Mental Health Court Participants' Perspectives of Success: What Key Outcomes Are We Missing?

Mental health court research has largely assessed program effectiveness using criminal recidivism as an indicator of success. The present study expands this literature by exploring mental health court participants' perceptions of how the mental health court impacted them. We analyzed in-depth interviews with 26 participants from 2 different mental health courts using thematic analysis. Participants identified four salient successes that they perceived to result from mental health court participation: improved psychiatric stability, sobriety, improved relationships, and increased engagement in life and mental health. While reduced substance use and staying out of trouble were seen as successes, participants also reported recovery-oriented outcomes like improved relationships with family, mood stability, increased patience, ability to care about others, and greater understanding of mental illness as measures of their success. Although recidivism is an indicator of success, future mental health court research would benefit from utilizing additional measures of success that span criminal justice, recovery, and mental health outcomes.