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Alachua County has been selected as one of Stepping Up’s growing cohort of Innovator Counties – counties that are successfully using the Stepping Up suggested three-step approach to collect and analyze timely data on the prevalence of people who have mental illnesses in jails. Alachua County will be sharing its… Read More

Today, March 1, marks the official launch of a new dashboard that highlights data gathered from Johnson County Mental Health Center and the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office to track the effectiveness of providing mental health services to incarcerated individuals. The goal is to reduce the prevalence of mental illness within… Read More

On JoCo on the Go, episode #127, hear about a new Johnson County program that is providing early support to incarcerated individuals with mental health concerns, so when they reenter the community they’re doing so with the tools they need to be successful. The Reentry Project offers screening and resources… Read More

Across the country, county criminal justice, behavioral health, and social service system leaders are grappling with reducing the number of people with serious mental illness (SMI) in criminal justice systems, including county jails, often by using “front-end” strategies. Counties frequently struggle with using data to gauge the impact of these… Read More

Among the more than 540 counties that have joined the Stepping Up initiative, Innovator counties lead the nation in successfully collecting and applying data to inform decision-making. This brief covers how Innovators are bringing about meaningful change in the movement to reduce the number of people with behavioral health needs… Read More

Counties across the country have made progress addressing the Stepping Up Four Key Measures. Yet counties often struggle with Key Measure 3: post-release connections to care for people who have a serious mental illness (SMI). This measure necessarily involves a handoff from the county jail system to the community-based behavioral… Read More

By Christopher Seeley, MSW, American Psychiatric Association Foundation Sometimes the symptoms of an individual’s mental illness can impact their ability to make decisions about getting the treatment they need. A psychiatric advance directive (PAD) is a legal document that individuals can use to make a plan before a crisis occurs to help ensure that their needs and preferences for care are known. A PAD also allows the individual to identify… Read More

By Christopher Seeley, MSW, American Psychiatric Association Foundation Connecting people to care is vitally important for preventing further engagement in the justice system. That’s why it’s among the key measures that the Stepping Up initiative encourages counties to understand. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, connections to treatment for this… Read More

As part of their Stepping Up initiative, leaders in Monterey County, California, engaged the CSG Justice Center to work with county stakeholders to map current policies, processes, and resources for people with behavioral health needs who enter the criminal justice system. This report presents recommendations for system improvements, including feedback… Read More