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County behavioral health officials outline fixes after missed notice in Chapter 971/51 conversion; mental health board orders deep dive
Summary
County behavioral‑health officials told a County Board committee Thursday they have added electronic flags, tightened timelines and will provide targeted staff training after a conversion from a criminal competency proceeding (Wis. Stat. ch. 971) to a civil Chapter 51 commitment that county lawyers say lacked required notice to prosecutors and counsel.
Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services and county legal officials told the Health Equity, Human Needs and Strategic Planning Committee on Thursday that they are instituting new checks after a case that converted from Wis. Stat. ch. 971 criminal competency proceedings to a ch. 51 civil‑commitment case did not receive all required notice to prosecuting and court counsel.
Deputy Corporation Counsel Jennifer Rose explained the statutory difference between chapter 971, which arises during criminal competency proceedings, and chapter 51, the civil mental‑health commitment statute. She said a criminal competency finding and a civil determination of incapacity are separate legal processes and the statutes have distinct notice and confidentiality requirements. County officials said they were prohibited from discussing details of individual cases for privacy reasons.
Administrators said they have implemented immediate operational changes. The department reported adding a special legal‑status chart flag in its electronic health record to mark Chapter 51 cases that resulted from Chapter 971 conversions, tightening internal timelines for renewal packet submission, and moving to require routine reviews and multiple checks so the cases are not reliant on a single staff person.
Milwaukee County Administrator for Behavioral Health Services Mike Lapin told the committee the department has begun developing a formal policy and training module to ensure staff understand the steps and timelines for Chapter 51 renewals following conversions from Chapter 971. The department said it will use the county’s learning management system (HealthStream) to deploy required trainings and will audit compliance on a regular schedule.
The Milwaukee County Mental Health Board met earlier the same day and directed the department to perform a “deep‑dive” review of the case and the department’s Chapter 51 policies and procedures; the board asked for a report to the board’s quality committee at the September meeting. County counsel said the board passed a resolution calling for next steps; the transcript did not include a resolution number.
Supervisors asked whether the missed notice was an isolated incident and whether there were similar failures in other cases. County officials said they reviewed their records and found the department had followed notice requirements in multiple other Chapter 51 conversions; the mental health board requested a fuller historical review as part of the deep‑dive. Officials said they believe the event to be an outlier but agreed to pursue a comprehensive review.
Committee members suggested the county welcome outside audits if supervisors or other oversight bodies request them; DHHS said it would cooperate. Officials said they will coordinate with Corporation Counsel and the District Attorney’s Office on procedural clarifications and said they would provide updated policies and the results of the board‑ordered review to supervisors in September.
