Mental Health Court hit an unexpected roadblock at the end of 2025 when staff were informed the peer support specialist positions would no longer be funded by Magellan, the state’s Medicaid mental health provider.  

Mary Wolfinger is the coordinator of the Mental Health Court program for North Idaho and said she's worried about future cuts to the court program.

“At the end of the day, we’re also talking about human beings who are wanting to get well. They are wanting to be employed, they are wanting to pay their own bills and be positive community members and the services to help them get there are being taken away,” Wolfinger said. 

People with underlying mental health issues and who have been convicted of a felony are potential candidates for the program. 

Mental Health Court gives the participants tools to rewrite their daily lives for the better and learn how to avoid returning the familiar cycles that originally landed them in the justice system.

When Governor Brad Little ordered specific agencies to cut 3% of their budgets, the Department of Health and Welfare made the decision to cut peer support services.   

“The peer support specialists were cut Dec. 1, 2025. The letter went out right after Veterans Day, so we had about three weeks to prepare,” Wolfinger said.  

Mental Health Court staff moved quickly to figure out a way keep some semblance of that support in place, even if it looked different than it did before. 

“What we did is we immediately trained and got provisional licensing for our peer support specialists to become recovery support coaches. While that sounds all fine and good, the people in mental health courts’ primary is severe and persistent mental illness,” Wolfinger said.  

Now, all of the services for the new recovery support coaches instead have to be traced to addiction issues instead of the persistent mental health issues that landed individuals in the justice system.    

“It has limited what our boots on the ground people staff can do,” Wolfinger said. “We're making do, but it’s not great. I’m frankly concerned that it might be going away as well. If budgets continue to get cut, we can only do what the legislature gives us money to do.”

It cost $15,000 a month for three peer support specialists for the 40 participants in the five northern counties.    

“They provide boots on the ground assistance to our participants, to help them along, teach them skills, be the middle-of-the-night phone call when things are starting to fall apart,” Wolfinger said. “They are similar to a 911 call in the sense that before they’re starting to feel triggered, that’s who our participants call first.” 

The three peer support specialists serve as mentors, teaching coping skills and resiliency as part of the program.  

Not all of the 40 individuals in Mental Health Court have addiction issues, which also causes issues with the recovery coaches, now being the only support system in place through the court program.

Many of the Mental Health Court participants have addictions, but not all of them do.

Most of them are in recovery or started using drugs to try to self-medicate the mental health issues that caused them issues.

When guardrails like the peer support specialists aren't available for mental health issues, Wolfinger said, often the easiest thing for individuals is to return to the bad cycles that consumed their lives before. 

"We have people who put their lives back together and are stable with their mental health and are in recovery, serving others who are on that same path," Wolfinger said. "They’re paying taxes, they’re contributing to the community; if we pull that away from them, it’s already a vulnerable population to begin with."

Mental Health Court graduate, Brandi Clark, finally found the means to cope with her PTSD and anxiety after years of grappling with addiction as a way to self-medicate. 

“I struggled with addiction for about a decade. I started using when I was really young, I was 13 and then I went into Mental Health Court when I was 23,” Clark said. 

Clark experienced outpatient and outpatient treatment underwent treatment in the rider system in prison in the Boise area, but nothing provided as much structure as she felt through Mental Health Court. 

“They not only held you accountable, but they also helped you develop the tools you needed to just live a sober life,” Clark said. “They had a whole team around us and it was really, really amazing for me.” 

Her peer specialist helped her prevent another relapse when she hit her lowest point. 

“He told me, ‘This feeling isn’t going to last for you and I know it feels heavy, but I promise you, if you wait it out, it’s going to be worth it,’” Clark said. 

She was overwhelmed by intense emotions that wouldn’t be silenced. 

“He took the time to just walk me through it. He told me to, ‘Just play the tape to the end.’ If you play the tape to the end and you do use, what’s that going to look like and if you play the tape to the end and you don’t use, what’s that going to look like?” Clark recalled. 

She internalized his words and graduated from the Mental Health Court in 2017. 

“My sobriety date is Dec. 14, 2015. It’s been 10 years and I’ve been able to hold a job steadily,” Clark said. “I was able to graduate with my associate’s and then my bachelor’s and then I got my master's degree in 2023.” 

Now she’s happily married with two boys and is living her life in a way she never thought she could in Hayden. 

“I have what people who struggle most of their lives want and I couldn’t have gotten to this place with the guidance and support I received when I was in Mental Health Court,” Clark said.