D.C. Courthouse Opens Mental Health Urgent Care

A mental health urgent care center opened July 23 on the first floor of D.C. Superior Court and sees patients who are referred from government agencies. The center is at the Moultrie Courthouse and was opened by the District Department of Mental Health, and the D.C. Superior Court.

The Court Urgent Care Clinic sees patients who show signals of mental illness or substance abuse, and who have been referred.

The referrals are issued by criminal judges and the following agencies:

            D.C. Pretrial Services Agency

            D.C. Misdemeanor and Traffic Community Court

            Mental Health Diversion Program

            East of the River Community Court

The clinic is funded by a $1.5 million contract from the Psychiatric Institute of Washington. The institute will provide direct mental health services.

“The Superior Court is very pleased to be able to join with the Department of Mental Health to make mental health services available to criminal defendants in a more easily accessible and user-friendly manner,” said Judge Ann O'Regan Keary, presiding judge of the Superior Court's Criminal Division.

“There are a number of defendants who come before the court suffering from major mental illnesses thatare treatable but have been untreated, often for a prolonged period of time,” she added. “The Court Urgent Care Clinic should help them connect with necessary mental health services, and reduce the chances of them re-offending. In both ways our community will be better off.”

The clinic will be particularly useful in reaching homeless people and those who are arrested repeatedly and have untreated mental illness, said Steve Baron, director of the DC Department of Mental Health.

“It’s an important resource in the public mental health system,” he said.

For more information, click here.

Sources: The DC Department of Mental Health

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