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The Hamblen County Commission Finance Committee voted to approve a grant that will establish a mental health court in Hamblen County.

The idea to create a mental court in the county comes after the current Recovery Court was approached by the state to establish the new court.

“The State’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse reached out to our court after Governor Bill Lee made a law establishing mental health courts around the state and so the department reached out to us and we have had a few conversations and we are working to establish a mental health court here in the county,” said Penny Knight Recovery Court, coordinator.

“The court will be totally grant funded and it will serve felony and misdemeanor general session courts. We’re anticipating a 60-120 days to get it up and running. We will we have to visit existing courts, and create policies and procedures.”

“The state approached us to create this court since we have a great recovery court in the county. The $150,000 is all state money and there will be no local money used to operate this court,” said Hamblen County Mayor Bill Brittain.

“I recommend you all accept this grant. Mental health is something we should be focused on. I see it in the Jail To Work program where I meet the participants and hear stories about how their trauma has caused their addiction. There are not enough mental health services and this is the state working to help people get help and care.”

Commissioner Mike Richardson questioned who would get the court started and who would maintain the case load.

“The first year I would split my duties between recovery court and mental health court until we hired a case manager for mental health court,” Knight said. “Mental health court has a very heavy case management.”

Richardson expressed a concern in hiring a case manager for a limited amount of time.

“I would caution using a grant for ongoing employees because I wouldn’t want to get someone’s hopes up and then the grant is gone and we have to do something different,” Richardson said.

“My fear was that with most grants they only last two to three years and after those years are up, the county would be stuck with the bill, but my understanding is this is an ongoing and long-term program,” Brittain said.

Commissioner Rodney Long asked if the court would see people from other counties.

“We couldn’t do general sessions for other counties because our judges have to volunteer, they can’t get paid for the adult treatment court,” Knight said. “Judge Beth Boniface would hear felonies so she could potentially hear people from other counties but Judge Blake Sempkowski could not in general sessions.”

Commissioner Peggy Howell asked what services the county would provide following the hearing

“The state does expect us to use the two safety net providers in our community, Cherokee Mental Health and Hellen Ross McNabb. If they need residential care then we would have seek that elsewhere. A large part of our budget includes assistance to individuals,” Knight said.

“I am being told from the District Attorney’s office that they anticipate seeing a lot of general sessions cases and do case management to keep people on their medication to hopefully keep them in their homes in the community.

“If we have someone who is a felon and started recovery court and we see that they need to be in mental health court we can interchange those two, but general sessions can only see mental health court.”

Committee Chairman Bobby Haun asked Knight to clarify what the $150,000 grant would be used for.

“It would pay for the case manager’s salary, supplies, office costs, phones, travel, training, conferences, assistance to individuals and local travel around the county. Basically anything that would help this court get up and running,” Knight said.

Commissioner Thomas Doty asked how many times the court will meet for hearings and if a court officer will be present.

“It depends on who we have and if they’re in the community,” Knight said. “Judge Boniface plans to add all cases to her docket after recovery court and Judge Sempkoiski has until we get it up and running to see when he will add it to his schedule”

“I take on the duty as court officer for recovery court,” said Hamblen County Sheriff’s Office Chad Mullins. “If I’m not present during mental health court there will be someone from our office present.”

As the meeting continued the finance committee also voted on a resolution that could potentially give more funding to recovery court.

The committee voted to join the State of Tennessee and other local governments in amending the States Opioid Abatement Settlement Agreements.

“This is the second wave of opioid abatement settlement revenue that comes from the settlements that have been negotiated with mostly pharmacies,” Brittain. “What this resolution does is commits us in participating in the settlement and will get the proceeds that come from there.”

Commissioner Peggy Howell questioned where the money would go after the county received the proceeds.

“The money received from that settlement goes into a separate bucket,” Brittain said. “There are certain restrictions on what that money can be used for. We will ask some of it goes to recovery court and our jail to work program. It’s segregated from the general fund in its own pot.”