Course Corrections: Milwaukee Summit on Mental Health & Criminal Justice

The Milwaukee Summit on Mental Health and Criminal Justice provided a timely opportunity for regional partners to:

• Identify local partners and projects working to:
  • manage mental health
  • reduce incarceration
  • promote public safety and prosperity
• Zero in on opportunities for coordinator of efforts and resources
• Align and focus policy and practice reforms
• Address data needs and communications challenges
• Prioritize course corrections
• Promote bold local targets for reform

At this event, Milwaukee leaders and experts presented work in progress, built and solidified broad support for coordinated efforts to overcome common barriers, and situated their community-based mental health and criminal justice reform initiatives on a shared roadmap to a healthier, equitable, and sustainably prosperous community.

The event was held in cooperation with representatives from the following organizations:

Columbia-St. Mary’s Family Medicine Residency

Cross Lutheran Church

Marquette University

Medical College of Wisconsin

Whole Health Clinical Group

Public Defenders Office

Public Policy Forum

WISDOM

October 11, 2017

Cross-system leaders and implementation experts representing efforts to reduce the role of the criminal justice system in managing mental health and to optimize efficient use of resources, gathered at the Medical College of Wisconsin, in Milwaukee, to share work in progress and discuss priorities and challenges. The participants will produce a high-level priorities report in the coming weeks.

Who attended?

Agencies and organizations across a range of sectors, representing Milwaukee stakeholders that are committed to improved management of mental health for the sake of promoting public safety and prosperity, and for reducing incarceration and over-use of the criminal justice system.

Event Objectives:

• Establish a common language for advancing the objectives of a thriving community.
• Produce a high-level regional roadmap to health, justice, and prosperity.
• Identify and promote best practices in improving mental health outcomes and reducing the human costs of criminal justice, law enforcement and emergency response involvement in mental health crises.
• Acknowledge known obstacles to the implementation of best practices for managing mental health and reducing incarceration, and describe pathways to overcoming or circumventing these.
• Highlight, refine, and disseminate successful local and regional mental health management strategies that are data-driven, population-specific, collaborative and multi-disciplinary.