Led by Chief Justice Anne M. Burke and Illinois State Court Administrator Marcia Meis, an Illinois delegation attended the National Summit on Mental Health and then returned to Illinois to plan for and convene a very important six-part series held virtually in the fall of 2020.

On December 7, 2021, a web event was held to present an overview of national and local approaches to mental health issues in the courts. One of the major announcements was the appointment of Scott Block as Statewide Behavioral Health Administrator within the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts. He is available at sblock@illinoiscourts.gov or (312) 793-1876.

Another announcement was the reorganization of the Illinois judicial districts, and a very thorough examination of pretrial services availability throughout the state. Pretrial services are immensely important to persons with mental health issues. Because it was clear that only certain areas of the state had established pretrial services, some had limited services and some had none at all, the task force looked at getting pretrial services into every county in the state. This will take a while, and the task force has identified those counties to be involved in the first phase of establishing pretrial services, but the plan is to expand services to every county in the state.

An excellent summary of the work of the task force is available online on the Illinois Courts website www.illinoiscourts.gov.

Nancy Hablutzel is a retired attorney from Chicago. Her practice concentrated on disability law, child welfare and adoption law. She can be contacted at nancyzh@aol.com.