Grants to Develop and Expand Behavioral Health Treatment Court Collaboratives is sponsored by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). This program provides joint funding to allow collaborating courts to address the behavioral health needs of individuals in the criminal justice or court continuum, including those reentering society after incarceration.

Description:The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Centers for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) and Mental Health Services (CMHS) are accepting applications for fiscal year (FY) 2011 Grants to Develop and Expand Behavioral Health Treatment Court Collaboratives.

SAMHSA's vision of a Behavioral Health Treatment Court Collaborative in the justice system is one that supports treatment and recovery support for people with behavioral health conditions and that improves public health and public safety by transforming the behavioral health system at the community level.

The purpose of the Behavioral Health Treatment Court Collaborative grant program is to allow State and local criminal and dependency courts serving adults more flexibility to collaborate with the other judicial components and the local community treatment and recovery providers to better address the behavioral health needs of adults who are involved with the criminal court system.

This grant program is a new approach to current SAMHSA adult treatment drug court and ex-offender reentry grant programs and to SAMHSA's mental health systems transformation grants programs (including jail diversion for individuals with mental health needs.

Previous SAMHSA adult drug court and offender reentry grants using CSAT funds have focused resources on expanding or enhancing treatment services to those individuals with substance abuse/use treatment needs, and using CMHS funds for jail diversion for individuals with mental health conditions to change processes for dealing with individuals with behavioral health conditions.

This new approach combines previous and current SAMHSA criminal justice � treatment linkage programs with infrastructure planning and development activities to create new court and community networks to transform the behavioral health system at the community level.

SAMHSA's previous and existing ex-offender reentry programs were designed to address the needs of individuals with substance use disorders who had reentered society after being incarcerated.

These Court Collaboratives will allow communities to meet the needs of individuals with substance abuse and mental health disorders who are engaged at any point of the criminal justice or dependency court continuum, including who are reentering society after being re-incarcerated and under some sort of post-incarceration judicial supervision.

In order to address the needs of individuals in any part of the criminal justice or dependency court continuum all adult criminal courts and family/child dependency courts including community-based reentry courts will be eligible to apply for and/or be a part of the court collaboratives.

These Court Collaboratives will work to prevent and interrupt the cycle of offense and recidivism that occurs in many communities through diversion into appropriate treatment and services. This transformation will enable individuals with mental and substance use disorders to access treatment and services in appropriate settings instead of jails and prisons.

The Behavioral Health Treatment Court Collaboratives will allow eligible individuals with any type of behavioral health problem (including substance abuse or misuse, alcohol and drug addiction, serious psychological distress, and mental and substance use disorders) to receive treatment and recovery support services as part of a judicial collaborative.

By "braiding" funding from CSAT and CMHS this new approach will allow communities to reach a wider population of court-involved adults with behavioral health needs. [Note: Applicants should refer to Section 2: Expectations, Funding Allocation for guidance on the "braiding" of funds, funding constraints, reporting and accounting, and budget submission requirements.]

Recognizing that substance abuse and mental conditions should be seen in a larger behavioral health context, SAMHSA is proposing a broader, collaborative approach that provides more flexibility for local communities to utilize its courts to provide treatment services to individuals with behavioral health needs (including substance abuse or misuse, alcohol and drug addiction, serious psychological distress, suicide, and mental and substance use disorders).

Recognizing that individuals with substance abuse disorders and/or mental disorders who are involved with the criminal and juvenile justice systems do not have adequate access to community-based treatment and recovery services SAMHSA has for several years funded discretionary grant programs to meet the needs of these individuals while also recognizing the need for community public safety.

Previous SAMHSA funding has often been limited to serving only individuals with substance abuse disorders in drug courts or transitioning from prison to the community thereby creating a services gap. Individuals with mental health-related issues and/or co-occurring substance abuse and mental disorders are not typically provided access to behavioral health services through these courts.

This grant program provides opportunities for State and local criminal or dependency courts to build partnerships in collaboration with other existing criminal courts and court diversion or alternatives to incarceration programs in order to facilitate the transformation of the State and local behavioral health delivery system so as to better meet the behavioral health needs of those adults involved with the criminal court system.

By leveraging a spectrum of community based service supports within the problem solving court context for adults with behavioral health service needs the courts can facilitate the expansion and enhancement of treatment and recovery support services for those individuals with behavioral health conditions (inclusive of mental disorders, substance use disorders, and co-occurring mental and substance use disorders).

SAMHSA seeks to support the transformation of services to justice involved adults with behavioral health conditions to those that are consumer centered, recovery oriented, evidence-based, quality driven, and trauma informed.

The specific population of focus is adults who have been charged with a criminal offense and bound over to a local criminal court for trial/adjudication of that offense, when appropriate, diverted from the justice system through judicial screening, or those sentenced to incarceration in jail or prison and returning to the community under some form of judicial supervision, and who have been identified as having or suspected by the court or community of having a behavioral health condition (mental illness, substance use, or co-occurring mental illness and substance use disorders).

The Collaborative among existing criminal courts or family/child dependency courts and other court programs and the community will allow for the coordination of judicial activities and for screening, referral, adjudication, monitoring and treatment of persons with behavioral health conditions.

In alignment with the goals of SAMHSA's Strategic Initiative: Trauma and Justice, this program will help "reduce the pervasive, harmful, and costly health impact of violence and trauma by integrating trauma-informed approaches throughout health and behavioral healthcare systems and to divert people with substance use and mental disorders from criminal justice and juvenile justice systems into trauma-informed treatment and recovery".

Since individuals involved in the criminal justice system tend to have high rates of exposure to trauma either as victims and/or to victimize others, grantees must assure that Behavioral Health Treatment Court Collaborative personnel and service providers will be trauma-informed and that court clients will be screened, assessed, and treated for trauma-related disorders.

The Behavioral Health Treatment Court Collaborative grant program is one of SAMHSA's service grant programs. SAMHSA intends that its services grants result in the delivery of services as soon as possible after award.

Given the systems transformation goals of this program, SAMHSA is allowing applicants an initial 6-month start-up period to plan and implement court coordination and linkages and needed systems infrastructure planning and development before the actual provision of treatment and recovery services.

However, in order to meet the performance measurement requirements of the program, service delivery must begin by the 6th month of the project at the latest. Behavioral Health Treatment Court Collaboratives grants are authorized under Sections 509 of the Public Health Service Act, as amended for CSAT funds, and Section 520A of the Public Health Service Act, as amended for CMHS funds.

This announcement addresses Healthy People 2020 Mental Health and Mental Disorders Topic Area HP 2020-MHMD and Substance Abuse Topic Area HP 2020-SA. For more information on SAMHSA's interest in funding ATCC grants please see Appendix K- Background Information.

Grantor Contact Information:If you have difficulty accessing the full announcement electronically, please contact: Love Foster-Horton Office of Financial Resources, Division of Grants Management Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration 1 Choke Cherry Road Room 7-1095 Rockville, Maryland 20857 (240) 276-1653