The Upper Cumberland’s 13th Judicial District preparing to launch a new Mental Health Court to provide specialized support and supervision for individuals struggling with mental illness.
Cookeville Vice Mayor Luke Eldridge said the program is designed to function similarly to a drug court by requiring participants to follow specific guidelines. Eldridge said the state has provided funding to help coordinate care for individuals who are often arrested due to underlying mental health struggles rather than criminal intent.
“If we can keep people on their medication, especially those with mental health struggles,” Eldridge said, “Then it will decrease the amount, hopefully it’ll totally decrease them going into the justice the judicial system and going back into jail.”
Eldridge said the initiative gained momentum after he and Judge Sean Fry met with state officials in Nashville to discuss the need for specialized intervention. Eldridge said the district is currently working to establish a contract and set parameters with the District Attorney to ensure the program is implemented correctly.
“I’ve for close to two almost 20 years I’ve always worked with mental health, substance abuse, homelessness and I know I’m very familiar with drug court,” Eldridge said. “But what really triggered this is over the last couple couple last couple of years is that we hear a lot about people that are in jail, there a lot of it’s mental health or a lot of our homelessness is mental health and they’re getting there’s arrests and they just need help.”
Eldridge said the court will rely on judges who volunteer their time to oversee cases where a mental health evaluation is deemed necessary. Eldridge said the program will likely partner with organizations such as Volunteer Behavioral Health to provide caseworkers and navigation services for participants.
“People don’t get to choose mental health sometimes a lot of times right?” Eldridge said. “Some struggles can be brought on by maybe substance abuse but it’s not what’s wrong with them it’s what’s happened to them. And you know some people need some help and not it’s and sometimes jail’s not always the option.”
Eldridge said addressing mental health through the court system could reduce the financial impact on community resources, noting that a single homeless individual can cost a city between $30,000 and $40,000 annually in emergency services. Eldridge said he estimates that approximately 30 to 40 percent of the local jail population is dealing with some form of mental health struggle.
“The heart of it is the mental health court is going to help those that keep going through the system that need mental health services and need this as a as a good bumper like on a bowling alley to keep them going down the right track so they can hit a strike and we can get ’em to we can make sure they’re scoring enough points make sure they’re hitting that 300 perfect score at the end of the using a bowling analogy there,” Eldridge said. “But make sure they can use get what they want to get the best chance of winning and and fighting their mental health and hopefully managing it.”
Eldridge said the program is currently in its early stages and will require collaboration between the District Attorney, local law enforcement, and community recovery teams. Eldridge said while a specific launch date is not yet set, he hopes to see the court operational by January 1.
