Impact
Connecting individuals who pass through courthouses with substance use disorder treatment
Objective
To reduce overdose deaths by connecting individuals who pass through courthouses with services and substance use treatment.
Approach
CourtConnect connects individuals in courthouses with peer-led court navigators who provide information and referrals to resources for behavioral health treatment, adjunctive legal services, and other social services such as housing, transportation, and benefits enrollment. Although navigation is initiated in the courthouse, its impact extends into the community through follow-up and facilitating service linkage.
Impact
CourtConnect is currently being evaluated in a randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of the program on overdose, treatment linkage, and recidivism.
The U.S. faces an unprecedented overdose epidemic. People with substance use disorder and those using illicit substances are at risk of fatal overdose, especially those involved in criminal-legal systems. Despite considerable attempts to engage justice-involved populations in substance use disorder treatment, outside of specialized treatment court models, courthouses themselves are underexplored as an intervention setting.
To explore this opportunity, RTI has developed a program called CourtConnect, which delivers court navigation for substance use disorder treatment linkage in courthouse settings.
What are Court Navigators?
Court navigators are civilians (non-lawyers) who provide guidance on processes, procedures, and adjunctive legal-related services to those passing through courthouses. They can help individuals navigating complex interactions that affect their ability to comply with court requirements. A variety of court resources are described as court navigation, falling into the following basic categories:
- Court-Based Navigation: resources focused on court and related civil or criminal justice processes and procedures.
- Court-Based Health Navigation: resources focused on external systems intended to improve legal outcomes.
- Integrated Court Navigation: resources provided by a non-lawyer that encompass legal needs and linkage facilitation to additional health-related systems.
- Peer-led Integrated Court Navigation: certified peer recovery coach with lived experience of justice-systems involvement, providing non-lawyer legal navigation and linkage facilitation.
CourtConnect is an example of peer-led integrated court navigation.
Peer-led Models Prove Effective for Connecting Individuals with Behavioral Health Treatment
Research demonstrates that peer recovery coaches are effective at connecting people to behavioral health treatment, increasing initiation and engagement with medication-assisted treatment and outpatient health services, and enhancing treatment retention and satisfaction. Peers are able to leverage their own recovery experience to build trust, help clients manage stigma, and increase clients’ treatment motivation in ways that clinicians often cannot replicate. Peer-led recovery support services are increasingly being integrated into criminal-legal settings (police, jails, probation) to improve outcomes; however, peer-led court navigation remains an innovative and unexplored intervention in scientific research.
CourtConnect Engaging with Individuals at Risk of Overdose at Courthouses
RTI gained experience with court navigation through a pilot study conducted in four New England states. Court navigators in that study engaged with new clients daily who were at risk of overdose and in need of treatment linkage and follow-up support, and the strategy proved feasible in the pilot courthouse settings. To develop the CourtConnect intervention, the we are using information and materials from the the pilot study and additional sources including:
- Interviews with experts in the delivery of court services, legal actors, and behavioral health interest-holders.
- Feedback from an Engagement Council comprised of peer recovery coaches and practicing court navigators.
- Pilot testing in real-world settings to identify and mitigate implementation challenges.
Evaluating Peer-Led Court Navigation to Expand Access to Treatment
Peer-led integrated court navigation has the potential to reach individuals in need of help and prevent worsening of their substance use and justice system involvement. As this model is increasingly adopted across the US, RTI is taking the crucial step of assessing its effectiveness in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) and thereby building the evidence base for wider adoption.
In addition to the RCT, RTI will document challenges and adaptations that are needed to the court navigation model that can inform future programs. Through this research, the CourtConnect program has great potential to help more people navigate their legal challenges, access health treatments, and find their way to stability and well-being.
