In September 2017, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the National Association of Counties (NACo) and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation (LJAF) hosted the Data-Driven Justice and Behavioral Health Design Institute (Design Institute) in Rockville, Md. The Design Institute convened 13 teams committed to the Data-Driven Justice (DDJ) initiative. Teams were selected through a competitive process to work directly with expert faculty in facilitated sessions and workshops to create action plans for developing and using integrated data systems that would aid their jurisdictions in identifying high utilizers of jails and crisis services. This case study is part of a series highlighting counties that participated in the Design Institute.
Through its involvement in the Data-Driven Justice (DDJ) initiative, Dallas County has committed to a using a data-driven approach to expand the care continuum for justice-involved individuals with complex behavioral health needs who are high utilizers of services. At the Design Institute, the county prioritized increasing the means and degree of collaboration between behavioral health stakeholders, which included focusing on how data integration improves identification, assessment and warm hand-offs of the justice-involved population to community-based treatment and supports.
