Introducing the Forensic Support Team Workgroup

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The Forensic Support Team Workgroup was created to serve as an informal executive group with the goal of improving interagency partnerships and working together to develop and support the FST.

This workgroup assesses all services that are critical to the continued success of the FST, including but not limited to the availability, accessibility, and quality of private and government-supported treatment facilities, community supervision resources, public transportation, and educational and aftercare services.

Members of the FST Workgroup are interested and able to shape local policies regarding forensic clients who have been ordered for competency evaluations and/or restoration services and reflect a broad range of perspectives, as well as the state's geographic and demographic diversity. The FST workgroup is composed of external stakeholders from across that state representing judicial officers, sheriff's office, jail mental health, court executives, defense counsel, assistant district attorneys.

Goals and Priorities

Each year the Workgroup will create a list of goals and priorities for the upcoming state fiscal year (SFY). Based on the agreed upon goals and priorities, the Workgroup will create various outputs such as guides, toolkits, training materials, etc.

The FST workgroup met on June 10 and established the following goals for SFY21. The FST will:

  1. Work to understand their role in the implementation and development of the Forensic Support Team.
  2. Review all collaborative forms to ensure that they are relevant to all stakeholders and adequately protect the privacy rights of the clients.
  3. Identify communication gaps and work to remove communication barriers. This will include increasing communication during client transitions between jails and institutions.

This committee will assess all services which are critical to the success of the FST. For more information, please contact amanda.myers@state.co.us.