New Hampshire Judicial Branch Family Treatment Court Project: Rural Pilot and System-wide Best Practice Implementation

The OJJDP Family Drug Court Program seeks to build the capacity of states, state and local courts, units of local government, and federally recognized tribal governments to sustain existing family drug courts or establish new family drug courts. Category 3: State and County Family Drug Courts Expansion will support states and counties to enhance and/or expand family drug court treatment and recovery practices at the larger state and county levels to more effectively serve families affected by opioid, stimulant, and other substance use disorders.

The New Hampshire Judicial Branch (NHJB) proposes a Family Treatment Court (FTC) Pilot Project. The goal of the project is to increase early access to appropriate services for families involved in abuse and neglect cases, including direct services to children of parents in these cases impacted by SUD and co-occurring mental health disorders, for the purpose of improving family outcomes. To achieve this goal, the NHJB seeks to create the state’s first FTC. After a needs and resources assessment, the FTC will be piloted in NHJB’s Fifth Circuit Courts—Claremont and Newport Family Divisions, which are in Sullivan County. The findings from an evaluation of SCFTC will assist the statewide FTC team in developing best practices for potential FTCs in other counties and for family and criminal cases involving parents with SUD in circuit courts and superior courts statewide. The evaluation will serve as the basis for building New Hampshire’s statewide capacity to further increase collaboration with substance abuse treatment and child welfare systems to ensure the provision of treatment and other services for families that improve child, parent, and family outcomes. CA/NCF