HANCOCK COUNTY — The county’s Behavioral Health Court (BHC) has a new coordinator. Karey Wall has taken the helm, working with Judge D. J. Davis, who oversees the program in Hancock County Superior Court 1.
Wall, who worked most recently as a case manager for BHC, was appointed by Davis to lead the program after the former coordinator, longtime former probation department employee Kevin Minnick, stepped down shortly before the end of 2023.
Wall officially started her new position as the BHC coordinator in late December, Davis said. She first began working for Davis as a BHC case manager in July 2023. It was then Davis said he saw how well she managed her cases with all of her participants giving positive responses.
“Karey is very organized, creative, thorough and well-liked by the BHC advisory team and participants,” Davis said.
When Minnick stepped down, Davis noted that Wall, he felt, was the right person for the job.
Wall was previously employed “behind the wall,” Davis said, at Pendleton Correctional Facility as a psychiatric social services specialist, then as a behavioral health specialist. She had also worked as an additional recover specialist, making her well-suited for the leadership role in the BHC program.
Wall has a bachelor’s degree in psychology, she said, and has worked in the criminal justice system for over a decade. That, she noted, gave her plenty of experience working with people who want to try to make their lives better despite challenges.
“This gives me a unique opportunity, I told the judge after my many years of working in the prison system,” Wall said. “A lot of my experience lands me perfectly for this job to work with people who have behavioral health issues or struggle with addictions.”
Wall has worked with and helped improve the lives of juveniles as well as adults as a case manager. She also has experience working with addicts and with a special needs unit where she helped those identified as mentally ill or mentally challenged.
“I feel like my experience really prepared me for this position, and I’m excited about it,” Wall said. “I feel the team has been well set up and that we have a good foundation to get us the way I want us to go, which is to make sure we are well-trained.”
Having a good understanding of a problem solving or behavior health court is a key, Wall noted, because she believes a well-run program does work to help inmates who want to put in the work to get better.
“We just need to stick to what we know works,” Wall said. “We do not need to recreate the wheel because there are teams doing this successfully and we want to do that.”
Wall feels every good treatment model has an accountability element. When she was working inside the prison setting, she said it was a lot of “divide and conquer,” sometimes pitting sides against each other, but in behavioral health court everyone is working together as a “married” unit to help those who have offended get on the right track.
“We’ve got law enforcement along with treatment working together to bring the human side of justice because we believe if people are getting healthier then Hancock County is getting healthier,” Wall said.
Minnick, Davis noted, resigned with more than two week notice shortly before the end of the year to go work for a business in Indianapolis.
“He told me when I became Judge in January 2021 he would give me three years,” Davis said. “Karey Wall is my new BHC Coordinator, and my BHC advisory team is all in support.”
Davis noted he has “full faith” in Wall running the BHC program now and into the future. The program, which is growing more each month, had 14 participants at end of 2022 but doubled the number to 28 by the end of 2023.
