State official-candidate Jenny Simpson outlines statewide mapping, forensic service expansion

Dr. Jenny Simpson, who currently works at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, told the court she led statewide efforts to integrate forensic services and to reduce waits for competency restoration by bringing sequential intercept model mapping workshops to nearly 30 counties. "With my team, we went to almost 30 different counties across the state and conducted day and 0.5 long workshops," she said.

Simpson described creating the Texas Behavioral Health and Justice Technical Assistance Center, piloting outpatient competency restoration and expanding jail-based programs. She said impacts on wait lists were mixed but that many counties established regular behavioral-health-and-justice work groups and tried new programs as a result of the mapping workshops. "We saw that across these counties, they had established behavioral health and justice work groups that met on a regular basis," she said.

She told commissioners the state leveraged community mental health block grants and other funding streams to support implementation. Simpson also said that prior litigation around forensic services created an opportunity for systemic change and that strategic planning, stakeholder engagement and data monitoring were central to progress. The court deferred hiring action to executive session.