Celebrating A Decade of Behavioral Health Court

Behavioral Health Court will celebrate its tenth anniversary this year. In 2003, the San Francisco Superior Court started a program to redirect clients with mental illness out of the jails and into community based mental health treatment. The Honorable Ksenina Tsenin created Behavioral Health Court with the modest goal of helping 10-20 people in the jail that were incarcerated for showing signs of untreated mental illness in public. Ten years later, the court has a capacity of 150 clients and the program is a fully integrated and necessary part of the criminal justice system in San Francisco. Behavioral Health Court has been the subject of numerous research studies and has become a leader in the movement to decriminalize mental illness, reduce violence, and spend precious mental health resources more effectively. Join us in "Celebrating A Decade of Behavioral Health Court" with a special evening to recognize the accomplishments of the program, raise awareness about the reality of mental health issues in our community, and identify future goals for the broad based collaboration that created the program. This year's honoree is Judge Kay Tsenin.