Best Practices Conference Responsibility and Recovery in the Legal System

April 14, 2009 until April 16, 2009
Honolulu, Hawai'i

Aloha

http://www.amhd.org/conferences/2009/

You are cordially invited to attend the 2009 Annual Best Practices Conference Responsibility and Recovery in the Legal System. This conference will be held at the Hawai‘i Convention Center in Honolulu, Hawai‘i from April 14-16, 2009. The goal of this annual conference is to provide a forum for stakeholders from Hawai‘i and the Pacific to exchange ideas and to learn from each another.

Overview

Evidence-based practices (EBPs) are services for people with severe and persistent mental illness which have demonstrated positive outcomes in multiple research studies. The Adult Mental Health Division strives to integrate these EBPs and other best practices into the array of services throughout the system. The annual Best Practices Conference highlights one or more EBPs each year to draw particular focus to these essential services and clinically proven approaches. This conference further allows the AMHD to incorporate leading clinical interventions and promote individual recovery while remaining culturally informed, sensitive and responsive.

During the past 50 years, there has been a significant increase in the numbers of mentally ill individuals involved with the criminal justice system. More and more often, police officers, court personnel, parole and probation officers, and jail personnel handle cases involving mentally ill individuals. And, vice versa, more and more mental health providers work with consumers involved with criminal justice. These cases are called “forensic” cases—those that involve both mental health and criminal justice.

Unfortunately, forensic consumers are often forgotten, cast aside, or mischaracterized due to long-standing societal misconceptions and stigma. Truth is, mentally ill persons are arrested more frequently and spend more time in jail than non-mentally ill persons, even though the majority of their criminal activities involve non-violent, low-level quality of life transgressions. As a result of their legal histories, forensic consumers have more trouble securing treatment services, jobs, and housing—thus making it more likely for them to come back into contact with the police and courts. Police departments, courts, and correctional facilities have been ill-equipped to handle the influx of mental health issues they currently face.

This conference will be the first of its kind in Hawaii to fully address these issues. For the first time, all of the stakeholders in the process—including the forensic consumers and their families—are invited to one forum to discuss challenges and solutions to these difficult problems. Conference participants will learn about empirical research and ideas, attend sessions from both nationally-recognized keynote speakers and local experts, and interact with people in Hawaii involved with the intersection of mental health and criminal justice (mental health providers, court and jail personnel, police officers, cultural leaders, probation and parole officers, and others). This conference will promote and galvanize the tremendous collaboration that has recently occurred amongst all of these disparate people and agencies, and will serve as a springboard for transformative change in the lives of forensic consumers. Welcome!

The SIM Mall Experience

Based on the Sequential Intercept Model, the SIM Mall experience will provide an opportunity for conference attendees to personally experience what our mental health consumers encounter when coming into contact with the criminal justice system. Attendees will be provided with individualized scenarios, beginning with police contact, that will guide them through the criminal justice and mental health systems. Participants will come into contact with the police programs, police and court cellblocks, jails, hospitals, courts, and various community mental health programs. Special forensic programs, such as jail diversion, Mental Health Court, and conditional release programs will be highlighted. Representatives from each location / program will be on hand to help participants really understand their particular piece of the SIM. Don’t miss your chance to meet with police officers, correctional officers, judges, mental health workers, probation officers and more to truly “see it from the inside.”

Location

The conference will be held at the Hawai'i Convention Center located at 1801 Kalakaua Avenue. To find out more about the Hawai'i Convention Center, please visit their website at www.hawaiiconvention.com.

Parking

The Center has 700 parking stalls on the second level of the building (subject to availability) with entry via a helix on Kalakaua Avenue. Garage height is 9'11". Overnight parking is not allowed in the Center. Event parking is $5 per exit.

ADA

The Americans with Disability Act of 1990 requires that all individuals, regardless of their disabilities, have equal access. The Department of Health and the University of Hawai'i are Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Institutions. Disability requests must be forwarded to our offices in writing by March 30, 2009.