Sponsored by: McLaren Port Huron
Written by Audrey Sochor
Six people appeared before St. Clair County Probate Judge John Tomlinson on April 17, but instead of prehearing jitters they wore smiles on their faces. They had just graduated Mental Health Court.
A joint initiative between St. Clair County’s 72nd District Court and Community Mental Health, the program combines traditional probation aspects with mental health services.
“[Mental Health Court] has given me a new lease on life,” said Travis Armstrong, program graduate. “It’s such a great program. They help you get very successful and striving for work, getting off probation; I have utmost respect for this program. Now I have almost a year sobriety, I’m working now full-time, I’ve got money in my pocket and I’m not in jail.”
The program focuses more on rehabilitation than retribution. While participants must follow probation requirements such as monitoring and refraining from drug and alcohol use, they also receive group or individual therapy sessions, psychotropic medications and other support services.
“The idea is to target people with mental illness or an intellectual disability that have had difficulty with the law or difficulty with their daily living as a result of that, and typically those people have a hard time following through with their services – maintaining housing and employment,” said Michael Brown, program coordinator for Mental Health Court.
Brown added the program has a 10 to 20 percent higher success rate of keeping people out of further trouble with the law than normal probation.
Referrals to the program come from a variety of sources including attorneys, family members and social workers. A committee involving mental health professionals, court officials and the person’s attorney decide if someone is a diagnostic fit, and then the defendant gets to decide if they want to participate.
Armstrong is glad he did since before the program he had no hope. “I was looking at maybe two years in jail” he said. “It was like an end road block. I didn’t know what I was going to do, where I was going to go. I was even contemplating suicide. Now today all that’s gone.”
