Counseling and Education Services (CES) is moving to a walk-in model that will allow Travis County criminal justice clients, both Alcohol/Drug (AOD) and Family Violence (FV), to walk in without an appointment and receive their assessment the same day. The only scheduled appointments will be for people with disabilities requiring extra assistance, such as hearing impaired, deaf and blind clients. This is a very client friendly process that will end the problem of no-shows for appointments and greatly minimized the wait time for clients to receive their assessment from CES. The new model will also avoid the need for clients to pay any reset fees for missed appointments.
CES is implementing this new system with the AOD clients first, as this is the majority of clients that we assess and we will need the majority of our counselors at the Airport site the first week. Therefore, beginning February 1, 2016, referred AOD clients may walk in for an AOD Assessment at the CES Service Center at 5501 Airport Blvd., Suite 102, Monday through Thursday from 7:30am-3:30pm or Friday 7:30am to 11:00am. The AOD assessment process will take approximately two to three hours. EARLY ARRIVAL IS ENCOURAGED. CES still needs to receive a referral form for the client from the referring agency/defense attorney. The easiest way to submit the referral form is electronically from our web-site https://www.traviscountytx.gov/counseling-education.
Next, beginning on February 8, 2016, referred Family Violence clients may walk in at 1010 Lavaca, 2nd floor, Monday through Thursday from 7:30am to 2:30pm or Friday 7:30am to 11am to receive their FV Assessment. The Family Violence assessment process will take approximately two and a half to three hours. EARLY ARRIVAL IS ENCOURAGED. Once again, CES requires a referral form for the client from the referral source, to ensure what service is required.
CES has met with their major stakeholders such as, Pretrial Services, Adult Probation, County Court at Law Judges, the County Attorney’s Office, and Defense Attorneys and have modified any necessary forms to match up with the new system. CES will conduct follow up customer satisfaction surveys with stakeholders at thirty days and again after ninety days to assist in evaluating this system.
Please feel free to contact CES if you have questions or concerns about this transition (512-854-9540). Thanks to you all for your support.
