The Kentucky Judicial Commission on Mental Health held a town hall meeting Wednesday night at Sloan Convention Center, the final of nine sessions across the state.

Commission members have traveled the state and hosted town hall meetings the past few months to gather information that aims to improve how the state’s justice system addresses people with challenges involving mental illness, substance use and intellectual or developmental disabilities.

“We’ve learned much from the citizens of the Kentucky about what our needs are and what our strengths are,” said Kentucky Supreme Court Deputy Chief Justice Debra Hembree Lambert, who chairs the mental health commission. “This has been a very powerful journey.”

The commission was established last year through a state supreme court order to improve the state court system’s interaction with and the administration of justice for people with mental illness, developmental disabilities and substance use disorder.

In crafting the order, the supreme court recognized the need for the justice system to be equipped with the technology, training, education and resources to better serve that population while recognizing as impediments factors such as overcrowded dockets, lack of education in identifying and addressing needs for people with mental illness, lack of communication among stakeholders and lagging community resources providing services to a population in need.

The board consists of 76 appointed members divided into three committees and nine work groups, and data from each of the nine town hall meetings will be analyzed by the board to identify resources, needs and opportunities for the commission to act on and create solutions.

On Wednesday, a four-person panel heard from mental health providers, social workers, people with first-hand experience working through mental illness and family members who have witnessed loved ones in crisis.

Some of the people who spoke promoted resources for the unhoused and people with mental illness, while others shared their own experiences.

One of the latter was Kim, an alcohol and drug counselor who told the panel she was a sexual assault survivor who grew up in a family that struggled with addiction and survived three suicide attempts before eventually receiving two degrees from Western Kentucky University, where she studied to become a social worker.

“In all honesty, based on my family of origin, based on my upbringing, I quite literally should not be standing here today,” said Kim, who asked that only her first name be used. “I should not be on the right side of the dirt. Not everyone is fortunate enough to beat the odds like me, but I want to show you that it is possible.”

Multiple people who addressed the panel expressed the need for a mental health court in Warren County that could provide resources to defendants with mental illnesses as an alternative to incarceration.

Hardin County has implemented a mental health court and Warren District Court Judge Kim Geoghegan, who attended Wednesday’s meeting, said she was working to bring the program here.

“We’re hoping we can get the funding because it’s beneficial and it’s needed,” Geoghegan said.

Anthony Young, program director for Warren County Day Treatment, said that more resources should be devoted to providing mental health services to children, noting that 11 special education teacher positions in the county school district remain unfilled.

Melanie Watts, director of community engagement for LifeSkills and a former Bowling Green Police Department officer, said that city police officers receive crisis intervention training that helps officers de-escalate a situation when a person is in a mental health crisis and to have mental health professionals accompany police to calls in which a person is experiencing a mental health emergency.

“Police do not need to be involved with the mentally ill at all times,” Watts said. “The police have been put in a situation they did not ask to be put in, but I can say Bowling Green police do the best they can do with the situation at hand and those officers are trained to treat people the way they want to be treated.”

Answering a question from an audience member about how federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration grant funding is distributed among state agencies, Secretary Eric Friedlander of the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services said that most of the funding goes to facilities like Western State and Eastern State hospitals and intermediate care facilities, and more attention has been paid to securing funding to reduce opioid dependency and deaths from opioid use disorder.

Friedlander said about one-third of the cabinet’s budget requests for the upcoming General Assembly are related to substance abuse and behavioral health issues.

Kristopher York, a peer support specialist developing a nonprofit organization to help the homeless, supported building more shelter space but also called for better communication among resource providers.

“There are so many resources here and if we could just all come together and combine these resources where we can and help one another, we can find solutions for the problems going on,” York said.