Judge Elaine Brown and some of her staff recently attended a Rotary Club of San Marcos meeting and discussed the expansion and success of Hays County’s mental health court and Assisted Outpatient Treatment court programs. She oversees them both as the County Court at Law #3 Judge.
Brown said the Mental Health Court is a team effort to assist those charged with a crime that have a Mental Health and/or Substance Use Disorder by providing additional resources as they progress through the court system. The program is 18 months for those charged with a felony and one year for those charged with a misdemeanor. Brown said the Assisted Outpatient Treatment program is a civil program used to treat Mental Health and/or Substance Use Disorder but can also be used for those charged with a crime in certain circumstances.
“Our mental health court has expanded greatly over the three years that I’ve been in charge of it,” Brown said.
In that time, she said the Mental Health Court went from serving only misdemeanors to both misdemeanors and felonies and is now completely full. She said they were able to secure a grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to help start the AOT program, which now has an administrator and five participants.
Kaimi Mattila, Mental Health Court administrator, said the court served 56 people in 2025. The success rate is 93%, and over 92% of participants did not re-offend. There were 18 graduates of the program in 2025 with a total of 38 graduates since the program’s inception.
“We specifically noticed that transportation, substance use and housing were our largest barriers,” Mattila said. “We utilized some specific interventions this past year to really bridge those gaps in addressing transport, substance use and housing [such as] just offering different housing options for folks that are housing unstable.”
Mattila said, prior to 2025, the program offered psychiatry, case management, counseling, several living options, recovery treatment and housing navigation.
“We also expanded this past year to include some additional resources and services, and that includes transportation, peer recovery coaching, an additional sober living option and group living option, rental and utility assistance, emergency hotel funding, funding for move-in fees, family therapy and caregiver support,” Mattila said.
Jennifer Putman, AOT program administrator, said the program has grown from when it first started in July of last year. Currently, the AOT program has five participants and two enrolled, but Putnam said they are set to serve 15 participants this year.
“In 2025, we’ve had a very large amount of growth, including adding consistent psychiatrists for medical evaluations that are required,” Putnam said. “We’ve added a team lead with the local mental health authority, identified transportation, recovery coaching, additional funding for housing and two to three voluntary living options that we’ve worked on in conjunction with the mental health court, as well as rental and utility assistance.”
Learn more at hayscountytx.gov/mental- health-court.
