More of the same? Treatment in mental health courts

Despite the centrality of community treatment to the identity and mission of mental health courts, research on what treatment is actually provided by mental health courts is scarce. Using longitudinal interview data from a large, well-established mental health court, this study describes the context, amount, and types of treatment for 82 mental health court participants (MHC) and a matched sample of 89 defendants (TAU) who underwent regular criminal court processing. The study compared treatment from the period 6 months prior to entry into the mental health court or arrest to that at a 6-month follow-up. Multivariate analyses were used to estimate the effect of mental health court participation on the amount of outpatient treatment, controlling for demographic, clinical, and legal variables. The research found that mental health court participation increased the frequency of outpatient treatment, but that social services and treatment specialized to address criminal risk factors were uncommon both at the baseline and at the 6-month follow-up. At the baseline, a majority of both samples reported that they had received outpatient treatment, but the MHC sample reported more frequent and more varied treatment. At the 6-month follow-up, the differences between the 2 samples were greater, with the wider gap resulting not only from improvements in the MHC but also from deterioration in the treatment status of the TAU sample.