The Washington Therapeutic court Evaluation and Review (WATER) is a self-assessment tool created for therapeutic court teams to regularly review practices and identify areas of strength and challenge. The tool has six modules that connect to the established best practices and evidence-based practices.
The Washington Therapeutic court Evaluation and Review (WATER) is a tool created for therapeutic court teams to regularly self-review practices and identify areas of strength and challenge. The tool has six modules that connect to the established best practices and evidence-based practices.
No. Individual results from the WATER will only be used to provide a summarized report to the court program that entered the information. This is a self-review tool meant to support your efforts in improving court practice. Court teams will receive support materials to help address areas identified as challenges. However, no court team is required to utilize those resources
The Office of Court Innovation (OCI) and the Washington State Center for Court Research (WSCCR), within AOC, work to support court programs in achieving their goals and becoming the best court program they can be. As part of this effort, we designed the WATER to be another tool to help courts achieve their goals.
This tool is an opportunity to review court practices in a focused format. Each module contains questions related to a specific aspect of therapeutic courts (Target Population, SUD Treatment, etc.), which allows the team to focus on one area of court practice at a time.
Following the completion of a WATER module, teams will receive a summary report of their responses including strengths and challenges, as identified by the team. Additionally, resources and support opportunities to meet those challenges will be provided.
The WATER was created through a joint effort between the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), the Center for Justice Innovation (CJI), and the Health Care Authority (HCA).
Each module started as a lengthy list of questions designed around the module topic and established best practices. Mental health professionals, court staff, survey methodologists, sociologists, and criminologists reviewed the set of questions to find the most pertinent ones and reduced the list. These questions were then organized to fit within a 30-minute module.
Yes. The first versions of a module are tested with the development team to determine if the questions flow and if the 30-minute goal is attainable. Then we reach out for user testing courts to complete the module. These courts complete the module, receive their strengths and challenges report, and then let us know where they struggled, where questions were unclear, and where things were missing. We update the module based on this feedback.
If interested in user testing an upcoming module, email Mikala.meize-bowers@courts.wa.gov.
We support the use of national self-assessment tools and the workshops/trainings available from national groups. The WATER is supported by a state-level team that is available to provide long-term support and technical assistance that is not available on a national scale. Both national and state-level tools support court programs to improve practices. At the state, we look forward to being available for long-term support and technical assistance.
Each module will have a separate link, made available as soon as the module goes live.
Module 1: Target Population - https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WATERpopulation2023
Module 2: Team Roles - Coming soon
Module 3: SUD Treatment and Complimentary Services - Coming soon
Module 4: Incentives, Responses, and Drug Testing - Coming soon
Module 5: Program Completion and Outcomes - Coming soon
Module 6: Census, Caseloads, and Evaluation - Coming soon
Every therapeutic court team in Washington state is invited to complete the WATER. The full court team should complete the modules together (that is, those that are regularly at team meetings, pre-court staffings, and/or court hearings). The modules are designed to show you the most applicable questions to your court type. If you complete the WATER and notice an area for your court program that wasn’t covered, please email Mikala.meize-bowers@courts.wa.gov.
Each module should take about 30 minutes to complete; we recommend meeting as a team either monthly or every other month to complete one module at a time.
Any information you submit will be confidential. The questions you answer will be summarized and given back to your court program in the form of a report identifying the strengths and challenge areas.
State-level summary data will be aggregated to better understand the scope of therapeutic courts in Washington and provide direction for the state support teams. The aggregated state-level data may be made available to the public; no individual court will be identifiable from the state-level data.
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:
We recommend scheduling a once a month or once every other month 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.
To preview the questions in this module, review this PDF version of the module. Do not use this PDF to complete the module. Use the link at the top of the page to complete the module.
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:
We recommend scheduling a once a month or once every other month 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.
If interested in user testing this module, please email: Mikala.meize-bowers@courts.wa.gov
More information coming soon!
If interested in user testing this module, please email: Mikala.meize-bowers@courts.wa.gov
More information coming soon!
If interested in user testing this module, please email: Mikala.meize-bowers@courts.wa.gov
More information coming soon!
If interested in user testing this module, please email: Mikala.meize-bowers@courts.wa.gov
More information coming soon!
Send questions or issues with the WATER to Dr. Mikala Meize-Bowers.
Privacy and Disclaimer Notices Sitemap
© Copyright 2024. Washington State Administrative Office of the Courts.
#webServerName#