The development and maintenance of ongoing commitments, communication, coordination, and cooperation among Tribal Healing to Wellness Court team members, service providers and payers, the community, and relevant organizations, including the use of formal written procedures and agreements, are critical for Tribal Wellness Court success.
“Why cooperate? Because our sovereignty, fairness, our people's recovery, and the success of our
Wellness Court Program depend on it.” ―Tribal Court Judge
ribal Healing to Wellness Courts are unique judicial institutions. Not only do they serve the needs of individuals, families, and the community, but Tribal Wellness Courts further indigenous community and nation building by bringing together key components of a complex governmental system that seeks to heal. A Tribal Healing to Wellness Court’s
comprehensive response to substance abuse, addiction, and crime cultivates administrative connections between branches and arms of tribal government that force collaboration and creativity. Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts inspire tribal government, private
organizations, and citizens to communicate more with each other in order to beneficially coordinate their efforts.
This collaborative and team approach
encourages the development of unique tribal coalitions among private, community-based organizations, public criminal agencies,
treatment delivery systems, and others. These coalitions contribute to expand the continuum of services for Tribal Healing to Wellness Court participants. Program services are intended to help redirect participants and their families on to a more productive path, on to a healing to wellness journey. As a public, private, and community-based partnership, a Tribal Healing to Wellness Court fosters tribal and
community-wide involvement through its
commitment to sharing responsibility and participation with program partners. The community partnership assures that the community’s healing resources are fully utilized. As a part of, and leader in, the
formation and operation of tribal partnerships, a Tribal Healing to Wellness Court helps restore public faith in the criminal justice system. To foster tribal partnership and collaboration, a Tribal Healing to Wellness Court team must effectively exercise, apply, and take advantage of its members’ group skills, services, and insight. Taking full advantage of each team member requires that the other members are aware of and appreciate the other members’ roles, responsibilities, latitudes, and limitations. Consequently, Tribal Healing to Wellness Court and other tribal and agency staff require specific and focused education and training that support their understanding of the court’s mission, its processes, and their specific duty in promoting successful participant healing to wellness journeys.
Equally crucial is tribal and community awareness. Community and tribal members must be educated about the Tribal Healing to Wellness Court’s purpose, place, and vision. Everyone must actively extend good thoughts and efforts toward a shared wellness-based vision and goals. By working together to reach a shared vision, it is easier for the tribal
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community to develop plans and road maps to guide their efforts. As institutions of hope and healing, Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts bring together knowledge and wisdom from the past and existing community resources to thrust the people forward to the possibilities that lay ahead.
A successful Tribal Healing to Wellness Court is simultaneously engaged in effective nation building and in fostering Tribal Wellness Court team efforts. The overarching goals are stable and effective government and the health and welfare of tribal member individuals, their families, and the tribal community. Tribes commonly commit in policy and law to
undertaking greater affirmative duties to their people than does the U.S. federal government or the states. These often include legal
commitments to enforce positive rights such as the right to learn about and develop one's tribal identity. Such commitments may include a right to treatment and healing services in order to be clean, sober, and healthy.
The means of meeting these heightened duties and rights on the part of tribal governments and the Tribal Healing to Wellness Court is the careful negotiation and carrying out of written agreements, which take form in policies and procedures, interagency agreements, third- party (often service provider) contracts, and intergovernmental agreements (to solve jurisdictional problems and fill service gaps). There are four types of instruments that are critical to successful Tribal Healing to Wellness Court operations:
(1) Intergovernmental agreements between tribes and states for joint or shared service provision (in the areas of court, probation, and law enforcement),
(2) Tribal Healing to Wellness Court interagency agreements (particularly in the areas of alcohol and drug testing and case management),
(3) Tribal Healing to Wellness Court team policies and procedures, and (4) Third-party service-provider contracts (particularly for licensed alcohol and drug treatment and mental health provider services).
We focus here on the second instrument as a starting point for all the others—the Tribal Healing to Wellness Court interagency agreement. The focal activity is case
management. Drug court professionals now recognize that case management should join “the big three”—judicial leadership, treatment, and supervision—as critical to making a drug court work.
The Tribal Healing to Wellness Court interagency agreement (or MOA) should
contain, for example, provisions governing how critical real-time information is shared,
documented, and reported—negative and positive—including drug test results, treatment attendance (or lack thereof), law enforcement contact or new arrest, change of address, change of employment, report of alcohol or drug use (with or without a drug test result), physical health or mental health setbacks, or advancements and living condition changes. Not all new information need be exchanged. The point is to manage actionable information or information requiring a team response. The Tribal Healing to Wellness Court team policies and procedures should be developed in tandem with the above agreement.
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