Legal, mental health pros team up to help juvenile offenders

Nov. 04--The county and state-funded local mental health authority are putting together a new case management team to help kids accused of crimes in Kerr County set goals and increase self esteem.

The team, to be composed of juvenile probation officials, therapists, the county judge and others, will meet for monthly roundtable discussions with kids and their families. They're starting off with two kids, said County Judge Tom Pollard, who serves as judge in local juvenile court cases.

"We're kind of flying an old airplane by the seat of our pants just see how it works and make modifications as needed," Pollard said. "We'll develop it as we go. It'll be kind of a team approach."

As it stands now, troubled kids are referred by the juvenile probation office to the Hill Country Mental Health and Development Disabilities for treatment, but officials have previously said more resources need to be available to treat mental health problems among criminal offenders.

Pollard said not many of the kids he deals with seem to have much self worth.

"We need to work with them and try to get them to develop some self esteem and character and get them to set goals for themselves so they'll try to be good citizens and avoid violating the law," Pollard said.

The MHDD will hire additional personnel to join the team, but Pollard said it won't cost the county more money -- just more time from him and Juvenile Probation Director Jason Davis.

"The majority of our kids placed in a facility for some kind of treatment have some type of mental health diagnosis," said Jason Davis this spring. "A significant percentage of those children are on medication. Depression and PTSD are common among the youth who come into our office."It doesn't immediately appear that juvenile mental health problems are resulting in more involuntary commitments than in prior years. Justices of the Peace J.R. Hoyne and Mitzi French, who are among several local judges authorized to mandate involuntary housing and/or treatment for people deemed to be a danger to themselves of others, said they haven't noticed a spike in juvenile commitments. Judges take turns being on-call for seven days.

"I wouldn't say there's a lot (of juveniles committed)," Hoyne said. "Generally, they are adults. When I'm on-call, there's usually a juvenile in there -- on average I get maybe one for the week."

French said she had to commit two juveniles to mental institutions out-of-county since mid-June.

"Usually we get a call -- it's usually through MHDD," French said. "They've met with somebody who's possibly suicidal, and they get the paperwork to us."

Pollard said he took the idea of the roundtable to Linda Werlein, MHDD executive director, after attending a recent juvenile justice seminar and getting "fired up" about the issue of child mental health.

Pollard said he hopes the roundtable will be up and running by the end of the year.

"Some of these kids don't care about anything, and they violate the law at will," Pollard said. "Some of them don't care about living. There are a lot of attempted suicides among these kids. It's really sad. We're just trying to save these kids and get them on the right path."

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