Send us a text Judge Milton Mack shares his mission to reform the mental health system by moving from crisis intervention to early treatment and prevention. His groundbreaking work in Michigan demonstrates how changing laws and procedures can dramatically improve outcomes while reducing costs. • Moving from an inpatient model to an outpatient world where over 90% of mental health care now occurs • Changing intervention standards to help people before they reach crisis, not waiting for the "magic moment" of danger • Implementing mediation for mental health cases to increase engagement and compliance • Creating a system that reduces trauma by avoiding unnecessary hospitalization and incarceration • Demonstrating success through Genesee County's 70% reduction in hospitalization and 90% treatment compliance • Building coordinated stakeholder systems where law enforcement, hospitals, courts and treatment providers work together • Focusing on upstream solutions to prevent people from entering the criminal justice system • Recognizing that early intervention in mental health is as important as early intervention for cancer We need to intervene early—we wouldn't wait to treat someone with cancer when they're stage four, and we do just as much damage by waiting to treat mental illness. Assisted outpatient treatment is the most humane option, far better than hospitalization, jail, or homelessness. This approach benefits everyone. https://tonymantor.com https://Facebook.com/tonymantor https://instagram.com/tonymantor https://twitter.com/tonymantor https://youtube.com/tonymantormusic intro/outro music bed written by T. Wild Why Not Me the World music published by Mantor Music (BMI)
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Welcome to Why Not Me? The World Podcast, hosted by Tony Mayator. Broadcasting from Music City, USA, Nashville, Tennessee. Join us as our guests tell us their stories. Some will make you laugh, some will make you cry. real life people who will inspire and show that you are not alone in this world.
Hopefully you gain more awareness, acceptance, and a better understanding for autism around the world. Hi, I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to Why Not Me? The World, Humanity Over Handcuffs, The Silent Crisis special event. Today, we're thrilled to be joined by a truly remarkable guest, Judge Milton Mack.
Judge Mack brings a wealth of experience to the conversation, having served as the state court administrator for the Michigan Supreme Court and as chair of the Governor's Mental Health Diversion Council. He's also held the role of Chief Judge of the Wayne County Probate Court and worked as a consultant and advisor for numerous advocacy groups.
In 2017, his groundbreaking policy paper, Decriminalization of Mental Illness, Fixing a Broken System, played a pivotal role in the creation of the National Justice Task Force to examine state courts' response to mental illness, where he served as co-chair from 2019 to 2020. With his deep expertise and passion for reform, it's an absolute honor to have Judge Mack with us today.
Thanks for coming on. Well, it's been a passion of mine for some years now, so we're making progress. Yes, it's a great passion. Can you tell us why it became a passion of yours?
Well, when I became a probate judge, that's when I started hearing these mental health cases, and I had no familiarity with them at all. But it did take me long to say, I don't think this is working. I'm seeing the same people over and over and over again.
This person's been hospitalized by every probate judge who's served since 1970, and with multiple hospitalizations, and it just seemed to me that things weren't working. We weren't accomplishing anything, that we were just in this revolving door. I started to agitate for change, you might say. This led to my being appointed to the Governor's Mental Health Commission in 2004.
When I was appointed, the points I wanted to make were the mental health system was an inpatient model in an outpatient world. It was focused on hospitalization and preventing hospitalization, but not promoting that, not focused on getting people well. So I advocated a number of changes, which the commission adopted, but I really got nowhere. But I kept plugging along.
And then one day, Channel 7 came in and wanted to film a mental health case. Early in my career, I probably would not have done that. But I thought, you know, the public should see this. They should see what's going on. So I'm televised a mental health trial. That led to the investigative reporter coming in and saying, you want to do a series?
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