Thursday, May 1, 2025
5/1/2025
24th Circuit Family and Adult Treatment Court Expansion - The 24th Judicial Circuit Adult and Family Treatment Court are collaborating for application of a SAMHSA Grant to Expand Substance Use Disorder Treatment Capacity in Adult and Family Treatment Courts. While the Adult Treatment Court has been operational since 2007, it has only been sustained using a modest state budget and no federal grants have been applied for. The Family Treatment Court is now in the fifth budget year of a similar SAMHSA grant which was received in 2019 for program development and will rely on grant funding to continue providing supported access to prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery support services. Overall goal of the project is to ensure more individuals involved in the legal system have access to co-occurring substance use disorder treatment. Missouri's Department of Mental Health maintains individual county profiles in regard to substance use and mental health in the community. The 24th Circuit serves St Francois, Ste Genevieve, Madison, and Washington County Missouri. Collective statistics of those four counties indicate there were 772 drug convictions and out-of-home placements related to substances use in 2023. It was also reported all four counties combined saw only 105 treatment court participants in that same year; meaning only 13.6% of those individuals entered into a program that could provide structured support to help meet their needs. The Adult Treatment Court currently serves 27 participants, down from 36 within the last budget year due to 9 successful program completions, while Family Treatment Court currently serves 11 participants, down from 29 within the last budget year due to 8 successful program completions. The project strives to be able to serve a minimum number of 40 individuals per year, totaling at least 200 by project end with the hopes of reunifying parents and children into safe and sober homes and reducing recidivism of criminal offenses related to substance use or untreated mental health. A measurable objective to meet the goals of increasing participation is for key project staff to become more involved in community collaboration to ensure a larger percentage of these cases are being referred for programming. If we can educate referral sources about the benefits of the program and streamline the referral process, we have the potential to reduce the amount of time it takes from point of incident to start of Substance Use and Co-Occurring Disorder treatment.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).