Progress in a Mental Health Court

The purpose of this study was to examine the progress of individuals enrolled in the Washington County Mental Health Court (MHC) and factors that may be related to their progress. Participants in the MHC were interviewed and information was obtained about factors that may be related to progress. To determine progress of the participants, a newly implemented tool called the Results Assessment and Monitoring Progress (RAMP) was utilized. Initial scores were determined at the time that the participant entered the MHC and a current score was determined at the time of the interview. A significant positive correlation was found that indicated that participants who were involved in the MHC for a greater number of days had a greater improvement on the RAMP. Also, positive correlations were found among measures of perceived procedural justice, impact of court, and average ratings of MHC staff. Participant variables were examined to determine whether they appeared to be related to an improvement in RAMP scores. No significant results were found, but noticeably large differences indicated that individuals who were employed, those with an education level of 12th grade or less, those who had been set back to Phase I, those with an adequate support system, and those who lived in a group home or treatment facility appeared to have a larger RAMP difference score than other groups for these variables. Finally, observations were made to examine trends for several categories of participants: participants in Phase III, those set back to Phase I, participants with a large RAMP difference score, those with a small RAMP difference score, individuals who were not satisfied with the MHC, individuals who had been enrolled for more than 800 days, and those who had been enrolled for less than 200 days