September 2019
New Assessment Tool Aims to Help Treatment Courts Identify Racial Bias
The Justice Programs Office (JPO) and National Drug Court Resource Center (NDCRC) released a blog yesterday written by JPO’s Associate Director of Communications, Leola Abraham, on the recently piloted Racial and Ethnic Disparities (RED) Program Assessment Tool.
Must Watch: RED Program Assessment Tool How-To & Overview  
The Center for Court Innovation  and JPO recently hosted a webinar discussing: An Overview of the Racial and Ethnic Disparities (RED) Program Assessment Tool. The webinar is now available on JPO’s  YouTube  channel and can be found  here by logging in or creating a free account

JPO Presenters Preeti Menon, Leola Abraham, and Zephi Francis provided an overview of the research literature on RED in treatment courts, a discussion on how to use the RED Program Assessment Tool, and a summary of a few case studies about treatment courts’ experiences using the assessment.
A tutorial on the  RED  Program Assessment Tool is now available on the Justice Program’s Office (JPO) YouTube channel. Watch to uncover how to take the tool, navigate the website, and useful tips for before you begin. For additional questions on how to use the tool visit  FAQ .  
Building Awareness
September commemorates and brings awareness to many topics including National Recovery Month, National Hispanic Heritage Month, and National Suicide Prevention Month. The NDCRC team is highlighting some important resources and tools pertaining to these topics of interest. Find them below: 

National Recovery Month  
NDCRC has an issue brief discussing recovery for opioid use disorders. Inside you’ll find out how the opioid crisis began, information on opioid intervention courts, and how Medication-Assisted Treatment is a possible solution and approach towards substance use recovery. Read and download the issue brief .

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration  (SAMHSA) provides a useful treatment locator map that allows users to find local facilities through searching by state, county, distance, and service type. The services they locate include substance use, mental health, substance use and mental health, health care centers, buprenorphine physicians, and veterans’ affairs. Locate the SAMHSA Treatment map .   

National Hispanic Heritage Month  
NDCRC also has an issue brief discussing Hispanics and Latinos/Latinas in Drug Courts. Specifically covering cultural strategies to enhance and sustain recovery.  Read and download the issue brief.  

NDCRC’s recently launched RED Program Assessment Tool also has recommendations for treatment courts to provide services in Spanish, in order to implement the most inclusive treatment catering to all clients’ needs.  Learn more about the RED Program Assessment Tool.

National Suicide Prevention Month   
The JPO Veterans Treatment Court Enhancement Initiative  team's Veterans Justice and Mental Health (VJMH) newsletter focused on suicide prevention this month.  Read the September VJMH newsletter.
National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP) News  
Online Training for Mentors and Mentor Coordinators in Veterans' Treatment Courts   

NADCP’s Justice for Vets now offers free online professional development modules for mentors in veterans treatment courts. The ten, eight to twelve minute courses are designed to provide mentors, mentor coordinators, and other members of the veterans’ treatment court team with the critical fundamentals necessary to be an effective mentor to a fellow veteran in crisis.  Learn more, enroll in the courses, and find other resources for mentors.

Available courses include: 
  • What is a Veterans Treatment Court? 
  • Role of the Veteran Mentor 
  • Risk Factors for Repeated Justice Involvement 
  • Empowering Wellness and Recovery 
  • Mentoring a Participant with a Substance Use Disorder 
  • Communication Skills 
  • Mentor Self Care 
  • Trauma-Informed Services 
  • Suicide Awareness and Prevention 
  • Boundaries 
The Center for Children and Family Futures News
The Center for Children and Family Futures and NADCP, with the support of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, are pleased to present the Family Treatment Court Best Practice Standards (FTC Standards) . The FTC standards reflect the rigorous research and rich practice experience accumulated during the first 30 years of treatment court operations and are a core strategy in the   National Strategic Plan for Family Drug Courts .  

Also, be sure to  check out the FDC Blog  to catch up on relevant posts for practitioners in the field and don’t forget to  subscribe to the newsletter.
Upcoming Events
Legislative Updates
Ordered 08/05/19  
New Mexico dictated an executive order aimed at children who have their education interrupted by a number of treatment court outcomes. If a child moves public school or educational district as a result of court ordered treatment or placement, legislation exists to allow the student to have partial credit for incomplete classes. This executive order encourages the Department of Education to further promote this legislation and ensure that it is being adhered to by all school districts in New Mexico. 

Enacted 08/09/19  
Amending the already existing Overdose Prevention and Harm Reduction Act, this bill has a number of alterations. It requires the state to maintain an inventory of all substance use disorder treatment programs and encourages the Illinois Department of Public Health to adhere to best practices in terms of overdose prevention and response. This includes the providing of and training in use of naloxone/Narcan, engaging with individuals exiting jails or prisons who are high risk for overdose and employing peer recovery specialists who can provide culturally competent services. 

Enacted 08/13/19  
Removing the need for a prior authorization, as well as any step-therapy requirements, this act removes barriers for coverage of medication-assisted treatment under health insurance programs in Delaware. Further, it compels health insurance carriers to formulate and maintain generic versions of buprenorphine, naltrexone, naloxone and a combination naloxone/buprenorphine. Both of these steps will reduce the cost and treatment barriers in the access of medication-assisted treatment for those who may otherwise have been unable to receive it. 

Enacted 08/23/19  
Augmenting the existing provisions of the Family Support Program in Illinois, this act aims to reduce barriers to treatment of mental health and substance use disorder in patient treatment for those who are under the age of 26. This legislation includes mental health treatment as a benefit of the Family Support Program, encourages inter-agency collaboration on each patient, and begins a working group to establish substance use disorder treatment protocol. 

Ordered   08/26/19  
An executive order to lower flags to half-mast in respect of The Honorable Stephen S. Goss, who was a key figure in the creation of the Dougherty Superior Court Mental Health/Substance Abuse treatment program, the first felony mental health court in the state of Georgia.
The National Drug Court Resource, Policy, and Evidence-Based Practice Center ’s mission is to equip the drug court field with open access to a wide variety of resources and research, helping treatment courts run more effectively.
The  National Drug Court Resource, Policy, and Evidence-Based Practice Center is funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance and operated by the Justice Programs Office (JPO) at American University. Neither the U.S. Department of Justice nor any of its components operate, control, are responsible for, or necessarily endorse the content of this newsletter

Please email  ndcrc@american.edu  with any inquiries. 
National Drug Court Resource Center | Justice Programs Office
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