While people across the country prepared for Thanksgiving, a group in Kootenai County recently gathered to share a special celebration of their own.

Each year, Mental Health Court puts on a Thanksgiving meal where judges and staff sit down together with program graduates, as well as current participants and their families. Some of the guests have never had a normal Thanksgiving. 

“It creates that family atmosphere that, hopefully, they’ll keep with them,” said Mary Wolfinger, coordinator of the Mental Health Court program. “This is a healthy way to participate in society, free of drugs and alcohol.” 

Mental Health Court is a voluntary, post-conviction diversion program for people living with severe and persistent mental illness, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Clients in the program are on supervised probation. 

The program lasts a minimum of 18 months and emphasizes accountability. In the early stages, clients spend 20 hours per week in treatment activities, including individual and group therapy for mental health and for addiction, as well as group classes and peer support. 

They attend court weekly and update a judge on their progress. For 20 years, First District Judge John Mitchell presided over the program. Since his retirement from Mental Health Court in October, Judge Mayli Walsh has stepped into the role. 

Wolfinger said most Mental Health Court clients have a history of substance abuse problems and significant trauma. Court employees work to establish a rapport and earn the trust of clients who are reluctant to put their faith in anyone. But when it happens, the results are transformative. 

“If you’re willing to trust the process, it’s a completely different life,” Wolfinger said. 

Specialized treatment courts like Mental Health Court reduce crime by lowering re-arrest and conviction rates, improving substance abuse treatment outcomes, reuniting families and producing measurable cost benefits, according to the Idaho Supreme Court. Kootenai County’s Mental Health Court is constantly working to improve outcomes, Wolfinger said. 

Accountability is at the center of the program and it means something more than locking someone in a jail cell after conviction. In Mental Health Court, accountability can be a person who cares expressing that emotion while also setting healthy boundaries. 

“It’s foreign to them, but they need to hear it,” Wolfinger said. 

Change is difficult and painful. For many Mental Health Court clients, it would be simpler to fall back into old habits, to keep scraping by in the manner to which they’re accustomed, than to stick to the intensive program. 

“It’s easier to choose prison,” Wolfinger said. “But those in our program have chosen to put in the hard work to get well.” 

When clients succeed in Mental Health Court, their loved ones are also uplifted. Last week, Wolfinger met with a program graduate whose son had been in foster care for an extended period. 

As the single dad progressed through Mental Health Court and became stable, he regained custody of his son. The two are preparing to move into a duplex soon. 

“We’re reuniting families,” Wolfinger said. 

Many clients have needs that the program can’t meet. For example, when two recent clients needed eyeglasses but couldn’t afford them, there was only one local resource that could help. 

Press Christmas for All paid for the eyeglasses. 

The seemingly small gifts, made possible through community donations, enabled the clients to continue working, studying and participating in Mental Health Court. 

“Christmas for All really does provide resources in the community that nobody else does,” Wolfinger said. “I like that (the awardees) pay a small copay because they have some skin in the game. It’s not just a handout.” 

No community can incarcerate its way out of crime rooted in mental illness or substance abuse, Wolfinger said. 

Mental Health Court and other specialized treatment courts provide the support needed to help some of the most vulnerable people become stable, reach sobriety and restore family relationships. When that happens, communities become better places. 

“These are complex people who have a lot of trauma and untreated mental illness,” Wolfinger said. “To give them the opportunity to be successful is pretty cool. It’s amazing to watch that transformation.” 

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This story is part of a series highlighting Kootenai County’s unsung heroes, Press Christmas for All’s referring partners. 

They walk alongside clients in need and refer them to Charity Reimagined for specific assistance from Christmas for All, the Coeur d’Alene Press holiday charity campaign that, through our readers’ generosity, helps recipients throughout the year. It is an honor to work with these outstanding men, women and organizations.