Workshop priorities: peer support, housing and diversion top a Sequential Intercept Model review

A Sequential Intercept Model (SIM) workshop presented to the joint committee on March 17 identified cross-agency communication, prevention (especially youth mental-health services), housing and peer support as the highest priorities to reduce jail demand and improve continuity of care.

Brian Estes, cochair of the Behavioral Health Committee, summarized the SIM findings and said the top vote-getting priority was improving communication and handoffs across agencies to better coordinate services before and after jail contact. “That received 13 votes; that was the highest priority of the whole group,” Estes said.

Heather Flaherty, cochair of the incarceration task force, said the workshop emphasized concrete, systemwide changes: the analysis favored peer supports beginning at the point of contact with the justice system, better medication access upon release, expanded permanent supportive housing options, and greater emphasis on youth prevention programs.

The workshop also produced action-planning subgroups to pursue data-sharing, diversion and collaboration; organizers said 90-day commitments were collected from organizations that attended and that materials and group notes will be circulated to participants and the committee. Heather said lived-experience advocates in the room stressed third places, peer supports and school-based mental-health services as preventive measures that limit future criminal-justice involvement.

Committee members said they would incorporate SIM priorities into their recommendations and asked staff to circulate the draft SIM report and any related administrative-office products to participants before the next public meeting.