Focused on recovery: Ramsey County Mental Health Treatment Court marks 20 years

On a quiet Monday afternoon in May a man stood in a busy courtroom in the Ramsey County Courthouse He was there to see Tim Carey presiding judge for the county s Mental Vitality Rehabilitation Court a specialized court designed to offer alternative options for people with severe and persistent mental illness SPMI like schizoaffective disorder schizophrenia or bipolar disorder facing criminal charges Ramsey County Mental Vitality Healing Court which along with the county s DWI Court celebrated its th anniversary this spring takes a holistic treatment-centered approach to its work with participants helping them access a range of agencies including mental fitness and addiction healing and housing and employment supports The court s overarching goal is to break the seemingly unending cycle of involvement with law enforcement and the legal system that often plagues people with untreated SPMI For the man standing in front of Judge Carey and the assembled group of court workers this was a big day He had spent nearly two years taking part in the court a voluntary process that can keep participants who follow the judge s orders out of incarceration and on the path to recovery from mental illness and addiction This afternoon he would graduate and move on to the next step in his life Carey looked down from his bench The man in front of him shifted slightly but looked back at the judge with a calm if shy gaze Anthony McCartney graduates from Ramsey County Therapy Court during the th Anniversary celebration in April Credit Courtesy of Minnesota Judicial Branch You chop wood and gather water Carey mentioned to the participant referring to the Buddhist belief in the importance of finding enlightenment through focusing on everyday tasks Your success at present is based on your commitment There were a limited more words of praise from the judge and from other court bureaucrats before the participant had a moment to speak about his own experience which included weekly appearances in court over the first several months time in a residential medicine facility submitting regular urine tests and meetings with a probation officer and a mental fitness situation manager The process the man announced helped me to be accountable for my actions he paused and added I want to thank the club In the end the man received a certificate and had his photo taken with the judge There was a round of applause sweets set out on a table to mark the moment and then it was the next participant s turn Carey glanced at his notes looked the next man in the eye and explained kindly It looks like you made all the UAs urine tests That s a big achievement Good work Then he and his gang began to ask questions about the man s search for work and his experience in a residential addiction healing project It was time to move on to the next situation It s a revolving door Ramsey County s Mental Soundness and DWI Cure Courts were created in as a collaboration between the courts and the St Paul City Attorney s office to handle gross misdemeanor offenses committed by people struggling with addiction and mental illness Eventually the programs grew to include the Ramsey County Attorney s Office and felony-level charges In the two decades since the courts founding people have participated in their programs in lieu of going through the traditional legal process A central goal of Mental Robustness Therapy Court is to set people sometimes referred to by law enforcement or social organization professionals as familiar faces or individuals with SPMI who for multiple reasons tend to cycle in and out of incarceration addiction rehabilitation and homelessness on a different life discipline Allison Husman Mental Healthcare Court development manager commented that sometimes the law enforcement professionals who work with this population start to see them as faceless hopeless statistics In Mental Strength Court she noted they try to look at participants with unjaded eyes Everyone knows that mental vitality and addiction are common themes among people involved in the criminal justice system If you can t intervene on those aspects for people it s a revolving door Even if they go to jail or prison and are forced into sobriety and get on mental healthcare medication when they get out they often relapse or stop taking their meds and those issues crop right back up Husman noted that she and her colleagues view Mental Physical condition Court as an opportunity for second chances In a activity like this we try to stop that cycle and in the short time participants are with us we focus on how we can get them connected to initiatives she revealed We tell people their time in this court lasts months to two years People feel like that s a long time but it really is a really short period of time to accomplish so much To outside eyes Mental Medical Court may seem like a gentler alternative to the traditional judicial process but the truth is the commitment required to graduate the campaign is serious Carey announced He and his colleagues expect full participation in the court It takes focus commitment and time to complete the process Participants he noted have to come in every week until they meet several milestones submit gallons of urine samples They have to go to healing have to regularly talk to court staff Tim Carey presiding judge Ramsey County Mental Medical Remedy Court Credit Courtesy of Minnesota Judicial Branch Ronnell Nadeau Ramsey County Mental Physical condition Court probation officer explained that the court is highly organized and regulated by design Because staff take participants recovery goals seriously participants are expected to take their own goals seriously too Once you plead in you are given these conditions you are expected to comply with for your mental physical condition going forward in this realm Nadeau disclosed There is more structure here than there is in regular court This helps people take accountability for their behavior and the trauma and the struggles that they are going through Courtroom staff including social workers attorneys probation officers and even the judge are there to offer help and guidance Nadeau noted This can be the key to turning over a new leaf There is a squad of people that endorsement you and give you access to the providers and the things you need to recover If you are willing to go along with the plan s requirements you are going to get the stability you need to maintain a stable life Ideally as their time with the court progresses participants gain promotion and insight that helps improve their prospects for recovery and success in the outside world Carey disclosed During their time taking part in Mental Strength Court participants are he explained in addiction and mental medical restoration They are trying to get jobs They are dealing with housing aid All the appointments and meetings required for these programs makes participants regular appearances in Mental Robustness Court valuable to their continued recovery We give a lot of praise Carey mentioned Not everyone graduates from Mental Fitness Court Sometimes participants just can t or won t meet the court s expectations Nadeau disclosed Sometimes you re like OK What more can we do We do get to the point where we ve offered multiple remedy options we ve suggested mental physical condition services It doesn t seem that the person wants to do this We get to the point where we say I m sorry but we ve exhausted all realizable alternatives to help you It takes a lot to get to that point Though the court s graduations can feel full of hope and promise Nadeau revealed that she and her colleagues are realistic enough to know that not all dreams for the future stick Sometimes the pull of addiction or unwanted side effects of medications can drag graduates back into old habits or behaviors Still there continues to be heartening stories from the court graduates who have worked their way through the undertaking and have managed to create a new more hopeful life for themselves and their families Nadeau recalls a young participant she met early on in her work with Mental Healthcare Court She wasn t doing well at all she mentioned of the participant After a month of participation court staff identified the woman a space in the residential recovery venture RS Eden She lived there for several months until it was time to move onto the next step She has two young boys Nadeau stated She needed to get into housing post-treatment and thankfully I knew of a women s shelter campaign The participant and her children moved into the shelter two days later In the last six months she s been doing so well Nadeau disclosed She s been chemically free since November She just got approved for housing through Wilder She and the boys are going into their own apartment For the participant this is a huge accomplishment Nadeau mentioned and for court workers the participant s recovery feels like a accomplishment It gives me goosebumps Nowadays the participant is enrolled in college she noted I get to show that I care For a multitude of of the crew members being part of Mental Healthcare Healing Court has been an opportunity to do work that aligns with their beliefs Before Husman joined the court years ago she worked for a short time as a police officer She thought that working in law enforcement could be a way to help the region but she soon grew frustrated with the limitations of the job My very brief stint in law enforcement opened my eyes to a lot of things Husman announced When you are working with people in law enforcement there are a lot of issues that you can t get involved in that lead to people getting involved with the criminal justice system over and over again Looking for what felt like a more effective way to help Husman decided to earn a master s degree in social work I required myself she recalled How can I indeed have the time to delve into the things that are making people s lives so laborious I desired to work with people in an ongoing way to help really solve their problems Social work was a way to get there For several years Nadeau worked at Dorothy Day Center in St Paul helping people with SPMI and addiction find housing That was a very stressful job she announced Every day we did not know what we were coming upon She revealed she kept seeing clients cycling through healing jail and homelessness While I was there I witnessed a lot of clients dealing with untreated mental soundness and chemical addiction who continued to spiral with no interventions to help them Nadeau decided to look for work as a probation officer because she felt the role would give her more latitude to help people find tactics to transition out of incarceration The role at Ramsey County Mental Fitness Court which she has held since October feels different from the work of a traditional probation officer I get to show that I care because it is a supportive plan Nadeau explained A great number of of her clients even though they have been diagnosed with SPMI have not had much experience working with a therapist I am able to talk to them and encourage them to let them know it is OK to talk to somebody about their trauma Before he went to law school Carey worked with sex offenders as a Ramsey County probation officer Later he earned a law degree and took a job as an assistant Ramsey County attorney This work sparked his interest in helping people who struggle in their day-to-day lives because of mental illness and addiction I ve unfailingly been interested in mental wellbeing issues and people s well-being he noted It s part of what I grew up with I believe there are a lot of people who struggle and you should be compassionate to them Someday you could be the one requiring compassion He hopes that commitment shines through in his interactions with participants Just know we aren t going to wad you up and throw you away At every graduation Husman explained that she and her colleagues all hold dreams for participants futures but they are also realistic about the odds for their continued recovery I hate to say it but just because they are fruitful on graduation day doesn t mean they are going to be prosperous in six months or even a couple of years down the road To stay motivated Husman declared court workers are focused on What does it look like for this person in current times Are they better than they were when they came to us The bar isn t set the same for everybody If a person comes to us with zero guidance if they leave with even a couple of things that would be a success And there are Mental Fitness Healing Court graduates whose success has exceeded expectations Husman added I have heard back from a scarce clients after graduation who tell us they are doing phenomenally well so much better than they were when they came to us That s the dream The post Focused on recovery Ramsey County Mental Soundness Healing Court marks years appeared first on 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