Proponents say clinicians all licensed registered nurses, marriage family therapists, clinical social workers or psychologists paired with officers that have gotten extra training on dealing with the mentally ill can help keep them out of the criminal justice system and ease the strains on the county’s overcrowded jails.
By Shaun Bishop
San Jose Mercury News
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The call went out over the police radio: a schizophrenic man in his 40s was off his medication and getting aggressive with family members. Officers got to the scene and decided to call for backup, but not just more men in blue.
In minutes, a mental health clinician arrived with another police officer, took the man aside and calmed him down. She arranged to have him taken in the patrol car to a psychiatric facility for treatment and follow-up a few days later.
The scene took place in San Diego, one of several areas around the country that has teamed psychiatric professionals with beat officers in an effort to deal with mental health calls more effectively.
Officials in San Mateo County hope it can be replicated on the Peninsula, and met this week to discuss the specifics of the program and the looming challenge of finding funding to pay for it.
“We’ll figure out a plan as to how we can try to raise the money, either privately or through some sort of grant,” said Sheriff Greg Munks. “It’s something we’re committed to and I’m committed to. I think it’s a program that would definitely help.”
Proponents say clinicians all licensed registered nurses, marriage family therapists, clinical social workers or psychologists paired with officers that have gotten extra training on dealing with the mentally ill can help keep them out of the criminal justice system and ease the strains on the county’s overcrowded jails. A recent consultant’s report said almost a third of San Mateo County’s 950 male inmates need treatment for some kind of psychiatric disorder.
“We don’t want our beds at the jail for the mentally ill,” said Deputy Sheriff William Pickens, who traveled to San Diego to observe its teams. “We want to de-criminalize mental illness and save those beds for criminals.”
Pickens rode along with the San Diego joint mental health and police unit named the Psychiatric Emergency Response Team.
Pickens, who is working on a doctorate in psychology, was impressed with the San Diego team’s handling of the schizophrenic man’s case. He said taking the person to a hospital in the police car saved taxpayer money for an ambulance and freed up the responding officers for other calls.
Officers that ride with the clinicians also learn a lot about dealing with the mentally ill, said Marla Kingkade, the law enforcement liaison for PERT, Inc., the company that provides the clinicians to 10 San Diego law enforcement agencies.
Other major cities including Houston, Baltimore and Los Angeles have started similar programs in recent years.
“Clinicans evaluate the person within their own environment, are able to talk to family members if appropriate, (and are) able to look at medication,” Kingkade said. “The officer is seeing mental health work within their environment.”
The San Mateo County Sheriff’s office has already given extra training to more than 200 law enforcement officers countywide on dealing with the mentally ill through its Crisis Intervention Training program, which launched in 2005.
Munks said putting clinicians on the street would “take it to another level. It gives us more expert eyes and ears in the field, in the early stages where we could intervene.”
Copyright 2008 San Jose Mercury News