 Thank you, Abby, and thank you for having us and thank you for joining us today. So I'm Jake Patton, I'm the coordinator for the Milwaukee County Veterans Treatment Court. So I'm going to be discussing really just kind of like the bare bones of a Veterans Treatment Court, the history of it, why we have them, and actually what it is and the benefits of it. So we want to get to more of the treatment and engagement piece holistic side of things. So the mission of the Milwaukee County Veterans Treatment Court is to successfully habilitate Veterans in recognition of their service to our country and the challenges they and their families may encounter. So what we really want to do is delve into the problem on why that particular Veteran became justice involved and change the behavior. So really our unofficial model, I guess, is leave no vet behind. So we're willing to work with any and all Veterans. Next slide, please. So how it started. So the first Veterans Treatment Court was established in 2008 in Buffalo, New York with Judge Robert Russell, and there's Judge Russell at the bottom there. So Judge Russell created the nation's first Veterans Treatment Court in response to the growing number of Veterans appearing on his docket suffering from substance abuse and mental health issues. So just a quick backstory on Judge Russell. So early 2000s, Judge Russell was the mental health treatment court judge in Buffalo, New York, and he had a Vietnam-era Veteran on his docket a period before him. And this Veteran came in, he was really just beaten up looking down, not really answering any of Judge Russell's questions, and he wasn't engaging any of the treatment that was being offered to him. And so at the time, Judge Russell had two other Vietnam-era Veterans working with the courts, and so Judge Russell asked if those two individuals would take this Veteran out in the hall, just speak with them, seeing what was going on, like if there's anything that can change. So they did. About 20 minutes later, this Veteran came back, standing upright, straight up, looking directly at Judge Russell, looking him in the eye, answering all of his questions soundly and clearly, and he started to reengage in treatment again. So Judge Russell knew that there was some connection there, resorting back to that military culture. Veterans treatment courts are currently the fastest growing treatment court in the country. Currently there are over 400 Veteran treatment courts operating in the United States. Next slide, please. And this quote, I feel, really captures what we see in a Milwaukee County Veterans treatment court. These Veterans often come home to find that although they're willing to die for their country, they're not sure how to live for it. And Sebastian Unger is an author and a journalist. He was embedded with an airborne infantry unit in Afghanistan for 15 months, from 2006 to 2007. And he still keeps in contact with a lot of Veterans that he was over there with. Next slide, please. And the Chicagoland Veterans Study. This study was conducted by the University of Southern California School of Social Work in partnership with Loyola University in Chicago. What this study intended to do was find out what the needs of service members are as they transition out of the military. This can include securing employment, housing, addressing physical or mental health issues, or even just adjusting, adjustment issues after time in the military. Things from this study actually mirrored those observed from similar studies in Southern California and other sites across the country. And so what that meant was there was just a national transition effort that was needed. There's a broader systematic issue on Veterans transitioning out of the military. Next slide, please. As you can see some numbers here, one in five Veterans have symptoms of a mental health disorder. One in six who served in Iraq or Afghanistan suffer from substance abuse. So in the Vietnam era conflict, there was a lot of evidence that significant number of Veterans who returned home were experiencing rather severe problems adjusting to civilian life. Many Veterans remained untreated for a long period of time. The VA and local courts are starting to recognize that many of the Veterans today are also returning home with mental health issues. That left untreated can result in much, much larger problems, specifically criminal involvement. As you can see, Veterans are twice as likely to become homeless as non-Vets. And the single best predicate or future homelessness is criminal involvement. Next slide, please. And so what are we looking to do for the Milwaukee County Veterans Treatment Court? So our program goals is to reignite the core values of military service and the Veterans just fits daily routine. So I think that's really like the biggest piece on what we're aiming to do. We want to reinstill that sense of purpose again. So be where you're supposed to be, be on time, come prepared, building back that integrity. We also reduce criminal recidivism and other core contexts. We do that by facilitating sobriety, abstinence, improved behavioral health. We work to alleviate issues surrounding service-related behavioral health issues. And we ensure available VA benefits are being offered and services are accessed. We integrate community-based treatment options. And we improve family relationships and other support connections and as well as economic stability. Next slide, please. So a lot of times people often think of Veterans treatment courses just like a get out of jail free card. All they have to do is be a Veteran and they're either cases going to disappear. That's not the case at all. This program is very intensive, it's very time consuming. There's frequent court appearances. We monitor for absolute sobriety through frequent your analysis testing. And one of the main pieces is that Veterans they plead guilty and accept responsibility for their actions. And then at that time we're overseen by a team led by the judge. As you can see here, there's a lot of system partners that are involved in a Veterans treatment court looking to turn that Veterans life around. Next slide, please. So benefits of participation. Successful completion of the program can lead to dismissal of the case, reduction of charges, or some other favorable outcome. Veterans again go on to reunite with families, they find jobs, they return to being contributing members of society. Here in Milwaukee we've served over 350 Veterans and we're operating at close to an 80% success rate. Veterans courts again are our budget solution because they lower criminal justice system costs by reducing jail and prison time. And cutting crime. We transform individuals into productive law abiding citizens. Next slide, please. This is where Abby will take over. Yeah, my cue. Thank you, Jake. So again, my name is Abby Zebel and I am a licensed clinical social worker. And I've been working with the Milwaukee County Veterans Treatment Court since it officially began, I think was in December of 2012, if I'm not mistaken. So as Jake mentioned earlier, engagement in treatment court is pretty rigorous and has a lot of expectations. And so in order to best guide that and make sure that we are not asking our clients to do things that are not indicated for their needs or we don't want to ask them to do things that might hurt them, all of that. We're going to be completing full clinical treatment assessments. We are using evidence-based treatment tools to come up with that treatment plan with the Veteran and we are helping to collaborate and support them in creating that treatment plan. And so what I often like to tell clients is that with treatment court there are definitely some half dues, right? Everybody does have to do certain requirements to get through the program. Jake mentioned earlier, absolute sobriety is generally one of them. But that treatment plan is also absolutely meant to align with their veteran center goals and to get them connected and engaging and doing the things that they deem to be the most important priorities for their life. So we are absolutely coming up with treatment plans to address improved family relationships and vocational engagement or helping them with financial literacy. I mean, you name it, if it is a goal of theirs to be working on, we're going to help connect them with a resource to support them in that area. And so we are also, to that end, moving a lot more toward holistic approaches to offer an even broader continuum of services for veterans. So the VA in general has been moving toward much more holistic care. And we have recently in the last couple of years, I want to say, started to develop what we call the whole health program. And the VA as a whole is recognizing that health outcomes in our country are not great, and I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here and that many of you are probably familiar with that as a general rule. The US is ranked 32nd in life expectancy despite the massive amount of resources that we dump into our healthcare system and insurance funded agencies. So we're moving toward creating a health system that is more person-centered. We want to help that veteran feel empowered, equipping them with necessary tools to live their best life and work toward holistic health and wellness. But it's definitely patient driven and more about what matters to them, as compared or opposed to what is the matter with you kind of model. So this lovely, I guess we can call it a Venn diagram is kind of just outlining the VA's whole health program as a whole. And you can kind of see on the outside the broadest circle is that community center moving inward. We're working on the conventional and complementary treatment approaches along with preventative care services. And as again, we continue moving inward for the circle. We are, well the most inner part of the circle obviously is the person centered veteran and we are focusing on more mindfulness connections and awareness connections and then all of those extra circles on the outside are kind of the areas that we're touching on to make sure that veterans are developing care plans and support resources in those areas. If indicated, sometimes they'll say, yeah, while hey, I hear you, there's great benefits to yoga. That's just not where I want to move or go toward. And that's fine, again, respecting patient preference and helping them connect the ways that they find meaningful, but also helping to broaden their perspective that there are a lot more approaches to care and treatment than the traditional medications or even mental health, behavioral health therapy services are wonderful and excellent, but just they're not always one size fits all approach. So, studies have been coming out. We are reviewing how things are going with that whole health program and there have been some excellent data showing that veterans who do use whole health services are much better able to manage their stress. They are appreciating that the care is much more patient-centered and less of being told what to do. This is what you need. They're liking that they have a lot more control and options. There's also been some studies that show major reductions in chronic pain, specifically a three-fold reduction in the need for using prescribed opioid use narcotics for pain management. And those who are using the whole health program are also showing improvements in other areas of their life with weight loss, improve mental health, improve vital signs, etc. So, some of the VA's whole health program, complimentary and integrative approaches are listed here. I promise not to read to you this entire list. I wholly trust that you can kind of review that here while I'm talking in the background, but I can say that veterans have really been appreciating these additional treatment services and resources and really connecting with them in very meaningful ways. Specifically, the recreation therapy has been a great hit. That's something that's always been involved at the VA, but has really kind of taken off with additional funding with movement toward equine therapy and boat building. There's just been some really incredible things going on there. I'm aware too of another VA clinician that's right now getting trained up on hypnosis treatment, which I think will be really exciting when we get that started. So, when I say this particular list of complimentary and integrative approaches, these particular care services are programs that are listed within the VA's community care network as approved care programs. And noticeably, what is missing from this list is float services, which I think is just a massive disservice. And I am hopeful and having some conversations with treatment providers at the VA or community care program to say, hey, is this being discussed? Is this something that's being talked about? Who would float be added into our integrative approach? And I will say locally here in Milwaukee, Andy from Float Milwaukee has been excellent in advocating for his programming here at the VA as well. He has been reaching out to VA staff, clinicians, has been so gracious in offering persons to try float services and specifically clinicians to kind of talk to their patients about it and say, hey, have you ever thought about this? Have you ever given it a try? Hey, I've tried it too. Here's what I found. And so I am just really excited and incredibly hopeful that float is something that can be added into this complimentary treatment approach at the VA. So with that in mind, again, another shout out to Float Milwaukee. Andy has been so incredibly kind in collaborating with our treatment court. And as Jake outlined earlier, there are some great benefits to treatment courts overall in helping persons get back to their core values and living their best life. And Andy recognized that and said, hey, I want to help. I want to be a part of this. I want to support, excuse me, I want to support your program. And so he has been allowing complimentary floats to individuals who are actively involved in the Veteran Court or successfully completed the program. And so I did reach out to a couple of my clients and just asked them, hey, you know, I was just curious if you would be willing to write down a testimonial as to how you felt that service went. And so two of them I just thought were excellent feedback. So this first testimonial comes from a female veteran. Was diagnosed with PTSD, military related trauma. And her testimonial was that completing Veteran Court and soon after experiencing float Milwaukee was like releasing all of my shame, guilt and embarrassment into the water and I floated away from it all. I felt more calm than I had in years. Thank you for the experience. It was indescribably freeing and relaxing. And the second testimonial came from another Veteran Court participant, he too successfully completed the program. Also has been diagnosed with PTSD, experienced trauma in his lifetime. And he said that float was an experience that made me realize that I need to decompress and disconnect from things out of my realm of control. I felt great afterwards. Both of them also shared that they felt it had a very profound impact for them in mindfully connecting, decreasing their anxiety, promoting sleep, that they could use it as almost a guided imagery event for them where they felt, you know, hey, I'm getting really keyed up or stressed. I'm going to bring myself back to this floating sensation and remind myself how I felt during and can almost replicate it in their mind and re-experience it over and over. So we are incredibly grateful to float Milwaukee for the gift of collaboration and connection and for services to really again just share this profound experience with persons experiencing trauma. So we invite you to consider developing a supportive or collaborative relationship with your local treatment courts. We are very akin to Veteran treatment courts ourselves. We may be a bit biased in our opinions here, Jake and I. But that's not to say that every treatment court is not worthy and valuable of your potential connection. So there are drug treatment courts all over the nation. There are also mental health treatment courts and veteran treatment courts. And you know, I will say that I believe trauma in general is an underlying problem in all of those treatment courts. So no door that you knock on, I think would be a bad idea. But in relation to veteran treatment courts, just some resources here that you could consider for connecting and engaging of like, well, hey, how do I find that or where to start? Obviously, there's the basic website searches if you wanted to search for your local city and treatment courts. But there's also the county veteran service officer website here that's been provided. There is in every single county of every single state an assigned county veteran service officer, and they should be well aware of resources that exist locally within their county and hopefully their treatment courts as well. We've also included here the National Center for State Courts, a nonprofit court improvement organization to consider utilizing or connecting with. And in addition, Justice for Vets, they are a national training and technical assistance provider for the Bureau of Justice Assistance. A lot of really big words that basically means they're one of our national providers that kind of watches and helps us grow, make sure we're following evidence-based practice that we're doing things that are going to be supportive to justice-involved persons and making sure that we're helping and not hurting them through these judicial processes. So I am hopeful that access to this PowerPoint can be provided to you all via the conference. But if not, certainly Jake and I wholly invite you to reach out to either one of us directly to ask for a copy of it or resources or ideas on that front. To that end, I'm going to skip over this last slide here real quick and come back to it. This, I'm going to give a little time here for Jake and my email and direct contact numbers for you just to maybe jot down in case you don't have PowerPoint access. And we do invite you to reach out to us directly at any time to check in, touch base, collaborate, get some ideas, however that may work. Thank you so much for having us. I think Float is just incredible and such a great treatment option. And I'm looking forward to learning more from you all as well.