Mental Health Court

Mental Health Court is a cooperative effort among multiple agencies, including the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office, Multnomah County Circuit Court, Multnomah County Mental Health Department, Metropolitan Public Defender, Multnomah County Department of Community Justice, and the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.

Participants

Successful participants are able to shorten the length of their probationary period. Potential participants are identified from a variety of sources:

• Persons against whom criminal charges are pending
• New probationers
• Persons currently on probation and being supervised by the Mentally Ill Offender Unit of the Multnomah County Department of Community Justice, Probation Department
• Persons currently on unsupervised probation (bench probation) referred by the supervising judge.

To qualify, an offender must suffer from 1 of the following afflictions: bi-polar disorder, schizo-affective disorder, schizophrenia, or major depression.

Mental Health Court Monitor

Once accepted into Mental Health Court, the participant is assigned to a Mental Health Court Monitor. The monitor works with the participant on issues such as housing, medication management, health care appointments, and transportation. Participants are expected to stay free of drugs and alcohol, to meet regularly with their assigned monitor, to take all prescribed medication, keep all appointments with service providers, and obey all laws.