When Mental-Health Experts, Not Police, Are the First Responders

In Wisconsin, plain-clothes law enforcement officers are teaming up with mental health experts to handle calls related to crisis intervention. The goal of the Marathon County Crisis Assessment Response Team is to reduce unnecessary detentions of people experiencing mental health crises, while also increasing trust with the community. In the two years since the program launched, the "rate of hospitalizing or jailing people in crisis" has dropped in both consecutive years, which has consequently saved the county a great deal of expenses.

Trauma training for police and community workers teaches them how to make tough situations, such as the arrest of a parent, easier on young children. Painful memories can alter perceptions of police for a lifetime.

The struggle of police in properly dealing with mentally ill citizens has been highlighted in recent news. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department plans to dramatically beef up its mental health policing capabilities, according to a newly-released report that provides a county-wide roadmap for county law enforcement's handling of suspects experiencing a mental health crisis.

In Houston, TX, many individuals with mental illnesses cycled in and out of emergency care while arrested or incarcerated. Houston’s police department has decreased the number of incarcerated who have mental illness by opening a division to mental health called the Chronic Consumer Stabilization Unit. Now Milwaukee seeks to replicate Houston’s results.

Police Chief Bob Fitzsimmons personally connects with residents to combat increasing suicide rates, particularly among teens. Teachers reach out to the chief if one of the town’s 330 schoolchildren misses school, and he personally visits their home. His department funded popcorn and ice-cream sundae parties, as well as a New Year’s Day gathering, to ease the difficulty of isolation during COVID-19. He ensures residents’ achievements are publicly celebrated and grieves with families during tragedies, ensuring everyone has support in the rural area where medical and mental health services are scarcer.

In Columbus, Ohio, a team of police officers and mental health professionals responds together to police calls in an effort to promote community-oriented policing. The approach has reduced arrests and helped to connect residents with social services and medical help.

Determined to break a damaging cycle of arrests for people experiencing mental health crises, Dallas has started sending teams of social workers and emergency responders instead of just police officers to these 911 calls. Initial assessments show that individuals are receiving better care and the city is seeing significant fiscal savings.

As more research has found links between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and negative health outcomes, a growing number of organizations and sectors are incorporating trauma-informed screening and training into their work. Police officers, primary care pediatricians, parents, and school counselors are moving away from the question "what's wrong with you?" to ask "what happened to you?"

In New Hampshire, Manchester police have teamed with community organizations to proactively offer services to children who have experienced or witnessed trauma, before those very children grow up to repeat the cycle. The Advert Childhood Experiences Response Team (ACERT) "has contacted more than 1,000 children in about 700 families" since its inception in late 2015.

In response to increasing mental health calls, police are now taking Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training. Before, police officers didn’t have training in mental health crises and how they differ from traditional police calls. The state is even helping offset the costs associated with increased training.