Do mental health courts work?

16th Circuit Judge Clint Hull

Judge Clint Hull, who presides over the Kane County Treatment Alternative Court and the TAC team, and community mental health providers will address this and other issues Tuesday in a public forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of the Elgin Area and the Gail Borden Public Library.

The open forum takes place at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 10, 2016, at the Gail Borden Public Library, 270 N Grove Ave., Elgin.

Since February 2006, Kane County’s Court system has had an alternative sentencing program designed to keep individuals with mental illness out of jail, avoid future offenses, and help them learn skills to manage their illness.

“Success with mental health court is so much harder to determine than success with our other courts because mental illness is not going to go away,” said Julie McCabe-Sterr, coordinator of mental health court of the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office in a March 10, 2016, article in the Daily Herald. “For people who are chronically mentally ill, the best measure of success is that they continue to remain engaged in their treatment and have a quality of life.”

For further information contact LWV’s Elgin Area Mental Health Committee Chair Debbie McGuire at 847-533-1954 or visit the event Facebook page.

SOURCE: Gail Borden Library and LWV Elgin Area news release