The Kaiser Health News (8/20, Gold) reports that the City of San Antonio, TX and surrounding Bexar County “have completely overhauled their mental health system into a program considered a model for the rest of” the US. Their “effort has focused on an idea called ‘smart justice’ – basically, diverting people with serious mental illness out of jail and into treatment instead.”
This effort “is possible because all the players in the system that deal with mental illness – the police, the county jail, mental health department, criminal courts, hospitals and homeless programs – pooled their resources to take better care of people with mental illness.”
Related Links:
— “San Antonio Police Have Radical Approach To Mental Illness: Treat It,” Jenny Gold, Kaiser Health News, August 19, 2014.