Office of Behavioral Health

In 2024, the AOPC established the Office of Behavioral Health. This office will support judicial leadership, education, and stakeholder engagement to improve court responses, continuums of care, and outcomes for individuals and families in Pennsylvania facing behavioral health challenges. The office will focus on providing technical assistance to judicial districts in establishing programs, assessing the quality of behavioral health programs and services, conducting training and education, and collaborating with interested stakeholders and government officials to effect systemic change.

Across the nation, courts are experiencing a worsening behavioral health crisis both in terms of the number of cases and their severity. This crisis impacts every sector of the court: dependency, truancy, juvenile justice, domestic relations, criminal and civil proceedings.

In March 2020, the Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators established a National Judicial Task Force to examine state court responses to mental illness. The Task Force's mission was to assist state courts in their efforts to more effectively respond to the needs of court-involved individuals and their families who are experiencing challenges related to mental health, substance use, co-occurring disorders, or intellectual disabilities.

The task force determined that courts have an obligation to improve the administration of justice in responding to behavioral health challenges. It also concluded that courts are in a unique position to lead change in improving continuums of care at the intersections of justice and behavioral health.

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