Texas Judicial Commission on Mental Health hosts workshop aimed at creating a County Mental Health Law plan
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The Texas Judicial Commission on Mental Health created the County mental health law plan (CMHLP) program, because they say the laws relating to persons with mental illness or intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD) are complex and affect multiple individuals.
The workshop took place Wednesday, July 24th from 10 A.M. to 4 P.M. at the Emergence Health Network on 201 E Main St, El Paso, TX 79901. During this workshop, participants from El Paso County are to discuss the processes that someone who is involved in the court system with a mental illness goes through. They will also evaluate how to improve those processes.
The CMHLP is a JCMH pilot program offering technical assistance, tools, and resources including a checklist to support nine counties to create a County Mental Health Law Plan. The nine counties in the pilot include El Paso, Henderson, Medina, Fort Bend, Burleson, Burnet, Hays, Duval, and Travis.
JCMH says the goal of the pilot is to determine if creating this plan will encourage collaboration, efficiency,cost-savings, and accountability for how mental health laws are managed at the county level. The JCMH says Judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys, law enforcement and probation officers attended four virtual classes from January to March 2024 to prepare for the program. The classes were on the topics of Civil Commitment, Early Intervention, Mental Health Courts and Competency Restoration.
The JCMH will travel to each pilot county for a one-day workshop this summer and fall. Each county will have a written plan of the process of how their county accomplishes Texas mental health laws once the workshop concludes.
