Tag: mental health awareness

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TJCTC Updates 5.30.2024

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Hello Judges, Clerks, Constables, & Deputies,

We have training opportunities and resources to share with you in this last eblast this month. We hope you are enjoying your summer so far!

Court Personnel Exams Open!

The spring edition of the court personnel exams are now open! Take your open book exam online with TJCTC’s virtual proctoring program. The exams will be open until June 19th. Register by June 14th to take exams during this timeframe. To learn about the exam and register now, visit our court personnel certification page: https://www.tjctc.org/court-personnel/clerk-certification-program.html For questions, email Jessica at jessforeman@txstate.edu.

What is the clerk certification program?

The Justice Court Clerk Certification Program allows experienced justice court clerks to demonstrate their knowledge of statutes, procedures, and ethical guidelines applicable to Texas justice courts. Justice court clerks who pass an examination receive certification as a Certified Clerk or a Master Certified Clerk. The Texas Justice Court Training Center creates and administers all exams.

Texas DSHS Training on Mass Fatalities

Wednesday, July 17, 2024

Location: Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council (STRAC), 7500 W US Highway 90 1-200, San Antonio, Texas 78227

This in-person seminar will cover the topic of Mass Fatality Management in Public Health Region 8. Presentations will be given by the following agencies: American Red Cross, Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office, Medicolegal Authority/Justice of the Peace, Texas Department of State Health Services Region 8, Texas Funeral Directors Association and Texas Mass Fatality Operations Response Team (TMORT).  When the presentations are completed, the speakers will form a panel and a question-and-answer session will occur to provide attendees the opportunity to ask questions or seek clarification for issues not addressed during the lectures.

For more information and to register, visit the DSHS website.

 

Impaired Driving Taskforce DWI Summits hosted by The Texas Center for the Judiciary

The DWI Summits bring judicial education to smaller communities around the state. Come learn about:

  • Case Law Updates (including mandatory traffic fines)
  • Back to Basics: DWI Sentencing
  • Ignition Interlock
  • Occupational licenses
  • Pre-trial issues

The program is open to County Judges, County Court at Law Judges, District Judges and Justices of the Peace. Programs begin at 10 a.m. and conclude by 3 p.m. Lunch is provided. Please check with your judicial education organization regarding reimbursement.
June 27 at the Courtyard by Marriott

3955 North Expressway 77/83

Brownsville, TX 78520
July 11 at the Marriott El Paso

1600 Airway Blvd

El Paso, TX 79925

Email hollyd@yourhonor.com if you would like to attend or need more information. 

Free Lexipol Webinar for Law Enforcement

Every Day Is a Training Day: The Value of Daily Training on Policy

Thursday, May 30 | 1 pm Eastern

Presented by: Chief (Ret.) Mike Ranalli and Battalion Chief (Ret.) Bruce Bjorge

When first responders are operating in the field, they are often required to make quick decisions. As a public safety leader, you hope your personnel have been trained on both policy and practice and you trust they are making sound decisions. However, there are times when your personnel encounter unfamiliar scenarios — situations that are low frequency but high risk.

Join Chief (Ret.) Mike Ranalli and Battalion Chief (Ret.) Bruce Bjorge, as they discuss how using Daily Training Bulletins (DTBs) can help ensure your personnel are not only reviewing agency policy but also receiving regular training on your agency policy.

You’ll learn:

  • The legal and cultural reasons training requirements exist.
  • How DTBs can be one of the most versatile tools in your training toolbox.
  • How to identify which training needs can be met by DTBs and which can’t.
  • How Lexipol’s Policy Management solution can help to fulfill your policy training needs.

Register today!

Registration is free. Can’t make it? Register anyway and Lexipol will send you a link to the recording after the event.

 

NCSC Webinar – Courageous Conversations

Wednesday, June 12

Courageous conversations are fundamental to effective leadership. As a leader, conversations with your team, colleagues, and even supervisor can, at times, be challenging to navigate. It is through the careful navigation of these conversations that one can foster positive relationships and ensure effective communication.

In this episode of Navigating Leadership, Sara Grondahl, Human Resources Director for the Alaska Court System, will discuss familiar challenges and barriers to effective communication and leave you feeling empowered with a toolbox of skills and strategies that will allow you to confidently put courageous conversations into practice.

Register Today!

Future sessions of this series include:

  • July 10 – Effective Leadership Teams
  • August 14 – How to Get and Give Good Feedback
  • September 11 – What Does Leadership Mean to You?
  • October 9 – Transitioning to a New Leadership Role
  • November 13 – Developing a Leadership Culture

Visit ncsc.org/leadershipseries for more information and to access sessions on demand.

Mental Health Resources

To round out Mental Health Awareness Month, the JCMH Collaborative Council recently shared the following resources for county officials involved in Mental Health Committees/Councils/Workgroups. Several may be helpful in rural areas, especially to get grant funding or loan forgiveness programs started for mental healthcare workers.

State Office of Rural Health Resources

This is a great resource for rural judges to share with their local partners who work in the mental healthcare. SORH works to support rural health providers by providing technical assistance with finance, operations, and quality through a variety of grant programs, workshops, and one-on-one assistance.  Additional resources include educational awards that are available to individual clinicians and health care institutions, information and referral, funding resources, and assistance with medical license applications.

Visit their website. 

 

 Mental Health Professionals Loan Repayment Program 

Mental health professionals practicing in a Mental Health Professional Shortage Area (MHPSA) and providing services to recipients under a medical assistance program, may be eligible for a loan repayment award between $10,000 and $160,000, depending on your practice specialty.

If this sounds like it applies to professionals in your county, check out their website.

Department of Health and Human Services Loan Repayment Program 

This is another grant opportunity for mental health and substance abuse professionals who work in underserved areas.

If this sounds like it applies to professionals in your county, check out their website.

Save-the-Date for the Annual JCMH Summit

Please join the Texas Judicial Commission on Mental Health (JCMH) for the 2024 Judicial Summit on Mental Health taking place November 21 – 22, 2024, at the Marriott Dallas Allen Hotel & Convention Center in Allen, Texas.

JCMH is also accepting session proposals if your court or another county program is doing something that you would like to share with stakeholders around the state.

Visit the JCMH website for details and more information.

 

We hope you found something helpful in this update. See you at a program soon!

– Thea & the TJCTC Team

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TJCTC Updates 5.21.2024

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Judges, Constables, Deputies, and Court Staff,

We have new training opportunities, mental health awareness resources, and caselaw updates to share. Also, clerk exams are open!

We need your feedback!

Do you have a minute to answer a few questions? We need your help to make sure that a training for attorneys who appear in your courts actually helps prepare them!

Use this link to take the survey.

Court Personnel Exams Open!

The spring edition of the court personnel exams are now open! Take your open book exam online with TJCTC’s virtual proctoring program. The exams will be open until June 19th. Register by June 14th to take exams during this timeframe. To learn about the exam and register now, visit our court personnel certification page: https://www.tjctc.org/court-personnel/clerk-certification-program.html For questions, email Jessica at jessforeman@txstate.edu.

What is the clerk certification program?

The Justice Court Clerk Certification Program allows experienced justice court clerks to demonstrate their knowledge of statutes, procedures, and ethical guidelines applicable to Texas justice courts. Justice court clerks who pass an examination receive certification as a Certified Clerk or a Master Certified Clerk. The Texas Justice Court Training Center creates and administers all exams.

*New* Self-Paced Module

Just in time for Mental Health Awareness Month, we want to share a self-paced challenge for you!

5-Day Challenge to Improve Your Mental Health – 1.5 hrs.

Courts are stressful places to work. This module will help judges, court staff, and constables commit to their mental health with a five-day challenge.

You can access the module on the TJCTC Self-Paced Module Page.

More Mental Health Resources 

National Center for State Courts Behavioral Health Resource Hub

The Behavioral Health Resource Hub is intended to be a curated collection of resources courts and communities can turn to for the latest in best practices. The resources under the Criminal Justice section build on the Sequential Intercept Model (SIM) which identifies appropriate responses at particular intercepts that can keep an individual from continuing to penetrate the criminal justice system. Additionally, effective court and community responses require interventions prior to engagement in the criminal justice system. Additionally, there are sections devoted to civil responses and other areas of community focus. The Resource Hub has been recently updated with new resources.

Lead by Example: Prioritize Your Self-Care

It’s easy to feel mentally exhausted these days, in a world that demands so much of our time, energy and focus. The National Council for Mental Wellbeing has resources to help.

Attorney General Opinion KP-0464

Summary: This opinion concludes that counties are generally responsible for paying filing fees for an application for court-ordered mental health services but need not pay at the time of filing. Further concluding that a county may require an entity that is a “person” to pay such filing fees at the time of filing when it first determines that the fees relate to services by a private mental hospital.

Share this with the judge in your county who handles civil commitments or your mental health board.

Caselaw Updates – Recent Texas Supreme Court Updates

Last week, two opinions of interest were issued by the Texas Supreme Court. You can read the summaries on the Court’s website.

Fleming v. Wilson, ___ S.W.3d ___, 2024 WL ___ (Tex. May 17, 2024) [22-0166]

While the specific facts in this case will likely not arise in justice courts, this case does include a discussion of judicial estoppel which is a theory that does arise in justice courts. The issue in this case is whether judicial estoppel bars a defendant from invoking defensive collateral estoppel because of inconsistent representations made in prior litigation.

The bottom line was that Fleming couldn’t make an argument in one court and turn around and make the opposite argument about the same claims later because it might benefit him now. The discussion of judicial estoppel starts on page 6 of the opinion.

Landlord Tenant Westwood Motorcars, LLC v. Virtuolotry, LLC, ___ S.W.3d ___, 2024 WL ___ (Tex. May 17, 2024) [22-0846]

The issue in this case is what effect, if any, an agreed judgment awarding possession to a landlord in an eviction suit has on a related suit in district court by a tenant for damages.

This case reinforces the idea that  eviction suits provide summary proceedings for which the sole issue adjudicated is immediate possession. Accordingly, agreeing to an eviction suit judgment does not concede an ultimate right to possession or abandon separate claims for damages, even if those claims also implicate the right to possession.

Do you follow TJCTC on social media?

Check out our LinkedIn & Facebook pages for updates and on occasion a fun photo or two from our programs! Don’t forget, you can also find more information at our blog, The Docket, including past e-blasts like this one.

If you think we should share something in an eblast like this one or on our social media, feel free to email Amber Myers at a_m1814@txstate.edu.

We hope you are all doing well, especially with the wild weather we have had recently! As always, looking forward to seeing you at a program soon.

– Thea and the TJCTC Team

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TJCTC Updates 5.9.2024

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Hello Judges, Constables, Deputies, & Court Staff,

How is it already May?! As you gear up for summer, we wanted to share upcoming training opportunities, grants, a new “Legal Question of the Month” feature, and of course more resources for your courts and offices.

Legal Question of the Month

Do I have to appoint a receiver?

No. You don’t have to appoint a receiver or issue a turnover order under Civil Practice and Remedies Code 31.002. However, you must consider applications for this relief and make your decision based on the application and case at hand. You should not have a blanket policy that you never issue receivers. Here is a snippet from some caselaw on the topic:

“Although subsection (a) of the statute uses the word ‘entitled,’ the use of ‘may’ in subsection (b) makes the remedy discretionary.” See Barlow v. Lane, 745 S.W.2d 451 (Tex. App. 1988), Beaumont Bank N.A. v. Buller, 806 S.W.2d 223 (Tex. 1991).

“We review the trial court’s decision for an abuse of discretion…whether there is evidence to support the decision is a relevant consideration. The ultimate question, however, is whether the court acted in an unreasonable or arbitrary manner or without reference to any guiding rules.” See Beeler v. Fuqua, 351 S.W.3d 428 (Tex. App. —El Paso 2011).

What this means is that if you just have a general rule that you don’t like receiverships and you don’t want to do them, you are probably abusing your discretion. However, if you review the applications closely or have some other reason not to grant the application and are not denying the judgment debtor other ways to collect their judgment (writ of execution, turnover order, etc.), then you can deny an application for a receiver. It would also make sense that if a particular receiver has acted improperly before, that you might have reason not to appoint them (just like if you no longer trust a process server, because they provided false information in a return).

The Ft. Worth Court of Appeals just ruled about a court using their discretion to deny the appointment of a receiver using the following logic:

“Employer’s attorney’s affidavit, in which she conveyed her ‘understanding’ that former employee owned nonexempt assets, ‘including bank accounts, income, personal property, and interest in real property,’ was not competent evidence of employee’s ownership of nonexempt property as would support issuance of turnover order to satisfy employer’s judgment against employee, because the affidavit showed no personal knowledge, and attorney’s recitation of her ‘understanding’ was conclusory.” Vaccaro v. Raymond James & Associates, Inc., 655 S.W.3d 485 (Tex. App.-Fort Worth 2022).

The Houston Court of Appeals ruled similarly:

Presenting some evidence of right to turnover relief and showing nonexempt status of judgment debtor’s remaining funds does not automatically mandate trial court to order turnover of funds to judgment creditor; rather, trial court has discretion to consider other relevant factors such as ability of judgment debtor to meet living expenses if turnover relief is granted. Brink v. Ayre, 855 S.W.2d 44 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1993)

Grant Opportunities

We know that coming up with the necessary funding isn’t always easy. The Texas Association of Counties (TAC) shared a few grant opportunities for courts and rural county officials last month that we wanted to pass along.

Rural Mental Health Grant

Selected Grant Opportunities

Upcoming Training

Ask about Suicide to Save a Life (AS+K) Virtual Training

The Health and Human Services Commission is hosting a training on May 15 from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. CDT on warning signs, clues and suicidal communications of people in psychological distress, and the actions to take to prevent a possible tragedy. Capacity is limited and pre-registration is required. RSVP at suicide.prevention@hhs.texas.gov. 

 

Justice Court Section Webinar – Civil Trial and Pretrial Rules and Practice in Justice Courts

Presenter, Rebecca Glisan, TJCTC Director of Curriculum & Staff Attorney

This course will cover some of the specific rules and common issues that arise in justice courts related to jury and bench trials as well as pre-trial motions and hearings. Topics will include continuances, mediation and agreed orders, summary disposition, discovery, evidence, development of the facts of the case, preparing the jury, and more.

Friday, May 17, 2024 from noon – 1:00 pm

Registration Link:  https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0uf-qprTwiEt0SfYLrJi12yZMulvcVHzA9%20#/registration

 

 Free Lexipol Training for Law Enforcement

One of the top-national law enforcement training organizations, Lexipol, has partnered with Dak Prescott’s Faith, Fight, Finish Foundation to offer some free training for law enforcement. This could be helpful to constables and deputies looking for additional training to complete all of their TCOLE requirements.

https://cycle.lexipol.com

Recording For Credit Posted

Mental Health Resources for Judges

TLAP helps judges with issues related to substance use or mental health disorders and maintains a list of volunteer judges who are interested in providing support to peers in crisis. This class will feature a discussion with TLAP and the resources available for judges dealing with issues such as vicarious trauma. The handouts for the course are also attached to his email.

Click here to view the recording

Sequential Intercept Model Mapping Opportunity

Texas Health and Human Services (HHSC) has published the Fall 2024 Sequential Intercept Model (SIM) mapping workshop application for communities interested in working with the HHSC Office of Forensic Coordination to map local behavioral health, criminal justice, or juvenile justice systems and develop action plans. The application deadline is May 17, and the application and more information about the SIM process is available at on the HHSC website.

Mental Health Awareness Month

This month is Mental Health Awareness Month, so we compiled the resources in the following newsletter for you to use throughout the month to bring awareness to the topic that so-often comes up in your courts.

You can also find additional news about the intersection of mental health and courts at JCMH News.

Mental Health Awareness Month 

We hope that you find these resources helpful and enjoy the warmer weather!

– Thea and the TJCTC Team

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