A veterans' treatment court is now up and running for Missouri's 13th Circuit, which includes Boone and Callaway counties.
The Veterans United Foundation has given 100-thousand dollars to operate the court, which deals only with cases involving veterans. Clayton VanNurden is the court's administrator. He says having a single court for veterans will give them the opportunity to undergo treatment programs with other veterans.
“The goal was to create cohesion between all the participants as they all share same backgrounds, all share same trainings and a lot of them share same experiences, either combat or non-combat situations,” VanNurden said.
VanNurden says the system is structured similarly to drug courts and that treatments take place at Columbia's Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans' Hospital. He says the court anticipated 15 cases this year but it has already seen 10 since starting about six weeks ago.