the years, but their stamina has run out. He has no one left to help defend him. He is due in court tomorrow July 2 at 9:00 A.M. He is bi-polar and is 64 years old. He is permanently disabled by Social Security, and I was told was a result of his mental diagnosis. He was arrested 3 times for DUI earlier this year and is the reason for the court date. His attorney knows nothing about mental health court and I am concerned that we will just place Jerry into the prison system without even considering his mental health. We attempted to get him help at Alpha 2 for the alcoholish problems, but after 2 weeks they requested that I pick him up and take him to the Crisis Center in Oklahoma City because he needed more help than they could provide. Crisis Center sent him to Griffin in Norman, and I will pick him up for his court date at Griffin tomorrow. If there is anything I can do to get his attorney to understand that this person has a mental health problem and should be treated for this I would appreciate your assistance. My work phone is 228-1220, home phone is 691-1256, and cell phone is 833-4589. e-mail address is lynnd11@cox.net Thanks. Lynn Doughty
- Lynn Doughty
07/01/08 07:52 AM EST
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Program Description
Program Partners: Oklahoma County District Court; Law Enforcement; Public Defenders Office; District Attorneys Office; Oklahoma Mental Health Consumer Council; NAMI-OK; Mental Health service providers; Department of Corrections and legislators. District Court, community. MH providers, legislators, DA, DOC, police chiefs association, sheriffs association,
Target Population: Individuals who have a serious mental illness and are incarcerated, or at risk of incarceration, due to committing a misdemeanor or low level felony crime as a function of their illness
Sustainability Plan: State has passed legislation allowing mental health courts, and jurisdictions may request support from state. Subsequent to the passage of this bill, the Department Of Mental Health also received an additional $100,000 state appropriation to support services for mental health court clients.
CLIENTS Proposed # of Clients per Year: 25
Eligible Offenses: misdemeanors and low-level felonies
Eligible Criminal History: case by case
MH Eligibility: Due to the limited resources of the Mental Health Department, participants must be severely mentally ill as defined by the State. This includes a DX of Schizophrenia, Bi Polar Disoder, Major Depression and Co-occurring Disorders, with a substantial history of problems.
Elements of the Court include:
- a broad-based group of stakeholders who are actively involved in the planning and operation of the court (Mental Health Court Task Force)
- continued judicial supervision
- dedicated criminal justice and mental health personnel
- involvement of law enforcement trained in the Memphis CIT model
- eligibility criteria covering both legal offense and clinical characteristics
- participants handbook clearly laying out the terms of participation
- the establishment of a skills development group which all mental health court participants are required to attend
- the development of post-graduation program for participants who wish to continue receiving support from the Judge, the team and active participants
- incentives and sanctions to promote successful completion of the program
- coordinated treatment services through the Mental Health Court Case Manager and
- respectful court proceedings
Outcome Data
Forthcoming
Challenges / Areas for Improvement Identified
While the task force at large has maintained relatively constant membership, the Court Team has experienced some turnover. The last couple of months have shown some stability, developing a solid approach to ensuring the court and the participants success.
ODMHSAS has extensive expertise in process and outcome evaluation for various Federal grants. Mental Health Court grant staff and the ODMHSAS Decision Support Staff are finalizing a structure by which the projects success will be evaluated in accordance with the plan submitted in the original grant application. Data have been collected since the inception of the grant period and these will form the basis for evaluation. Technical assistance has been requested from the Council of State Governments to prioritize and finalize an evaluation plan.
The original grant was submitted with Oklahoma having little working knowledge of the operations of a mental health court. The progression of the court provided a much clearer and more realistic sense of budgetary needs. In this regard, Oklahoma has submitted a request for a budget revision.
When the Oklahoma County Mental Health Task Force decided to pursue a mental health court the mental health courts from other jurisdictions were used as models. Written materials, forms and video tapes of actual court proceedings were obtained from the Mental Health Court in Salt Lake City. In addition to creating a participants handbook and brochure the Team recognized a need for an operational manual and is in the process of developing such a manual.
The time-frame for processing referrals still remains too lengthy. The team is aware of this problem and currently analyzing barriers and developing protocols to implement a more rapid identification and screening process.
Relevant Legislation
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Staff from the Consensus Project, GAINS EBP Center, and GAINS TAPA Center have not conducted an empirical evaluation of any of the profiles provided in the directory. Accordingly, the Consensus Project, GAINS EBP, and GAINS TAPA do not promote any of these programs as "models" or "best practices." Nor does the directory reflect an inventory of all relevant efforts underway across the country. Administrators of the programs included in the directory are largely responsible for maintaining information about their initiative current. Accordingly, staff cannot guarantee that the information in the directory is completely current.
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