NCJ Number
242783
Date Published
February 2011
Length
76 pages
Annotation
This document from the National Center for Youth Law presents an evaluation on the effectiveness of Alameda County's (California) collaborative mental health court.
Abstract
In 2007, Alameda County, California, established the Alameda County Juvenile Collaborative Court (ACJC), a juvenile mental health court that serves youth with serious mental illness who typically end up in long-term out-of-home placements. This report from the National Center for Youth Law, presents an evaluation of the ACJC. The information in the report includes the factors that determine a youth's admission into the Court, the demographics of the youth participating in the ACJC, and descriptions of what the participants have to say about their experiences with the ACJC. Interviews with participants and their families revealed that on the whole, most participants expressed a great deal of satisfaction with the ACJC and many identified positive changes in their lives that resulted from participation in ACJC programs. Some of these changes included improvements in behavior, school attendance, and self-esteem, and less involvement with the juvenile justice system. Based on these findings, the report includes a set of recommendations for improving the ACJC. The recommendations are divided across four areas: 1) Design - establish and ensure future funding, increase family engagement and participation; provide formal mental health training for collaborators, and develop a means to serve youths prior to adjudication; 2) Process - improve program administration, refine eligibility requirements to ensure an effective match between participants and interventions, implement mental health screening to assist intake, and expand community outreach efforts; 3) Outcomes - gather and report outcome data; increase participants' access to mental health and related services, and make referrals for ineligible youths where possible; and 4) Sustainability & Growth - build greater community support for the Court, increase the number of participants in the Court, provide services to youths who are not enrolled in the Court, when resources allow, and work with other jurisdictions to develop and/or improve the collaborative court model. Appendixes