The Minnesota Second Judicial District, Ramsey County, proposes to expand and enhance its Treatment Court Unit (TCU). The TCU is comprised of the Adult Substance Abuse Court, Mental Health Court, DWI Court, and Veterans Treatment Court and currently has a capacity of 110 participants annually. This project seeks to expand the court capacity to 150 participants and enhance services by addressing the following areas of need: centralized clinical assessment and referral, service coordination and clinical representation on the teams, recovery support services, becoming trauma-informed and responsive, providing cognitive behavioral treatment, medication assisted treatment, and independent evaluation.
The Second Judicial District TCU will develop a clinical team to assess, case plan, and coordinate care, ensure treatment quality, and provide clinical representation for the court teams. The Court will hire a dually licensed Behavioral Health Assessor to screen and assess referrals to determine appropriate court placement, develop care plans, and make treatment referrals for participants and supervise the Clinical Liaison. The court will hire a Clinical Liaison to provide care coordination for the participants, ensure quality of contracted services, and provide clinical representation on the teams for staffing and court.
The Second Judicial District TCU will enhance their programs through the addition of several evidence based practices. First the Court will integrate the Trauma Symptom Inventory-2 into their assessment protocol, and institute Seeking Safety as a treatment for those participants scoring clinically elevated on the TSI-2. The Court will train six providers over the five year period to administer the Seeking Safety program, and will contract with them to provide Seeking Safety for the TCU. The Court will also incorporate screening for appropriateness for Medically Assisted Treatment into its assessment protocol and will make referrals for those who may benefit from MAT. The Court will also assist with offsetting costs for MAT when necessary. The Court will contract with Minnesota Recovery Connection to provide three part time certified recovery coaches to provide recovery support services,sober support, and alumni support to program participants. Finally, the Court will train 10 staff in Moral Reconation Therapy and institute an MRT program for participants scoring high in the 'big 4' criminogenic needs on their Level of Service/Case Management Inventory.
The Second Judicial District TCU will improve its program design and implementation and demonstrate program impact through independent evaluation. The Court will contract with the National Center for State Courts, a leading expert in court evaluation, to provide baseline and outcome evaluations, as well as annual performance reports.
Lastly, the Court will expand its capacity from 110 participants to 150 participants. The anticipated number of participants served for the five year grant is 500.