Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Anne Burke recently convened the Illinois Mental Health Task Force Virtual Summit. The Summit, held by the Illinois Supreme Court in cooperation with the State Justice Institute and the National Center for State Courts, is part of the National Judicial Task Force initiative to examine State Courts’ response to mental illness.

Justice Burke noted that the goal of the Summit is to “be a forum where representatives from the judicial, executive, and legislative branches, along with key stakeholders within the behavioral health system, such as providers, advocates, and individuals with lived experience, can come together to share information, discuss effective practices already in existence, and collaborate to create new systems for the early diagnosis and treatment of individuals suffering from mental health and substance use issues.”

“Inadequate access to medically required treatment should not be a path to incarceration,” noted Justice Burke, “yet, presently, far too many individuals entering the criminal justice system are suffering from untreated behavioral health disorders. At the Summit, we hope to identify strategies and develop initiatives to build new pathways leading to treatment, rather than jail, for individuals who suffer from behavioral health disorders.  Reform is particularly crucial now because the COVID-19 crisis has only magnified the demand for mental health services across the state.”

The Summit is a statewide, multi-disciplinary series, consisting of five sessions. Individuals involved in behavioral health and justice system initiatives or interested in helping to lead the effort to reform and improve our current court and community responses to those with mental illness, are encouraged to attend. Each session will be held virtually on Tuesday afternoons from 3:00-5:00 p.m., beginning on September 29 and continuing through October 27. The sessions are a dynamic mixture of plenary sessions and interactive panel presentations intended to discover ways to improve court and community responses to those with mental illness. All sessions are virtual and free, but registration is required. In addition, MCLE credit is available.

By the time this newsletter is published, the first three sessions will have taken place, but all is not lost if you missed them. See Chief Justice Anne M. Burke’s opening remarks and Matthew R. Davison’s article in this issue for a report on the first session. Reports on subsequent sessions will follow in future newsletters. Additionally, the recording and materials of the first sessions are available to view at: Illinois Mental Health Virtual Summit Sessions Materials and can be found here: www.ncsc.org/mentalhealth.  Registration for the fourth session is at: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5c7dOyC5RSGCOP49WFNoAw. Registration for the fifth session is yet to be announced. Visit the ISBA Mental Health Law Section Central Online Community for more information and discussion.

Mental health law practitioners also will not want to miss Jud DeLoss’s article on the 2020 CARES Act. Among the numerous provisions intended to address the COVID-19 pandemic are significant revisions to the federal regulations governing the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records.