Manager, Forensic Services

During my employment with the County of Ventura, I managed several forensic mental health programs. One was the MIOCR II grant program as outlined elsewhere on this blog. The MIOCR II grant was a research grant which was a collaboration between the Sheriff's Department, Probation, Superior Court, the District Attorney's office and the Public Defender's office, as well as with Behavioral Health. The MIOCR program provided individual, group, and mobile team assessment and support. Staff included a psychiatrist, clinical psychologist, research psychologist, research assistant, addiction treatment professionals, a licensed clinical social worker, two registered nurses, and two psychiatric technicians. Vans were provided to allow the team to pick up clients upon release from jail and transport them to residential housing and services.

Another was the Forensic Alternative Community Treatment program. This program was designed to allow high functioning offenders an opportunity to receive treatment in lieu of custody, usually individual psychotherapy and psychiatric services as needed. This was a program that utilized our mental health clinic and was an outpatient treatment program, although crisis intervention was definitely an inherent part of the program.

A general Forensic Services program was developed in the wake of the end of the MIOCR grant, combining some facets of each of the two prior programs. Ultimately, our forensic mental health clinic was also closed, and we were attached to a local mental health clinic as a subset program. I was awarded the Behavioral Health Spirit Award during this time period, in large part due to the excellence of a wonderfully supportive staff.

As an offspring from the above programs, a court assessment program was developed. Superior Court provided Behavioral Health with a facility within the courts to provide on-site assessment for mental health and addiction. This was a collaboration between the Alcohol and Drug Treatment Program, a local (Prop 36) program which had been developed as an alternative to custody within that department, and the Behavioral Health mental health program. This allowed the various judges to make a ruling with the post-assessment information to guide them. Probation was also intimately involved in the collaboration for this program as well as the DA/PD offices.