IMHPAC -Justice Subcommittee Meeting Minutes 07/09/25

Wednesday, July 9, 2025 - 2:00-3:00 PM

  • Introduction and Call to Order

Attendance - Scott Block, Matt Fishback, Ron Melka, Sue Shroeder, Sharon Coleman

Guests: Christina Smith

  • Discuss FY26/27 Block Grant Application and Priorities

Members Discussed and Approved of the following Block Grant Objectives:

  • Objective #1: Provide an alternative to incarceration for youth with SED and link them to community-based services that address unique needs and strengths.
    • Strategy: Maintain the Mental Health Juvenile Justice Initiative.
  • Objective #2: Maintain and increase the number of outpatient mental health agencies providing competency restoration services in the community.
    • Strategy: Continue to support the availability of 18 agencies statewide to provide competency restoration services to persons with SMI mandated by the Court to receive these services and, contingent on available funding, establish additional agencies in local areas where this service is demonstrably needed.
  • Eliminate Objective #3: Expand Jail Data Link (JDL) access- a shared data program between Community Mental Health Centers and Jails/Detention Centers that re-connects mental health consumers who have been arrested and detained with a mental health agency in their community where they have previously received services.
    • Rationale: IDHS is not currently allocating dollars or resources to support this goal or strategy, thus limiting potential progress.
  • Approved Proposed Objective #3: Promote and increase the use of civil outpatient commitment pathways to mental health care.
    • Rationale: Civil Outpatient Commitment, often referred to as Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT), is widely considered to be an underutilized tool allowing civil courts and mental health systems to work collaboratively. Many individuals living with serious mental illness (SMI) struggle with adherence to treatment, often resulting in increased rates of suicide and self-harm, violent behavior, victimization, insecure housing, high utilization of ERs, and frequent contact with law enforcement. These behaviors and vulnerabilities lead to high rates of inpatient psychiatric hospitalization and incarceration. AOT is a legal mechanism for providing a pathway to outpatient care for individuals whose non-adherence with treatment places them at risk for negative outcomes. AOT permits concerned parties (such as families and treatment providers) to intervene on behalf of an individual living with an SMI, without having to wait until that individual reaches a crisis, increasing the individual's ability to function in the community.
  • Public Comment
  • Adjourn