Welcome to WATER: Target Population

The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) and the Health Care Authority (HCA), with the support of the Center for Justice Innovation (CJI), have launched an initiative to support therapeutic courts in their implementation of best practices. This is the first installment of the Washington Therapeutic court Evaluation and Review (WATER) tool. Utilizing this tool will allow your therapeutic court program to evaluate practices and policies related to target populations. After completing this section of the WATER, you will receive a summary report with your results. The summary report will include strengths related to target population and areas to focus on for stronger adherence to Best Practices. 

In the WATER: Target Population module you'll cover the following topics:
  • Court contact information
  • Court documents
  • Referrals
  • Eligibility
  • Screening & Assessment 
  • Time to Entry
For this module, answer for practices within the last 12 months.
 
It should take your team approximately 30 minutes to complete this section of the WATER. Having the following information prepared and available will shorten the expected time:
  1. Digital copies of all program materials (Policy & Procedures Manual, participant handbook, palm card, participant contract, ROI)
  2. CMS or data tracking document(s)
  3. Ask referral sources what data they track about possible referrals
We recommend scheduling a monthly meeting for 1 hour with the entire therapeutic court team to answer the WATER modules, one at a time. If you do not complete the module in the allotted timeframe, you can save your entry and return to it as it is appropriate for your team. Please note that answers are saved as long as you use the same device to access the module.
 
Note: If you oversee multiple therapeutic court programs, complete this module for each program individually. If you have a combined therapeutic court program (for example a mental health and community court program combined on the same docket), you only need to complete the module once. 

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