Program Description

Special Needs Diversionary Program, Texas

Overview

The Special Needs Diversionary Program (SNDP) is a jointly funded statewide initiative involving both the juvenile justice and mental health agencies, designed to provide youth with mental health services. A total of nineteen programs are operating throughout Texas, including one in Harris County, Texas. SNDP is jointly funded by the Texas Correctional Office on Offenders with Medical and Mental Impairments (TCOOMMI) and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission (TJPC). Services are also partly funded by Medicaid reimbursement, CHIP, and third party payers. SNDP serves as both a diversion program for justice-involved youth and a reintegration program for youth released from secure facilities. To be eligible for the program, youth must be between 10 and 18 years of age with a primary mental health diagnosis (DSM-IV, Axis I-MH) and have a GAF score of 50 or below, be classified as seriously emotionally disturbed in special education, or be at risk for removal from the home due to psychiatric reasons. There are multiple points of entry to the diversion program, and referrals can be made from virtually all key juvenile justice processing points (from intake through post-adjudication).

Four co-located Probation/ Licensed Practitioners of the Healing Arts (LPHA) Teams provide case management, service coordination, and supervision to approximately 60 youth per year. Each team has a caseload of 12 to 15 youth who are on probation. These teams are responsible for jointly securing, providing or supervising the provision of services to youth on their caseload. The state of Texas requires Probation to use the MAYSI-2 (a mental health and substance use screening tool for use in juvenile justice settings) to screen all youth at Probation Intake. The results of the screen are passed to the Probation/LPHA teams, where youth then undergo a clinical assessment and family interview. Following these assessments, an individualized treatment plan is developed for the youth and family.

All program services are based on a wraparound philosophy of team treatment planning. The Probation/LPHA teams strive to provide the majority of services in the home or school. Services include benefit coordination to assist with Medicaid or CHIP enrollment, psychiatric services, including medication management and group and individual counseling, health care, parent and child support groups, job training services, and transition planning to prepare for discharge from the program. Mental health services not directly provided by the teams are available through the Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority of Harris County. Program compliance and progress is monitored through unscheduled home visits by the youth’s probation officer three times per week and a scheduled visit by the LPHA therapist once per week. Participating families also have three to five program contacts per week, at least two of which are in the home.

The state of Texas requires locally funded programs to collect specific data elements to measure outcomes. These elements include:

• Number of arrests;
• Number of absconders;
• Number of revocations;
• Number of detention admissions;
• Number of psychiatric inpatient stays; and
• Number of institutional admissions

The Texas Legislature has directed TCOOMMI, the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission, and the other state agencies involved with the initiative to submit a report on a three-year recidivism study of the SNDP initiative.

References

Texas Youth Commission. Specialized Correctional Treatment. Retrieved from the worldwide web on March 15, 2005. http://www.tyc.state.tx.us/programs.special_treat.html

Site visit to program June 2004

State Level Contact

Erin Espinosa
Federal Programs Specialist
Texas Juvenile Probation Commission
PO Box 13547
Austin, TX 78711
Phone: 512-424-6728

Harris County Contact:

Miguel Anglada
7011 South West Freeway, 2nd Floor
Houston, TX 77074
Phone: 713-970-9827