20241217-143106-95

Priority Area 1: Facilitate a cross-system data match between Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and Department of Corrections (DOC) to identify the overlapping population of people who have behavioral health challenges in state and move through the county and state criminal justice system and to identify high utilizers of these systems. CSG Justice Center staff will conduct an in-depth analysis of the matched Medicaid claims data to provide information on trends in services accessed in the community by people who are incarcerated and a qualitative assessment on the behavioral health interventions and programming that are available for people who have behavioral health needs and are part of the state corrections system.
Update: In August, CSG Justice Center staff used the completed data analysis to inform planning and next steps on the policy recommendations and technical assistance. CSG Justice Center staff worked on the one pager, which included key takeaways from the data analysis. CSG Justice Center staff met with leadership at DHHS and DOC to discuss the policy recommendations and gather their thoughts on policy priorities and next steps. The DOC Commissioner plans to review the recommendations with the Advisory Commission at their September meeting and report back to CSG Justice Center staff on any additional feedback they shared.
Priority Area 2: Support DHHS in developing and rolling out Crisis Receiving Centers (CRCs), which are facilities embedded in New Hampshire communities that provide no-wrong-door access to mental health and substance use disorder care and accept all walk-ins, ambulance, fire, and police drop-offs, by facilitating stakeholder engagement to align community need with program resources.
Update: In August, the WG took steps to identify what needs the crisis centers may have in their implementation, with a member of the WG connecting CSG Justice Center staff with a contact working on the crisis center implementation taskforce. CSG Justice Center staff scheduled a meeting with the contact for September to learn more about their work and where technical assistance may be helpful. CSG Justice Center staff began working on a workplan for the WG to encourage progress and track action items.
Priority Area 3: Assist DHHS in establishing requirements and identifying funding for care coordination, including in-reach to the jails for people who are high utilizers of jail and behavioral health resources.
Update: In August, CSG Justice Center staff discussed in-reach with the WG, and learned that the CTI steering committee has had preliminary discussions about how that model can be applied to the justice system, which aligns with the WG's priorities. A WG member connected CSG Justice Center staff with contacts on the steering committee and they held a meeting to learn more about the program. CSG Justice Center staff also met with staff from the CSG National Center for Interstate Compacts (NCIC) to learn more about possible opportunities for an interstate compact for counselors in NH, which resulted in CSG Justice Center staff connecting NH stakeholders to the CSG NCIC staff.
Priority Area 4: Assist in identifying ways in which New Hampshire agencies could improve their capacity for collecting and sharing data to better and more quickly track criminal justice trends.
Update: In August, the WG discussed data coordination and the importance of making progress in this area. WG members reported that majority of the county jails will be transitioning to the same vendor for data and that may allow for more coordination.