Specialist mental health courts "improve inter-agency working"

Specialist mental health courts lead to stronger cooperation between health and criminal justice agencies when it comes to working with offenders with mental health needs, research for the Ministry of Justice has suggested.

Two court pilots were run in Brighton and Stratford in East London between January 2009 and January 2010. The schemes have continued since the pilots ended.

Specialist mental health courts operate either as a dedicated session dealing with the sentencing of offenders who have mental health problems or learning disabilities or within a normal case list in a magistrates’ court.

The work is tailored to meet this type of offender. The courts:

• Identify relevant defendants through screening and assessments conducted by a dedicated practitioner
• Provide the court with information on a defendant’s needs to enable effective case management
• Offer credible alternatives to custody to ensure offenders are supported, whether that is with a community order with a supervision requirement or mental health treatment
• Provide enhanced psychiatric services at court
• Implement regular reviews of orders, and
• Direct individuals not suitable for the mental health court community order to mental health and other services that can appropriately address their needs.

The study conducted for the MoJ suggested that the pilots “focused minds”. It said: “Many agencies became involved in order to create solutions to long-standing problems, such as information sharing to support sentencing which had formally created barriers to identification and provision.”