{"id":6296,"date":"2017-07-31T21:09:02","date_gmt":"2017-08-01T04:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/?p=6296"},"modified":"2025-12-05T21:10:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T05:10:07","slug":"commentary-county-reducing-recidivism-in-mental-illness-with-co-occurring-substance-abuse-disorder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/2017\/07\/31\/commentary-county-reducing-recidivism-in-mental-illness-with-co-occurring-substance-abuse-disorder\/","title":{"rendered":"COMMENTARY – County Reducing Recidivism in Mental illness with co-occurring Substance Abuse Disorder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nadine Ono]<\/em><\/p>\n

San Bernardino County is taking a big step toward working to reduce recidivism among mentally ill offenders through its Corrections to a Safer Community (CTASC) program, after a jail study conducted by CA Fwd\u2019s\u00a0Justice System Change Initiative<\/a>\u00a0team showed that those with mental illness are booked twice as often and stay three times longer than the general population. This difference points to the need to identify and refer those with serious mental health issues to program designed to serve this population in more targeted ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal of the program is to assist in the reduction of the incarceration of individuals who have a mental illness while ensuring their transition to services in the community,\u201d said CTASC Forensic Division Manager Terri Franklin. \u201cThe program seeks to reduce the recidivism rate for those seriously mentally ill persons leaving the San Bernardino Type II jails.\u201d Often individuals have a dual diagnosis of mental illness and substance use disorders. CTASC addresses the treatment and supportive needs of those individuals with a mental illness and a co-occurring substance abuse disorder.<\/p>\n

The program has received more than 400 referrals in the first nine months of the program from a range of early identification sources. The vast majority of those referred to the program are seen within five days of booking, which points to increased collaboration and coordination between agencies.<\/p>\n

The program, which is part of the county\u2019s Department of Behavioral Health and is embedded in the jails in partnership with the Sheriff\u2019s Department, uses a three-pronged approach: jail diversion, pre-release engagement and facilitating community re-entry.<\/p>\n

CTASC works with the Public Defender\u2019s office to identify mentally ill individuals early in their jail stay and facilitate speedy resolution of their criminal matter. If it is a non-violent case that may have occurred because of the person mental illness, such as a public nuisance case, clinicians will work with the public defender\u2019s office and the courts to divert that person to treatment instead of a longer stay in jail.<\/p>\n

The CTASC team also meets with patients while they are in jail to enhance engagement in jail and coordinate care before release. The clinicians will interview them and develop a reentry plan to ensure that their needs are met upon release and they have a smooth transition back into the community.<\/p>\n

Once an individual with mental illness is released, the CTASC team begins a process of successful reintegration by addressing basic needs and intensive care coordination. At the release from jail, CTASC staff are there to meet and transport them to the program that\u2019s been arranged for them pre-release. This is known as the \u201cwarm hand-off\u201d and makes sure that the individual is connected to services.<\/p>\n

Added Franklin, \u201cWe want to make sure that we\u2019re filling the gaps. We don\u2019t want to replicate what somebody else is already doing in the community. So if there\u2019s already someone providing a service, we\u2019ll case manage them to that provider. But in those instances where there\u2019s no prior services, then CTASC will be filling that gap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides the Public Defender\u2019s office, CTASC also works with the District Attorney\u2019s office, the courts and the Sheriff\u2019s Department. \u201cThrough all of our collective efforts, we\u2019re making this a successful program,” said Franklin. “This is definitely a collaborative effort.”<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been less than a year since CTASC was created and the team already is having an impact in people\u2019s lives. To illustrate the benefits of the program to clients, CTASC Clinical Therapist Valerie Williams talked about a young man who was eligible for early release. \u201cWe were able to arrange an appointment with him at a DBH clinic so he was able to continue his psychiatric medication. We assisted him in obtaining a state ID, helped him regain visitation with his daughter, got his social security reinstated and he is currently in the process of being linked to a longer term program.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, according to Clinic Supervisor Giselle Lopez, word is getting out across the state. \u201cWe had letters from the state prison from individuals learning about our program and asking about assistance as well. It\u2019s not only the community, but patients themselves know about our program and are asking for help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because CTASC is a new program, it will evolve to meet the needs of its patients. Plans are currently underway to add peer and family advocates who will work with the patients as part of the ongoing case management. Peer and Family advocates are individuals or family member who have \u201clived experience\u201d with behavioral health needs.<\/p>\n

Franklin added, \u201cThe beauty of a new program is that we\u2019re building this as we\u2019re flying it.” Innovative programs like CTASC are a step toward lowering jail recurrence of the mentally ill and addressing the disparate impacts of those with mental illness.<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nadine Ono] San Bernardino County is taking a big step toward working to reduce recidivism among mentally ill<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","darknews-slider-full":"","darknews-featured":"","darknews-medium":"","darknews-medium-square":""},"author_info":{"display_name":"News MoLo","author_link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/author\/admin\/"},"category_info":"News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6296"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6296"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6297,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6296\/revisions\/6297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}