Meaningful Progress for Mental Health Courts

The Mayor’s Commission on Homelessness identified mental illness as a key factor in homelessness.   This is why part of the Commission’s recommendations included supporting the creation of a mental health court, which you can find on page 4 of the final report.

A mental health court is similar to a drug court in that it provides an alternative route through the criminal justice system.  For example, an individual who nonviolently broke into a house and was preparing a meal because of voices she or he imagined instructed her or him to do so would likely be eligible to pursue treatment rather than jail time.  This option helps the mentally ill get assistance and lead productive lives instead of cycling through the criminal justice system, and thus it also helps save taxpayer dollars.

Productive and compassionate outcomes are why we are pleased to report that the tireless work of the Mayor’s Commission on Homelessness, the Lexington chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), as well as countless stakeholders and activists has yielded substantive progress on an often overlooked issue.    NAMI organized a forum on this issue in October of 2012, which continued with the Take Down the Wall/Decriminalization Committee.  The Committee’s work led to Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice, John D. Minton, Jr., signing an Order Approving Local Rules for the Mental Health Court for Fayette County on July 7, 2014.

The Court began work on November 24, 2014, and its efforts have been bolstered by a 3-year grant from the LFUCG Office of Homeless Prevention and Intervention (OHPI).  The grant was awarded to NAMI in February 2015 for administration and day to day operation of the mental health court program.  These local resources also better position the mental health court to receive federal investment.  You may read about this award, as well as some of the heartening early successes, by reviewing the OHPI newsletter here.