The Creation of a Mental Health Docket in Dallas County

CHILDREN AT RISK co-authored an op-ed with Dr. Terry Snow Smith, Director of Dallas County Juvenile Services and Dr. Octavio Martinez, Executive Director of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health. The article titled, “It’s time for a juvenile mental health court in Dallas”, ran in the Dallas Morning News on April 11, 2011. The article discussed the benefits of juvenile mental health courts, immediate cost savings and highlighted the four existing courts in other urban Texas cities-Austin, El Paso, Houston and San Antonio. Dr. Terry Snow Smith informed CHILDREN AT RISK that because of the op-ed, conversations started happening in Dallas County to see how a juvenile mental health court could be implemented in Dallas County. As of now we are pleased to announce that Dallas County is in the planning stages of implementing a juvenile mental health court. The preliminary plan would be to establish a juvenile mental health court that would see juveniles with mental illnesses who are pre-adjudicated, both boys and girls would be served and their intent would be to hold the court in the evening so that it could be more accommodating to the parent and student schedules. The Juvenile Board and Commissioner’s Court of Dallas County are supportive of the initiative and collaborating partners are coming to the table. The Dallas County juvenile mental health court would like to see juveniles with mental illness diverted from the system and given proper treatment. We will be sure to keep you updated as this initiative develops in Dallas County.