LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Lubbock County Commissioners on Tuesday approved a years-long training program.

The program will allow students who have completed their psychiatry residency to specialize in providing mental health services to those in the criminal justice system.

Nancy Trevino, Ph.D., director of the Texas Tech Mental Health Initiative, explains what it took to get this plan off the ground.

“It’s been a lot of years of work and it’s something that the community as a whole is committed to,” Trevino said. “We have engaged with sectors across the community, from the local mental health authority to the courts to some of our healthcare providers and advisers, to determine what our community needs are and what our priority needs are.”

Trevino says it became a higher priority because of the state’s waiting list. This means that a person who has committed a crime would be assessed to see if mental health issues played a role and to determine if they need treatment.

This is where the forensic scholarship program comes in. The program, part of the Texas Tech Health Science Center, trains newly graduated psychiatrists to address these issues in hopes of promoting rehabilitation rather than punishment.

“They can participate in mental health courts, they can be a subject matter expert, they can participate in the treatment team,” Trevino said, “but also if someone needs re-skilling, the forensic scientist can help participate in that service line in their time. training.”

The program would work with people in the Lubbock County Detention Center and Juvenile Justice Center, but must be approved by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education in February 2025 before it can be implemented.

Trevino, along with community leaders and organizations that helped build the plan, hopes it can provide mental health services to prevent deeper involvement with the justice system.

“Mental illness does not discriminate,” Trevino said. “If you can have someone engage in counseling instead of having to go to the ER because they’re in a really bad crisis situation, that’s where we want to get services for people.”

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