Mental Health Court celebrates Recovery Month and a special graduation

DULUTH, Minn. (Northern News Now) – St. Louis County is home to two of the four mental health courts in Minnesota; those courts were modeled after drug treatment courts but provide a therapeutic approach to offenders with mental illnesses.

Mental health courts provide an out-of-the-box option for offenders to focus on rehabilitation over incarceration, and the program’s success is evident with a special graduate being celebrated today.

Friday, the program is celebrating recovery month, and member Chad Jasper, who has been a participant of the mental health court for 14 months now.

Jasper says it hasn’t been an easy road, but he is proud of where he is now, “I’ve messed up a few times, but I got back on track and I’m doing good now.”

Jasper attributes his success in the program to the team of people who helped him each day, including social workers, treatment providers, and mental health court specialists like Judge Amy Lukasavitz.

“It’s all about relationship building, meeting folks where they are, getting them the services that they need, so that once they are done with us, they will be productive members of society, and they won’t have to be part of the justice system anymore,” says Lukasavitz.

And Jasper agrees, some of the most important people in attendance today for his ceremony were the ones who have gone through the same program, his peers.

Lukasavitz says for Jasper to have made it through the five phases in the mental health court is incredible in her line of work.

“It’s one of the few places in my career and in my work where I get to see people at their worst, and then I get to see them see themselves at their best,” says Lukasavitz.

And Jasper assures me the best is still yet to come for him, “I got a second chance, and I’m here, and I love life because I’m getting older now and I was in a mid-life crisis, but I’m pushing out of it, and I feel good.”

Program participants are always welcome to come back post-graduation, either to support themselves or to help others.

The mental health courts say in certain cases they may even dismiss charges for offenders after successful completion of the program as an incentive to participate in community treatment.

For more information on the mental health courts, visit this website.

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